Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[mertel]

Hi Sarah! Welcome to the wonderful world of chickens! They are SOOOO much fun. Who would have thought chickens have personalities, I was so surprised. I hope you love it as much as we do! This is a great place to get answers to the many many questions you'll have along the way. But do maintain your common sense because you'll get answers from people from all walks of life and some ideas will "fit" better than others. Have Fun!

Thanks so much! I find your response so true already! I am lucky enough to be surrounded by Backyard Chicken Farmers, but all of them have slightly different ways of handling things.
The only thing I wasn't prepared for was how quickly they would grow! It seems like they shot up over night!! The hubby ended up converting and old dog kennel (the metal kind) into a new brooder for me. I think (hope with fingers crossed ) that this one will get us through until they are featherd out or the temp get warm enough that they can go to the coop. They are comfy and happy right now.
It will be interesting to see what I end up with. I bought 3 that were supposed to be Marans and 3 Araucana's. The Araucana's now have tail feathers so pretty sure that isn't what they are LOL. I'm not too picky as this is my first go round.
Here is a pic of the hubby making my new brooder-I thankful for the help as this is kind of my "adventure" that he agreed too.

 

[melissaG]

g'day all!

So here's how the new incubator did first run


quite well, lost a couple due to stress. (expected with the EF and late hatching cochin eggs) other than that, really impressed with the $50 cheepy!

in other news, I'm going to kick my LF Cochins out of the breeding pen unless someone yells that they want to trade for some before this evenings feeding and lockup.
Chicken math is going to bury me

Have a good rest of the week all! I'm probably going to be out and about still trying to catch up and get stuffs in order

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

If I am going to hatch eggs I would like to breed to show quality as much as possible. It sounds like if I were to run just one rooster with the girls blue would be the best color choice. I would like to buy a high quality rooster but my bank account is negative $30 today (fortunately I sold some ducklings last night, I am tutoring today, and my husband got his unemployment check today so I can fix that before the bank charges me $35 for being poor). I am glad to know the hens have potential. I have purchased hatching eggs to hatch in my incubators and I was hoping the silkies would brood them even though they did not sit on the eggs. I have a divider up and a heat lamp in my coop but my chicks are probably feathered enough they will not need heat anymore.

If you hatch them then put them in with the Silkies, it is best to do it in the dark of night and be there before they get up to make sure they take the chicks. But be aware, if the Silkie has not been broody yet, they may not teach the new chicks to eat. If they have brooded then go for it and observe to make sure no rejection occurs. And you could pick up a good quality boy with no faults for 50-100. With some minor faults it will be less. Catdance had Silkies for sale at the PNPA show in April from 35-75 depending on condition.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I'm alive, busy, not yet ready for the number of chicks I've set myself up for (although my hypothesis is that the hinky incubator is likely to work better full, for temperature stability reasons: we'll see how it works out in practice?) although I have a plan for how it's going to work. Just in to have a glass of water, back from checking that last cow and moving the sheep into shade in the orchard. Filled a feeder on the way out and a waterer on the way in, of course, never walk by the chickens that there's not some little thing to do, of course.

Our mutual GF Andrea, finally has 1 hen laying & trying to save eggs but then the hen stopped laying.................

Poor girl ! If you have too many purebreds, maybe give her a call ???????????

Only fourteen of the eggs are Hamburgs, most are Barbu d'Anvers from Kristen: I want maybe six of those, after she gets first choice. I won't be selling or trading or giving away Hamburgs until I can sex them, at about three weeks. I will, then, be shedding all the cockerels (since I don't know how to caponize yet), and any straight-combed pullets and looking at what I have left. I will be doing another batch soon, though, if the divinity in charge of incubators is kind (especially since I need to give my cousin some EEs back after swiping his hen).

 

[Ixyavi]

My dogs wont go out in it. I had to leash and drag them out there when they were doing the potty dance at the door (with the door wide open).

I have a Mini Doxie that absolutely hates going out in the rain. I have to do the whole leash and drag bit too because there's no potty nonsense inside my house. He's only six months but learned pretty quick that I'll stand out in the rain as long as it takes! So now when the leash goes on he poo's as fast as puppy possible because he knows that's when he gets to run back in and hide from the rain!

Thanks for the welcome!

I got this coop from a coop-builder on Craigslist.

It is about 6' long, 4' high, and 32" wide. I think it will hold my four girls pretty well. They will have a free range area of about 40'x40' eventually, but at first I'm going to start them with a dog exercise pen about 8x10 covered in poultry net. And they'll definitely be locked in at night. I have a LOT of predators around me, we are right near a big protected forest... So coyotes, raccoons, hawks, owls, the occasional bobcat, probably more I haven't even thought of... I will let them range to the limits of their and my ability to keep them alive

the four I got are from Baxter Barn in Fall City; it seemed very clean and Cory, the owner, seemed to be really passionate about his chickens. The girls are Salt (white Ameraucana), Pepper (barred Rock), Cocoa (black Austalorp), and Spice (GLW). Here they are in their dog crate, and yes, they've been roosting in it.

