Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[VelvettFog]

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Word of caution here -- This guy (He's in Orting right?) is a chicken trader, and does not always do a good job of quarantine. When I was new, I purchased birds from him, and they were nasty sick. There is no way he did not know his entire flock had CRD, but he still sold his birds to me. I learned a lot of very valuable lessons, and ended up having to replace my entire flock.

By chicken trader I mean that he puts adds on different CL's looking to purchase birds, he takes them back to his place and sells them for more. He also gets lots of birds from hatcheries. Not that hatchery birds are bad, but he may not be completly forthwright about the origin of the birds he is selling.

I've seen his coops, they are not bad. But consider - if you can do the labor, you can always build it for cheaper than you can pay someone else to build it for you. I did some small coops for some folks last year. They would hold 4 LF birds - 16 sq ft of 'coop' and 32 sq ft of 'run' with a roof to cover it all. Materials (not counting wire) were about 220 bucks. I think the folks went in on the wire and that was maybe another 30 each? (You'd have to ask SadieSue, FlyRobinFly (HEY where is she?) or FWJ about the wire, it was waiting for me at my first stop).

If you have the time (patience in my case) to wait to get chickens until you have collected the coop materials and built it - you can really do a coop for cheap. Old fence. boards, a free shed who knows -

You will not need much in the way of insulation for your coop, birds tolerate the cold a lot better than most folks think. A roof top garden bed would be nifty tho

 

[VelvettFog]

I am a little behind but does someone here build coops? I am in need of one.

I've been known to build a coop or two.. three.. five..

 

[bikerchicky]

I've been known to build a coop or two.. three.. five..

Are you heading to the wet side any time soon? I could really use your assistance/expertise with my setup.

 

[Slinglings]

I think EE's are awesome They lay a nice colored egg, and most of the time their feathering is quite attractive. Just 2 is ok - don't get just one. Also - if your plan is to get 4 - do that now. If you want the details - I'll explain why - but trust me here - you'll have less work if you do the 4 chicks at once and not two now and two later. So - it's better for you to start all 4 at once. Ok -- next batch of questions please

X2 on the EE's I try to keep a few. Just because we like to have a wide variety of colours in our cartons. I do have to say that I TOTALLY DISAGREE with VF about getting 4 chicks now! IF you plan to have 4 chickenz.

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

GET ALL 8 right now! !! ! CHICKEN MATH ! ! ! !

uh-huh. I just wanted 3. Within 4 months I had 8. I should have started with 8 to begin with! How many are you allowed to have where you live?

 

[RustyHen]

what were they saying about cream legbars on that program?

Sorry, I was quoteing StumpFarmer, you will need to ask her about this

 

[VelvettFog]

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Probably in 2 months - or so.

Less?

 

[Totalcolour]

I've been drooling over some of (most of) the chickens on Greenfire. Wish I was rich.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

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.

Projects are fun.

Yup, and unlike most of my projects, if this one goes unfinished, well, I still have eggs, and all.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

You actually CAN own chickens in yelm. If concerned check out their site. You CANNOT let them run loose (well duh!! right?) http://www.codepublishing.com/WA/yelm/

sorry for the repost. I'm still trying to figure this site out Hi we are actually in the same boat. We were told by a neighbor that we could have chickens in Yelm, but we had to have the coop a specific distance from the fences and even quoted us the ordnance. We inquired Thursday at city hall, about having chickens and the man said he believed it wasn't allowed but would check. Yesterday (friday 4/12/2013) we came home around 5:30 pm to a notice saying that we were in violation of having chickens in Yelm city limits, when ONE, we have no coop in our back yard, no chickens running around, absolutely NO evidence of owning chickens. But some how we are in violation??? Could you please be more specific with the ordnance saying we CAN have them, I clicked the link you sent but we couldn't find were it said we can have them. I would really LOVE to own chickens. I think it would be a great thing for our family. Thank you.

Well, I did a bit of research and this is what I found, note the greyed portion. It clearly states it's okay to pursue avocational interests. Isn't chicken keeping an avocational interest? Ed: sorry for the bad image, if you click on it you'll get a larger, clearer picture.

I also went to Yelm's site. It is very confusing. It describes livestock to be chickens, but I could not find anything about livestock perse. I even tried the Zoning, and nothing. It is probably buried in a mass of regs that only the beauracrats have access to, as usual. I even contacted Del's and yes they sell chickens but no they can't say anything about the legallity of having chickens. I read that as they don't want to have any shade of liability in this. Don'tcha just love gvt types?

I'm still trying to figure out what the hay is going on- as far as I know, Yelm banned all livestock except horses from inside the city limits back along 1980, maybe, when my uncle was on the city council. There were all sorts of bad feelings involved because some people had chickens and cattle for generations on places that hadn't been quite inside city limits, and most of the noise stayed in committee and out of the papers. LONG time ago, and I'm scraping together vague memories. That website is as bad as the Nisqually Valley News one, which is saying a lot.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Thanks Nikki! I'm trying to do it on a budget but my dads anal about his beautiful backyard so it has to look nice. Also it will probably be just me doing it during the week while my sons napping or possibly playing. I want to buy but all of the ones I want are stupid expensive

I hear ya about budget but looking nice. But with a little creativeness both can happen. If ya look under my avatar you will see where it says My Coop. click that and look at my 2 FREE coops and then after FREE paint. And while yer there ya may wanna read the story of Chicken Rustler.