Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Chicken Rustler]

HELLO!!! I think I FINALLY found the right forum! Thanks for the invite HoneysuckleHills. I'm not available on Tuesday nights, and usually Friday nights and/or weekends work best. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone and learning about Chickens!

Welcome aboard. please feel free to jump right in the water is warm!!!

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote: Yes, CR is breeding a project color in the Brahma's. Blue Laced Red

It's a joint effort / project wiff Cloverleaf Farm.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: Aw, darn! But HH and I were talking, we should do this at least once a month anyway =)

Your EEs and mine are siblings, then- Tertia, Guinta and Ginjur are from Kanake eggs. Wish I knew what she was up to.

Hopefully soaking up the aloha and enjoying her wild chickens!

My Foxglove got much larger than all my other EEs, she's white & black and lays an egg the same size as our Jersey Giant! Good girl!

Sounds like Tertia- she's silver and bearded and lays a HUGE green egg, at least six days a week; last week I got seven in a row before she skipped a day. I'm hoping to get a round of chicks from her and her sister Ginjur, who's marked much the same and has a good beard but lays a big pink egg. I'm hoping, by the time DH retires, to have a good, predictable line of EEs for egg sales at the Market.

Quinta is wildly marked- columbian, black partridge back and silver spangled breast, unbearded, and lays a very blue egg: she's going in with Elvis this round, because in the end I want my dependable blue egg layers to also be spangled.
Cream legbars

 

[blueducklings]

OK so I have been seeing all your post about ducklings and I must say they are so very cute... My husband is trying to convince me we need some... if I may ask some questions as I know nothing about ducks... are they loud? like do they quack a lot? Can you house them with chickens? Do you have to clip them so they dont fly away? Can you have just one or do they do better in pairs? Thanks in advance

Hmmm...
I can only tell you about Runners. I wanted ducks that laid lots and lots of eggs

and won't smoosh my plants when they went to my garden to patrol for slugs.
Mother Earth News was the cause of my duck addiction. I blame them.

Quacking:
Mine will yell at me from 50 feet away if they see me in the kitchen and I'm late with their food bucket.
Good thing cause I am a bit forgetful somedays.

Ok, most days.
Beyond that, I don't hear them. They are too busy running to the pool then back to the food

then back to the pool and back to the food

...and when they are done, they are too tired to make noise.

Females quack, males can't. They make a softer sound. Kinda like a strangled quack.

Housing:
Heck, they have been known to bath in the bath tub and sleep in the bedroom with a certain Duck Mama

.
You know who you are...

They can even wear diapers! So house training is possible especially when the ducklings came from a certain enabler in Forks, WA.

If you have them imprint on you, they will follow you everywhere. Farm store ducks however are usually skittish.

I guess they will bunk with chickens if they have to, but I think they prefer ducks. Wouldn't you?
One thing is certain, reguardless of the type of duck. All ducks CANNOT eat medicated food, unlike chickens.
They do not roost. They like to sleep close to the ground.
Mine are afeared of high places.

God help you if you plan to have them climb up a flight of stairs into a roosting spot for the night.
I tried and failed.

Flight:
NOPE...NEVER. Southwestern charge too much.
You don't have to clip the wings of a Runner. They can't fly even if their life depended on it. I have see, an 8 inch take off, but that was it. They are Runners...
My MIL had her ducks behind a 1' fence.
Runners are a very old breed that was just suppose to lay an egg in the morning, then walk to padi fields and eat snails and skeets, then walk home with their herder at day's end. They are a working duck.


Storey's guide to Raising Ducks is the Duck Bible. Written by Dave Holderread from Oregon. Neatest guy.
Oh and yes, ducks are social animals. They need a friend. So I usually recommend that folks buy a minimum of 3...just in case one keels over. Runners are also prolific layers, more than any chicken out there.
Runners also come in an endless range of colors, especially if you are not just buying from the duck mills.
So yes, they are cool
Now some may say that ducks fly and such, but Runners can't.

I know some will say their turduckens will fly...and roost and make no noise... but they are what they are.

 

[blueducklings]

Anybody out there have some COMFREY?
Ducks ate it down to the roots.

 

[blueducklings]

Today's duck math lesson by Blueducklings...

10 minus the one equals zero
Add the two mama ducks, and the two remaining ducklings and you have four total

or..

10 ducklings plus 2 mama ducks equals 12 -- with two ducklings remaining, plus the mama ducks you have four total

or...

10 ducklings minus 1 duckling, minus 4 ducklings plus two remaining ducklings plus two mama ducks equals four total

Heck -- no matter how I quack them up, you have 4 ducks.

Yup...quardraddict equations.

learnt it at school!

Toni & Daffy knows it.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

OK - after looking at everyone's comments and messaging with Honeysuckle Hills; the next northend meetup will be...  get ready for it!

Sunday, April 14th at 2 p.m. (Yes, in two days!)

Third Place Books in Shoreline - 17171 Bothell Way NE Lake Forest Park, WA 98155

Shucks! I have a surprise b-day party I am going to. Maybe next time!

Aw, darn! But HH and I were talking, we should do this at least once a month anyway =)

Your EEs and mine are siblings, then- Tertia, Guinta and Ginjur are from Kanake eggs. Wish I knew what she was up to.

Hopefully soaking up the aloha and enjoying her wild chickens!


My Foxglove got much larger than all my other EEs, she's white

Sounds like Tertia- she's silver and bearded and lays a HUGE green egg, at least six days a week; last week I got seven in a row before she skipped a day. I'm hoping to get a round of chicks from her and her sister Ginjur, who's marked much the same and has a good beard but lays a big pink egg. I'm hoping, by the time DH retires, to have a good, predictable line of EEs for egg sales at the Market.


Quinta is wildly marked- columbian, black partridge back and silver spangled breast, unbearded, and lays a very blue egg: she's going in with Elvis this round, because in the end I want my dependable blue egg layers to also be spangled.

Cream legbars

Yeah, they are what I'd get if I wasn't more interested in doing my own thing. This is fun: so different from the restrictions of raising pedigree cattle.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I should be in bed, but the Bloomberg channel has a program about My Pet Chicken (and right now are talking about Cream Legbars, weirder and weirder) and I'm feeling as if they've been watching us or something.

 

[RainMom]

Yup...quardraddict equations.

learnt it at school!

Toni & Daffy knows it.

Seems like I am right in the middle of the 2 biggest quackers on this site,with one in Redmond and the other in Bonney lake.

I am pretty sure this is why I am feeling so daffy lately! I am truly ascaredt I am about to grow webbed feet here..... duck math might be the next curse that happens to me.
Those bowling pins are really beginning to show up in my dreams...errr...I mean...nightmares! I just keep seeing slug-eating monsters.....

I'm going to bed, hoping I don't have a dream about ducks again. I KNEW I should not have picked up that green turtle kiddie pool at the yard sale....

 

[Duck Drover]

[COLOR=800080]Anybody out there have some COMFREY?[/COLOR] [COLOR=800080]Ducks ate it down to the roots.

[/COLOR]

I have Comfrey contained in a raised planter so my ducks probably don't know what they are missing, LOL. I know a place where it grows like a weed so I can dig up as much as I want anytime. Fortunately it grows from small root pieces so it will grow back for you. If you need the leaves for fertilizer right away let me know. I need to go dig up some for someone else so I could take more than I need and share it.