Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Sweetlilbaby]

X 2

when we first started early Summer 2013, we bought 6 guaranteed Pullets ..... 5 of which were proven Cockerels.

last year i got straight run chicks, 8 of them. one died, 3 were cockerels and 4 were pullets. I've always had good luck with straight run. when i buy pullets i get the same result however Ideal said they will do a partial refund if more then 10% of the chicks are cockerels.

 

[Dwkuska]

Ya know... my wife and I were talking last night and we were perplexed by something. Why are White leghorns not more proflific in the BYC community? For their purpose they are the best egg layers, and whats more pretty then a few pure white birds romping around in the lawn? I know everyone has their own tastes. I am just amazed that so many people have all these type of chickens and yet leghorns dont seem very common.

 

[1TurkenLover]

Ya know... my wife and I were talking last night and we were perplexed by something. Why are White leghorns not more proflific in the BYC community? For their purpose they are the best egg layers, and whats more pretty then a few pure white birds romping around in the lawn? I know everyone has their own tastes. I am just amazed that so many people have all these type of chickens and yet leghorns dont seem very common.

do you have them ? what makes the White Leghorn different ? do they very in Temperament, Color. get along with other chickens .........

I'm looking for great layers, WA hardy, non flighty,

 

[fosterson]

do you have them ? what makes the White Leghorn different ? do they very in Temperament, Color. get along with other chickens .........

I'm looking for great layers, WA hardy, non flighty,

White Leghorns are notoriously flighty, which is likely why they suffer from not being more common. Also, I think they're more popular with the folks who aren't prone to hanging out on BYC looking at chicken eye candy -- smaller local egg producers and the like.

 

[Dwkuska]

do you have them ? what makes the White Leghorn different ? do they very in Temperament, Color. get along with other chickens .........

I'm looking for great layers, WA hardy, non flighty,

Yes I have 2 right now but looking to get a dozen or so more. The two that I have currently are by far the most outgoing chickens I have. More so even then the RiRs. I think the reviews of breeds can be misleading so I would suggest talking to folks who have the breed instead of reviews. Yes the reviews for alot of birds is FLighty, or noisey but I have found many of those are simply not true in my experience. I have 8 polish crested which are suppose to be extremely noisy and flighty and none of mine are either.

I raise all my chickens together and the only ones who cause problems are my Gallus Gallus but thats to be exected. White Leghorns are very hardy and arguably the best production chicken to date. If you goto the store and buy eggs I would put money that they were leghorn eggs. I can further this by suggesting you view the "Hatching Trader Joe Eggs" thread as they all turned out to be White Leghorns. The egg industry is like any other industry they want the most durable bird with highest production. So if your looking for production... then white leghorns would be a good choice. Plus I just like the pure white bird look....

Another great choice for you might be RiR (Rhode Island Reds). Again the reviews will tell you they are flighty or noisey but there is no shortage of BYC members that will tell you they are the most loving birds our there. They are also very hardy and disease resistant. I personally am not a fan just because I have a hard time eating eggs that arent white(stupid I know, but they make me gag).

 

[RainMom]

Cant speak for King County as last I heard no more then 8 hens on less then 5acre lot. I know Pierce County just bumped it up to allowing 12. Still no roos though. There is a thread on the rules for the area but I will save you the trouble. here is a good link for you to check out.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/zoonotics/poultry.aspx

Howdy!

I live in Maple Valley and there's no limits here (unless you are in a close to Covington (10 minutes) and Issaquah (15 minutes), 35 minutes to Bellevue, and far enough off the beaten track that nobody complains about my woodstove or chickens.

 

[Dwkuska]

Howdy!

I live in Maple Valley and there's no limits here (unless you are in a close to Covington (10 minutes) and Issaquah (15 minutes), 35 minutes to Bellevue, and far enough off the beaten track that nobody complains about my woodstove or chickens.

I suspect that is due to Maple Valley being considered "rural." I know if you go deeper into Graham all property cant be subdivided to less then 5acre lots in which case there is no limits to chickens(or wood stoves since its considered a primary source of heat). Last time I went out to Maple Valley it seemed very undevloped and rural with a few housing developments here and there.

 

[RainMom]

It looks like I will be taking Silkie roosters to the auction in Enumclaw in the morning. Someone filed a nuisance complaint so I can expect a visit from the city in the next two weeks. I assume it is the young Silkie roosters crowing that prompted the complaint since my young roosters are usually sold before they start crowing. I don't want to take the time to list them now so I need to come up with a quick fix. I am sure it will be a death sentence for the roosters but I am not interested in butchering Silkies. I may have to start killing the young Orpingon cockerels before they start crowing but most of them are splash and they are all out of nice imported English Orpingtons so I will separate them and take pictures to list them this week, then if they don't sell this week I may need to kill them all next weekend to keep them from crowing. I have had roosters crowing all summer without complaint (although whoever filed a complaint never said anything to me so I am probably dealing with a coward who is unable to solve problems without involving an authority figure) so the only thing I can figure is the problem is the fact that I have maturing roosters that need to be sold while people keep asking to buy my hens and pullets instead of the roosters.

I have sold groups of pet quality roosters, suspecting they willl be eaten, but I had hoped these would not be killed because they are nice Silkies. I raised a bunch of Silkies so I could keep pullets and sell roosters so I have no interest in keeping these roosters any longer, I just wish I did not have to take them to their death. I need to find some boxes to sell them individually so perhaps even one will have a chance to live beyond the next 24 hours.

Hey Duck Drover-

do I recall that you live in Covington? Did you get rid of all your silkie roos at the auction?
I'm sporadically online here, (have a LOT going on) but on FB more often. I'm in Maple Valley.

-Rainmom

 

[RainMom]

Ya know... my wife and I were talking last night and we were perplexed by something. Why are White leghorns not more proflific in the BYC community? For their purpose they are the best egg layers, and whats more pretty then a few pure white birds romping around in the lawn? I know everyone has their own tastes. I am just amazed that so many people have all these type of chickens and yet leghorns dont seem very common.

Leghorns are spazzy and flighty, but ya know- I love my ONE white leghorn. She's a super dependable layer and is economical on feed. Curiously, as a breed that is almost NEVER broody......she has gone broody TWICE. Funniest thing ever- a puffed up cranky leghorn. I'd yank her off the nest and she would cuss me out in 3 different languages- all while puffed up like a frizzle.

I am thinking I need a couple more of them. One thing- she can fly over any fence- so I don't even try to contain her, but I'm okay with that because she's so fast she's not a predator victim.

The other white chicken I have is a White Rock, and that one lays light brown eggs, very dependably.

 

[Dwkuska]

He he and my 2 leghorn girls are so fat after a day of mulling around in backyard I am not sure I have ever seen them fly. Even if I am in the chicken run and everyone is jumping all over the place they are very grounded lol. Maybe My chickens are just fatty's