Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Ashley Stroud]

As far as the Cemani eggs, I will be selling but not for a while. I had Smithsonian lines to start with and they have way too many culls. About 3/4 of the chicks had white on them and even white skin. They were great for a small meat bird since they are a game fowl but not good for breeding quality Cemanis. They were small but tasted great when I butchered the roosters. They have a "gamey" taste like wild fowl which I like.

I now have chicks from Greenfire that are looking much better but not nearly ready to lay yet.

I still have 1 Smithsonian rooster that I breed to my American Orpington hens for meat birds but the nice Cemani's won't be available for about 5-6 months. Though I can't say enough good things about my hybrids.

The chicks almost never make a sound. I brood them in the house and forget they're here. They are always friendly. If you stick your hand into the brooder cage they don't run away, they come to you and try to climb your arm. You have to shake them off to get the food and water dishes out. They mature very quickly. My roosters start crowing at 8-10 weeks of age. The best part: the roosters are almost totally quiet! They crow when they first learn how but after that, almost never. I have not heard my Cemani hybrid rooster crow in weeks.

Maybe because they're a wild bird they don't want to draw the attention of predators? I'm not sure but you could definitely get away with these in city limits.

That is so cool you have Cemanis! I would be petrified something would break in the run and eat them! Worlds most expensive dinner!

 

[catface]

I am paranoid!
I've had racoons take ducks and I caught one red handed with a buff orp in it's mouth. In my coop. Being the crazy b*&ch I am, I tore the door off the coop and took the hen right out of it's mouth and kicked it. Looking back that was pretty stupid since they are pretty fierce predators but I didn't think about it at the time. The hen was injured beyond saving and I had to put her down quickly but at least the coon didn't get a free meal. From then on all my coops are super re-inforced and always have lights on inside and motion activated lights all around the outside. Since I live out in the middle of nowhere the coons still have a healthy fear of humans and tend not to hunt where it's brightly lit.
My Cemani coops are like Ft Knox. Any predator that can get in there deserves a thousand dollar dinner.

 

[Aliciahess]

I would have done the same thing!!

 

[Ashley Stroud]

I am paranoid!
I've had racoons take ducks and I caught one red handed with a buff orp in it's mouth. In my coop. Being the crazy b*&ch I am, I tore the door off the coop and took the hen right out of it's mouth and kicked it. Looking back that was pretty stupid since they are pretty fierce predators but I didn't think about it at the time. The hen was injured beyond saving and I had to put her down quickly but at least the coon didn't get a free meal. From then on all my coops are super re-inforced and always have lights on inside and motion activated lights all around the outside. Since I live out in the middle of nowhere the coons still have a healthy fear of humans and tend not to hunt where it's brightly lit.
My Cemani coops are like Ft Knox. Any predator that can get in there deserves a thousand dollar dinner.

Ha! I tend to do that too--in the heat of the moment I just go all Beast Mode! Earlier this summer I had a similar situation with a coyote in my yard, at 1pm! He was so focused on one of my hens that he didn't even realize I was running up at him. Luckily she just ended up with a bloody foot and made a full recovery. It's weird--I free range my birds and accept that loss is a part of that, yet there I went like a banshee outta H*LL to defend my precious henrietta!

 

[angelfishfan]

Yes! I saw her out the window and didn't know what the heck she was doing. I went out and saw her picking berries. When she was a chick I used to pick huckleberries (there's about a dozen bushes here) and she'd follow me around to all the bushes and pick up any berries I'd drop. Of course I dropped a lot on purpose because I couldn't help it she was so cute. And a few months later she was picking her own and I got no more jam. Honestly, I'm such a sucker I'd rather give them the berries than make jam anyhow.
I live in the woods and have huckleberries, blackberries. wild strawberries, wild raspberries, salal berries, wild blue berries, 2 types of mustard greens, wild plantain, and chanterelle mushrooms that all grow naturally in my yard. I used to harvest them all for myself but now that I have chickens I never see any of it.
At least I know that they're foraging is great!

I had ones of my ladies do the same to my blueberry bushes, and then she showed the others. Same hen hops into the fruit trees and knocks fruit off for everyone lol

 

[catface]

Holy crap! A coyote in the middle of the day!? That must have been one very desperate dog.

About 7-8 years ago I had a pair of ducks nesting on my porch in a planter (crazy ducks) and one morning I went out and the drake was dead. That night at about 3 am I hear a rustle and squaking on the porch so I go running out in my underwear. I can't really see much but I can hear the animal running away so I chase it. Accross the yard, over a stone embankment, through the driveway and it runs up a cherry tree. I have no idea what I'm chasing but It's silent other than it's feet on the ground, I go back in the house and get a flash light and my glasses on and walk back out to the cherry tree and as I'm walking up to the tree something jumps from the ground up the trunk of the tree and hangs there about 6 feet off the ground.

MOUNTAIN LION!

It was late fall and she had 2 cubs on the ground at the base of the cherry tree. I'm not sure why she had cubs so late but she must have been desperate to feed them to take my ducks off my front porch. At that point, I was more than happy to let her eat my duck hen, who was dead by now anyway and I was standing there 15 feet from her cubs in my underwear. I went back to the house and collected the eggs out of the nest and hatched them.
That was on Hwy 9 North in Sedro Wooley.

I look back on that and can't believe I chased a mt lion in my underwear over a duck!!!

 

[catface]

Yep, You'll never get a berry for yourself again unless you fence in the bushes. I always heard that chickens aren't smart,,, they sure know how to get food out of me though. It doesn't help that I'm such a sucker. I've actually driven half way up mt Baker to a place where wild blueberries and blue huckleberries grow just to get berries for the chickens. I could be making pies or jam but I'd rather give them to the birds. I must be crazy!

 

[Ashley Stroud]

Holy crap! A coyote in the middle of the day!? That must have been one very desperate dog.

I look back on that and can't believe I chased a mt lion in my underwear over a duck!!!

Especially because I have two VERY large dogs! I was just lucky I had come home on lunch to check chicks and was standing at my breakfast nook window and saw him come shooting through my yard in pursuit of my girls.

But a mountain lion?!!!!!!! Holy crap! Hilarious and scary story!

 

[catface]

Wow. It must have been able to smell your dogs on the property. It must have been really hungry to come that close anyhow.
I can look back now and laugh at the mt lion thing and it's a great story to tell people but I didn't think it was funny at the time I realized it was a big cat. At that point I would have gladly given it a full thanksgiving dinner to get the hell away from my house. Especially since it had taken my duck right off my front porch.

 

[catface]

I'm fanatical about the safety of my coops and property now. Especially since a chicken dinner at my place could be worth a thousand bucks!