That's a cute little coop! Was the builder closer to the seattle area? I'm looking for someone to build me a decent coop but it seems like most of the ones around here aren't very nice or safe. And welcome to the thread!!

It's been a LONG time since I've posted and haven't been in here much So, I've had many not so lovely things going on here...
One of my Silkie hens ( one of the two confirmed hens out of 6 ) started acting weirder than usual. She loses her balance as if her equilibrium is off. So I separated her, cut her crest a bit too see if she can see and have been monitoring her to make sir she can eat/ drink because I noticed she was too thin. I'm scared to death that she has Merek's, but so far none of the other birds are showing signs. I feel so bad for her and have considered " releasing" her but she is thriving and has gained weight.

After getting tests back from t the naturopathic doc I started seeing it was found that in addition to the celiac diagnosed a few years ago and confirmed recently, I am allergic to dairy and EGGS!!!! SOOOO mad!

Next..On Friday before last, I started mowing the lawn ( riding mower) and almost immediately got " shot" with something in my leg. I yelled bad things them kept going until I put my hand down and felt a bunch of blood and a hole in my thigh. After contemplating getting it looked at I decided to deal with it until a couple days later when I noticed a knot about 4in away from the puncture. Sure enough, the rads showed a piece of metal was imbedded and had to have surgery to get it out. That thing was 3in deep!

Then, to top off the awful last couple weeks, e had a bee swarm come into our house!!! Yes, you read it right! They came in thru a tiny hole where a junction in the roof is developing rot. One moment there was nothing, then there were a hundred bees in a room. Fortunately, they mostly stayed confined to that room. I called a bee guy who came and decided to go get a bait box to see if he could draw them out but by the time he got back most of them had disappeared! We sucked up the rest with the vacuum.

There have been other small annoyances but you get the point! It has not been very pleasant here lately! Gonna try to keep finding good things around to keep me sane and try not to feel picked on!B.t.w, I very much dislike this mobile site! Please excuse the bad typing!

That's CRAZY!!!

 

[mikeyb]

Quote: Peeked in on Arbuckle and did a head count. I counted 3 for sure, but maybe a 4th. Yeeeehaw!
They are so cute, but I may be a tad biased. No chance for pics yet. Arbuckle has gotten very defensive and she don't care if it is me. LOL There will be time for pics, maybe tomorrow.
The JG are doing great, growing like weeds and putting on weight. Lots of feathers and need no heat. CL, you have an awesome breed line.

 

[ImpsMama]

That's a cute little coop!  Was the builder closer to the seattle area?  I'm looking for someone to build me a decent coop but it seems like most of the ones around here aren't very nice or safe.  And welcome to the thread!!  

The coop builder was Donald Weeks in Orting, listed on Craigslist as the Chicken Man. He delivers to all of Seattle; my coop was delivered fully assembled yesterday. For bigger coops, they bring the pieces and assemble on location. I think it's pretty well made. So far, so good. First thing I did was replace the latches with predator proof ones, though-about $6 at Home Depot. I'll see how well it works over time. I didn't have the time to build a coop, so I'm treating this as my "starter coop". I know Donald does custom sizes as well. I don't know much about him, though... What I could find from web-searching was that people generally like his coops, but don't like getting chickens from him. I just wanted the coop, I already had chickens to go in it! Hope that helps!

 

[RedReiner]

I had a successful hatch so I have a dozen extra 100% English import orpington chicks, if anyone is needing some let me know. $10 per chick or all 12 for $100 keeping this one as she is out of my oldest hen, but you get what they will be

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ! So cute !!!!!!!!!!

hey CL they are very cute, I have a dozen to let go, keeping a bunch more, eggs up to my ears, girls are on a roll I tell ya!!

 

[RedReiner]

Cowboy, our 3 yr old going great under saddle My new mare, Freckles doing great. This was her second ride in almost one year.

Very nice ! Makes me want more horses but DH would kill me for sure ! That and I have such a bad case of kneesels ! RedReiner has some awesome horseflesh too...asking nice, maybe she will show us some pics ??????????????

here Robin I think you might like this one, I had a friend take some pics and make me an ad Standing at stud this year,

 

[catelb]

Hahaha, I guess I should have taken the $75.

I'm brand new to chickens and am still learning!

Next time, I'll come here and ask around before I turn down what was apparently such a good deal.