Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I show because its fun. I enjoy chatting with other knowledgable poultry people and learning. I'm also a very competitive person. If I can find a way to compete in something, I will.


I'm very interested in breeding programs and the genetics of improving my flocks. Showing also gives me a neutral eye evaluating an making sure that I don't end up with "coop blindness" when evaluating my own birds for confirmation.


I started very small, with a couple pair of Black Plymouth Rock Bantams that were kind of dropped on my family when I was 12. That fall I went to my first show and bought my first pair of Black Langshans. Kept things very small for the first couple years before ballooning.

This makes sense, I do like going and talking to other raisers of the stock I keep, they do have some knowledge, and local knowledge at that, that can greatly help! I know I also can't afford the week off work to do it though lol You are in Battleground, do you know any of the Walsh's down there?

Also, by showing and placing with a bird, when you are breeding it's line you can say it comes from show stock. It fetches a higher price for the offspring.

Good to know, but I have no plans yet to sell birds, I will keep that in mind. I really care more about the bird being productive like I said, and I'd hope a buyer would too, but this makes total sense.

This is mostly in reference to the Silkies I am raising, since Silkies really only have three purposes, pets, broody and showing.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I think a tractor without ROPS is like a cell phone that only plays games, worthless. ROPS (roll over protection sytem) is uber important, as roll overs are one of the single biggest killers of farmers in tractors. Don't ever buy a tractor with out it in my honest opinion, I'd rather have that option and not need it, then need it and not have it.

I'm old and started driving tractors when I was a teenager. My dad had kids to get crew, and ended up with two daughters; we've run more bad machinery than you'd imagine.

I love ROP so very much, I cannot express it.

 

[KMHunter]

I really need some help guys. I have no idea what to do. I have lost nearly all my hatchlings from some kind of illness. I have lost 10 this past week. This is the second time I have incubated my polish frizzle and have had them died. The first hatching they were doing good until I bough some chicks from a lady in hoodsport. All but the older ones I gotten from her that were already outside had died. Then I lost nearly all my first hatch except for about three. I had more eggs from another friend in my bator. I was told it was cocci and that her chicks prob had something or it and infected them all. After the second hatch we had bought a brand new plastic brooder and put them in. My husband took the old wooden one out and bleached everything. Their new brooder, food dishes and everything. Vacumed the carpet and we shampooed it with our Kirby. By all means we should have killed whatever. We keep the babies in our house int he spare room. We also put corid into their water to treat for cocci. The first group did have some blood in their stool so that's what we thought this was. They would get lethargic, slow down, eyes closed and then would just die.
My second group I wanted to prevent this. Only my babies are dying. My older ones outside are fine. I have a few chickens that are laying but I am only getting one to two eggs a day. One I normaly don't keep cause the shell is brittle. I have also been adding shell into their feed to help that. I know a sign in older birds is a drop in eggs, but it has been very hot so I am at a loss. This is our first year with chickens and I am so close to just wanting to give up and not do this anymore. It's sucking our money away and everyone I have talked to is flabbergasted at what this could be. I am already tied to picking up some chickens next week, but at last they are older. Some will not be going into the main herd, but to a separate coop I have built. Anyway, now with this second group its happening again. I have only a couple babies left. I am crying and don't know what to do. I know they are only chickens but I am really regretting doing this. Its the same symptoms with this one. Just I see a little runny poo, they get lethargic, lay down and die. and they would be healthy and running around earlier. Eating and drinking. It's not worms, or anything that I was told by other friends. No other animal gets into the room. We turned the heat lamp off thinking it was being too hot in there. Its a saunas is during the day. I wasn't loosing chicks until after I got those ones from the lady in hoodsport. The eggs I get from my friend, her birds are all healthy and she hasn't lost any like I am. We have the chicks on chick starter. Medicated feed now. The first were not on it s we were told to try medicated starter. I also put a little chick grit in their feed. We stopped treating with corid sense its not helping. Have apple cider vin in their water as well. I have eggs again in my bator that I just put in and a friend hatching me some more. I don't want to cull all the birds we have just in case its whatever. We can't afford that

Do you handle the babies before doing things with your older birds? You need to change cloths and wash up really well before handling the babies if you have something killing them. Some viruses aren't going to be killed by shampooing your carpets. Bacteria should, but not always be gone after something like that. Two table spoons per gallon sounds like a lot of Corid though. You can over medicate and kill them that way too. I am not sure what it going on, but the symptoms really do sound like cocci. You should do better on medicated feed if that is truly the problem.

