Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Imp]

Hi Yakima! I'm in Moses Lake, kind of a neighbor. I hope your temps are warmer than ours this morning. I know what you mean about getting sick of changing water for the birds. I'm taking care of turkeys and ducks this year as well as 6 hens. The turkeys and ducks are new to me. Take care!

Welcome to the Washington Thread.

Russ

 

[Duck Drover]

Oh... I LOVE your strawberry planter!  It looks like it's big enough to produce a lot of berries?  Do you remember how many plants you put in there?  How often do you have to water it? 

I don't remember how many plants I put in because I transplanted them from a raised bed where they were not as happy. The vertical design makes it easy to weed and to pick berries but it also filled in so fast that I may have to get him to make me another one so I have somewhere to transplant the plants. They came in early because the planter holds so much heat so there is no room at all for new runners. I had too many runners last year so not all of them got to root. These are Quinaults so they are everbeariing and we get berries from June through October and later depending on the weather. They are very hardy so I bought starts over a decade ago and I am still getting berries after moving twice in that time.

The planter holds water in well so it does not have to be watered very frequently. I give them water from my worm bins by putting it in the top and lettiing it work down through the levels and I also gave them worm castings when I first transplanted them. I can lightly sprinkle when I water with a hose or we built in a watering system so I can hook up the hose to it and give them a good soak. There is a sprinkler on top that covers the whole thing and allows me to wet the leaves to keep them bug free since my ducks can't reach further than the bottom level. The chickens could get higher if they jump up on it but I don't think they will be able to damage the plants if they do perch on the slanted boards. At some point I will test it to see how well it protects my strawberries from free-ranging chickens but I can put a net over it if they are able to get up on it to eat my strawberries.

My husband is out of work right now so we are considering building planters to sell. I would like him to build another one that we can try selling and if it does not sell I can keep it. I would have to buy dirt to fill it and I can't remember how much dirt we had delivered because I had other planters I filled at the same time. I think I could have several of these but we get so many berries with just one that I am not sure we could eat them all!

 

[Flaming Chicken]

It seems to be a real problem keeping the gold out of them (admittedly the gold birds are stunning) from what I'm reading.  And in the stock I am looking at I keep seeing hens with almost no crest too.  Fascinating breed really.  Thanks for your comments it's much appreciated.

I think the second line that Greenfire sent had straighter combs but had very small to no crest. They are very fun for me to own. I love their personalities. They are friendly and bold. They come up to me, let me pick them up and try to follow me out of the run. Let me know if you decide to get some. I'd be curious to see how you do with them.

 

[Duck Drover]

talented husband!! maybe you should rent him out!! lol

He has so many ideas about things to build since he lost his job so we really need to figure out a way he can make money being self-employed doing what he enjoys. Right now he is working on building external nest boxes for our converted playhouse coop. It will be months before the chicks start laying so I figured we have plenty of time before we need nest boxes but last night I picked up some silkie chickens and they are laying occasionally, according to the person who gave them to me. I have been trying to find eggs to hatch but now I will have some of my own. Apparently the rooster is younger and very fertile and two of the hens are younger but two of them are older and may not lay much if at all. I don't know their exact ages, though.

The silkies are beautiful chickens in an odd sort of way with their puff ball heads and fluffy feathers. They are supposed to be good brooders and these have been pets so they are gentle. One was chasing the chicks last night when I put them all to bed but I put in a divider that I will open when I can let everyone mingle under supervision. The rooster is white and then there is a "partridge" (red) colored hen, a "splash" (gray) colored hen, a black hen, and a "buff" (I think that is what it is, sort of a red/tan color) colored hen. Here is the picture of them in their old home if anyone knows anything about silkie colors and wants to further my knowledge about them.

 

[Sweetlilbaby]

Rain, sun, a little thunder, rinse and repeat. I like it.

But, I've lived here all my life. Maybe that makes a difference.
I used to work with/for a couple dog behaviorists, and from what they taught, people's dogs will look to their owners (the dominant, pack leader) for how to react. If the owner is calm and doesn't baby the dog, or freak out themselves (lol, I sorta used to), and shows the dog by ignoring the storm that everything is fine, the dogs will generally calm down too. So, they don't try to calm the dog or show sympathy, instead they do something normal like play with toys with him, or groom him, or whatever is usual to do. Maybe that will help someone? It has done wonders with my dogs anyways!

