Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Lutefisk]

I use, and always use, cedar in my coops, up to 6" deep to prevent Bumble injury to my adult birds,deep is the key here, according to the roost height, and the weight of the flock individuals~

BUT I use compressed straw and pine shavings for my chick brooders.

I haven't had any bumble. The floor of our coop is the ground, but the chickens don't get on it - they stay on the perches which are about 1 foot off the ground. I roll it a few feet once a week or so to keep the grass from dying and rake the spot to break up the poop piles. It's easier IMO than cleaning a coop with a floor, not to mention the savings on bedding.

 

[Naloboy]

I use, and always use, cedar in my coops, up to 6" deep to prevent Bumble injury to my adult birds,deep is the key here, according to the roost height, and the weight of the flock individuals~

BUT I use compressed straw and pine shavings for my chick brooders.

We were wondering about which shavings to use. There were bags of both cedar and pine when we moved in. We put cedar on the floor of the coop and pine in the little "box" they like to sleep in since it has poor ventilation compared to the coop. I'll have to get pics of the hens and coop up when I can get some good shots. Today was a bad day due to the rain.

The coop looks like an old shed that they converted and there is more room in the coop than in the yard. I went out there with my tiller and broke up the ground because it was all hard pack and nothing growing. Not sure what they were using it for before we moved in. And the coop was used for storage most recently. Had to clean that out good

 

[FamFitz]

Mites and lice are a problem in every climate. For management I use cedar shavings (if you have enough ventilation the fumes don't bother the birds, if you don't have enough ventilation...fix it!) with about a cup of food grade diatomaceous earth in it (my pens are either 4x8 or 6x8, adjust for size of your pens), since mites love to find cracks in wood to live in I use PVC perches, and as little wood as I can in the coop in general, for clean legged birds I have been known to use sand in their pens for bedding, which seems to help some as well.  Usually I just hit the birds with a dose of Eprinex (bonus, gets worms too) and that takes care of it.  If they persist I will treat topically with either Diatomaceous Earth or other poultry dust.

I was planning on getting DE and mixing it into their dust bath once they were out in the coop. Sounds like that's what people use. Hopefully that will keep any potential mites at bay. =]

 

[Naloboy]

actually the weather here is not much different from what we were having on Maui -- there we had torrential rains, fog, too much wind (50-60 mph), and it was getting into the middle 50s at night, low 60s daytimes unless sun was out ... and chilly because of 75+% moisture and 20-30 mph winds .. unless we had Kona conditions which meant 90% humidity at least, and NO wind for evaporation ... remember, we are at 1500 feet altitude when there .. much warmer down at sea level ... also slightly sunnier and slightly less windy (except in Kihei)

Ok so I gotta be niele...are you from Hawaii or just vacation there regularly ? I'm from O'ahu.

 

[CATandTIM]

Hey, I've got a question. Does anyone know of any 4 h groups in either king county or Monroe area that does poultry? I'm having trouble trying to find any.

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[FamFitz]

Hey, I've got a question. Does anyone know of any 4 h groups in either king county or Monroe area that does poultry? I'm having trouble trying to find any.

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I don't know of any personally, but did a Bing search and found these folks http://www.kelseycreekcritters.org/2010/09/kelsey-creek-critters-is-now-poultry.html

I was born and raised a city girl, and it's only been the last few years I've started digging my roots into farm soil. And this is my 1st time with chickens. Can I ask what exactly a 4H does? I'm wondering if it is something my kids might find interesting/educational/helpful/fun/etc.

 

[NWSumatras]

I don't know of any personally, but did a Bing search and found these folks http://www.kelseycreekcritters.org/2010/09/kelsey-creek-critters-is-now-poultry.html 


I was born and raised a city girl, and it's only been the last few years I've started digging my roots into farm soil. And this is my 1st time with chickens. Can I ask what exactly a 4H does? I'm wondering if it is something my kids might find interesting/educational/helpful/fun/etc.

I cannot recommend 4H enough! Its a great opportunity for kids to get involved with the community, while challenging them with projects that they find interesting. It can be competitive, which some kids love. They learn speaking skills, and become confidence in what they do. Its a great foundation for life in the real world. It is a lot of fun, as showing at the fairs rewards them for all their hard work. Plus it gets them out of the house!

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:
Hubs and I were there and didn't get sick, luckily. I guess we know who has the better bio-security, huh???

I hope all of you are feeling much better now. And I really do feel bad that you got sick.

 

[CarolynF]

Hey, I've got a question. Does anyone know of any 4 h groups in either king county or Monroe area that does poultry? I'm having trouble trying to find any.

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This is from the main 4-H website http://www.4-h.org/


Your Main State Office
Washington Office
PO Box 646248
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164
866-458-0196
http://4h.wsu.edu/EM2778CD/join.htm

Your County Office
Snohomish
600 128th Street SE
Everett, WA 98208
(425) 338-2400
http://snohomish.wsu.edu/

 

[FamFitz]

I cannot recommend 4H enough! Its a great opportunity for kids to get involved with the community, while challenging them with projects that they find interesting. It can be competitive, which some kids love. They learn speaking skills, and become confidence in what they do. Its a great foundation for life in the real world. It is a lot of fun, as showing at the fairs rewards them for all their hard work. Plus it gets them out of the house!

So what do the kids do? Is it like meeting once a week/month? Showing birds at fairs? I seriously know nothing.