 

[richarddhoward]

Not familiar with a Walsh off the top of my head, poultry folk?
Love Kubotas. They're a really great machine.

Nah, family down there

 

[Hinotori]

Thanks for imput on the tractors. I'll talk to DH about it. Life would be much easier if we were over where my family is. Then I could get help getting a nice used tractor.

 

[Duck Drover]

My folks raised Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn chickens because they are supposed to be the heaviest layers but you can always find those chicken eggs at the grocery. My foster mother raised what the feed store called "Araucana" chickens but they were not the rumpless tufted ones with the lethal genes, they mainly laid green eggs but we also got blue and pink. The slang name for the chickens we raised was "Easter Egger" and I guess that is what the official name is now for the chickens we have always raised. I like the different colored eggs and the different colored chickens. I also like the muffs, beards and pea combs because I think large combs are ugly.

I am branching out into other breeds by buying eggs to hatch but I am sticking with chicken breeds that are harder to find but not overpriced. If you have something that is rare and you want too much money for it, you are not going to promote the breed that way and it will soon fall into extinction.

I am also raising "ornamental" Silkies in order to use them as incubators and brooders but I would like ones that meet or come close to show standards because they are prettier than the hatchery Silkies. It seems the more fluff mine have, they dumber they seem but dumb Silkis make better pets than smarter chickens so they kind of grow on you. Mine are slow learners but they are catching on and the color varieties give them personality. They don't all have names but I can tell them all apart so it is easier to take attendance before I close the coop at night. With the chicks I take a head count but as they grow they should start looking less alike.

So I guess what sells me on a chicken breed is pretty chickens that lay pretty eggs! If I were to have a breed that lays more ordinary looking eggs I like the Orpingtons and Barnevelder eggs because of their size and shape, plus the color is nice. I would not want anything that looks too plain and lays plain looking eggs because it is not worth feeding chickens if I can buy the eggs for cheaper at the grocery store, although nothing beats free range chicken eggs except free range duck eggs.

When I first joined BYC I only had ducks and now I have a few dozen chickens and several dozen chicks! I also decided to raise Call ducks in addition to the Australian Spotted ducks because they come in different colors but I have all three colors of Australian Spotted ducks now when I started with greenhead only.

 

[Manningjw]

I've been looking around for Blue Ameraucanas for a little while now. Before i order some eggs or chicks is there anyone that has fertile hatching eggs for sale around the Seattle area? If they are SplashxBlue or SplashxSplash even better.

 

[RonB]

Great idea for a discussion !
As t happens, I am moving directly into this direction, in other words, downsizing & only keeping functionality.

What we value after removing the 'show' from the operation here, is functionality.
Functionality is what has always dictated what breeds have survived the years, and which have been "kicked to the curb" so to speak.
Foundation, heritage breeds have not always been so functional, with more broodiness and less lay especially during winter months, these breeds took more time, work & feed and produced less meat & eggs than alot of other breeds did.
On farms, the RIR, barred Rocks and foundation Orpingtons did the work, feeding the Pioneer homesteders.
I guess "designer" chickens really did not come along until a ways after the depression...who could afford to keep chickens that just did not produce ?

The breeds I keep now that we are downsizing will be the breeds that continue to lay though the winter months, and go brrody less often, they must eat less and take up less space.
These will make less work for me & my bad back.
I suspect at this point, that will be my Marans.
Period.
The Blue Coppers and Silver Cuckoos are still, the best layers year round, that I have had, excpet for a great flock of Barred Rocks I had eons ago.
I look at everything about the bird: egg size, amount of lay, health, temperment, intelligence & 'flightiness' and Marans win.

I have or have had eight different breeds. I go for different colors of chickens. But when I choose a breed it HAS to be considered an excellent or above average layer. I find that golden sexlinks, white leghorns and Bl. Australorps are my best year around layers.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote: What I give (with the Corid 9.6% liquid is )9.5 ml per gallon for 5 days, mixing new solution daily as the sole drinking water source.

9.5 ml = 0.64 Tablespoons according to a conversion website I went to.

The Corid powder has a different dosage.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote: I guess that you can be unselective about temprement with show chickens, but it makes chicken exhibitors look amateurish compared to anyone else: there is no excuse keeping a mean animal, even if they're not likely to turn you into a fine pink paste the way a bad bull will. My life got an order of magnitude easier when I got rid of a mean rooster. It's just too unpleasant and complicated no matter what their apparent physical perfection.

I've known people who were killed by bad cattle, horses, and goats, so I may be biased.
Killed by goats!!!

Who would have thought!

Good to know!