My goose couple is instead I think two females who are sharing a big, bifurcated nest. It explains the excessive amount of eggs in the original nest, and now they are sharing the eggs. LOL. They are really gentle with each other, it's very sweet.

I've lived here my whole life too. Just it was so nice out. it was getting frustrating trying to fix the chicken pen up and getting soaked having to come dry off and wait.
I do ignore my dogs, or if they get in my lap throw a toy to get them out of my lap (like i do any other day). We all jumped but here there was no thundery yesterday then it sounded almost like a car crash right outside. It was so loud and out of nowhere. Zeus recovered from the thunder and was ignoring it but didn't want to be in the rain. His fur absorbs liquid and it was cold.

 

[MidsummerNight]

He has so many ideas about things to build since he lost his job so we really need to figure out a way he can make money being self-employed doing what he enjoys. Right now he is working on building external nest boxes for our converted playhouse coop. It will be months before the chicks start laying so I figured we have plenty of time before we need nest boxes but last night I picked up some silkie chickens and they are laying occasionally, according to the person who gave them to me. I have been trying to find eggs to hatch but now I will have some of my own. Apparently the rooster is younger and very fertile and two of the hens are younger but two of them are older and may not lay much if at all. I don't know their exact ages, though.

The silkies are beautiful chickens in an odd sort of way with their puff ball heads and fluffy feathers. They are supposed to be good brooders and these have been pets so they are gentle. One was chasing the chicks last night when I put them all to bed but I put in a divider that I will open when I can let everyone mingle under supervision. The rooster is white and then there is a "partridge" (red) colored hen, a "splash" (gray) colored hen, a black hen, and a "buff" (I think that is what it is, sort of a red/tan color) colored hen. Here is the picture of them in their old home if anyone knows anything about silkie colors and wants to further my knowledge about them.

Hey duck Drover! What part of Washington are you in?

 

[Totalcolour]

I hope you've had a chance to get a really big laugh out of it SOMEhow!

My Barnie is the only girl laying right now, and she only lays every other day. Good think she's here! Can't figure out why my EE stopped. It's been about 3 weeks now. Sheesh, just because I changed their feed, her best buddy went bye bye, I brought in 3 Littles, gave them a larger nest box, and the weather was hot.... what's her issue? Right?

After a glass of wine I had to laugh - I could have put on a coat and hat after all!

Yeah, chickens really just have no right to issues!

 

[Farns]

Finally introduced the pup to the chickens! No casualties...

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Finally caught a good eight hours plus of sleep; unfortunately it ended at 9:45 this morning,and I'm behind on everything all ready. On the other hand, I haven't run into the doorframe once today, so that's good?

STILL haven't found my darned sports sticks, and all that walking on pavement last week has done nothing good for my hip bursitis. I still have to go up to the other half of the place to check my one last pregnant cow, and doing it without the sticks is exhausting- although at least today I won't be hauling into the face of a full gale.

Can somebody give me advice about doing lock-down in the Little Giant? I don't candle eggs because I can't see anything but the shells despite super-duper strong flashlights, it's a brain thing and not a strong enough light thing, sorry, I'm just wired wrong. But lately it's also because I'm dropping eggs left and right, too I'm not happy with leaving the egg turner in when chicks hatch, I have a soft-sided insulated case I can put them in while I take the turner out, but: they're point-down in the turner, is it OK they're on their sides during lockdown? Would it be a good time to put a layer of damp paper towels under them so their teeny feet don't go through the mesh?

 

[BGMatt]

Most folks lay eggs on their side when it gets to hatching time, doing it the other way is a new trend that's popping up (with the logic that being in a tray of some sort keeps the already hatched chicks from throwing the other ones all over the place). The mesh shouldn't be too big for their feet so I wouldn't worry about the paper towels unless it was to make clean up easier. Most important thing as it sounds like you know by using that term, is to not open the incubator until day 22 or 23 so that everything is hatched so you don't lose humidity and stick the chicks to the shell.