Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Chickielady]

Wow! Look at the discount on this item! It must've not been a big seller at $1799.00! LOL

Yippee ! I need 20 or 30 right now ! And best of all It is a PRECISION roost bar !!!

 

[Chickielady]

I'm curious. What do you guys see as the future of chickens?
I've noticed a void in chickens for the residential/city situation where pedigree isn't important. Quiet, Cute, non broody, production style laying, w/an array of egg colors.
With the ever growing trend I wonder if anyone is breeding for these qualities?

We;re not supposed to to have chickens, but the neighbors seem to tolerate it because the coop is cute, clean and we occasionally give them eggs (when there's enough). They love the colored ones. Ofcourse the cuter the better so they're viewed as pets rather than farm animals.We have 5 girls total and we eat them as fast as they come out

There is 4 kinds of "Chicken" people I have noticed:

The first person is (usually) a man & wife who both work, and have 5-10 year old kids, and these people usually want breakfast,.and all colors of eggs (and multicolored hens) are what attracts them.
They care little about SOP, 'TYPE' or lineage.
The kids around here LOVE 1) olive eggers, 2) easter eggers and 3) "chocolate eggers"
I have 1 woman who comes every spring & begs to buy my most "colorful" hens, regardless of their breed or even their age.
She wants "yard eye candy"

These folks are about 80% of my sales.

2nd person(s) are the same as above but kids want into 4-H or FFA and looking for pedigree birds to raise & show.
Alot are interested in the smaller breeds at first until their kids grow, and then the kids can get into anything from heavy chickens, to ducks, geese & turkeys.
I get about 2-3 families in this category, per year.

3rd person(s) is raising at least 1, if not quite a few, heritage & "purebred" breeds of poultry, game birds and water fowl, and shows, sells, etc.
These people are far & few.
I get about 10% of my biz here, in egg & chick sales, depending on how hard I advertise.

And the 4th customer is the person(s) who can barely speak English, and are usually Latino or Asian, and they want Roosters & hens to eat.
They even pay $10 for the birds, insisting that there is better "magic" (for lack of a better word) in a fresh killed bird than a fat store bought bird.
The Asians LOVE silkies, and refer to them as "Black Chicken" and they do not mean a chicken with black plumage, but black skin, bones & blood.
These birds have special health properties to these people.

Someone (KIM ! ! !

) SHOULD TRY CROSSING A CORNISH WITH A SILKIE !!!!!!!!!
I cannot imagine what that hard feathered breed & the extremely soft fluff breed would hatch out, but it would be hysterically fun !

As far as breeds............"designer" breeds such as legbars & Bielefelders are all the rage.
The Serema & bantam world has exploded !
And smaller seems to be the rage.
You can have 2-3X as many or raise them in a very small area.

Hope this gives you an idea.

 

[Chickielady]

We are out of town so no one complains of the 2 am crow contest between the large fowl roosters.

Us too, as you know.
And our boys have the contest, too...all 6 of them.
That's not bad, I did have 25 last year....................................when 1 crows, all the others have to crow too.
They all want to be the last one.

Our only neighbors have birds, too, so it is all bliss here.

 

[Espresso]

I have heard about "black chicken" and am honestly curious to eat one and see if it tastes any different. Haha.

I'm not really in any of those categories. Or rather I am in several of them and none. I am raising heritage , critically endangered ducks. But I chose breeds with colorful eggs because I do have small kids, like the pretty colors and want breakfast.

I want high quality birds, but don't intend to show any. Ever. Do intend to eat some.

 

[Hinotori]

We are out of town so no one complains of the 2 am crow contest between the large fowl roosters.

Us too, as you know.
And our boys have the contest, too...all  6 of them.
That's not bad, I did have 25 last year....................................when 1 crows, all the others have to crow too.
They all want to be the last one.

Our only neighbors have birds, too, so it is all bliss here.

The 6 mature silkie boys only crow when they can see enough to come out of their houses. They crow more than the ameraucana boys.

 

[Hinotori]

I have heard about "black chicken" and am honestly curious to eat one and see if it tastes any different. Haha.

I'm not really in any of those categories. Or rather I am in several of them and none. I am raising heritage , critically endangered ducks. But I chose breeds with colorful eggs because I do have small kids, like the pretty colors and want breakfast.

I want high quality birds, but don't intend to show any. Ever. Do intend to eat some.

If you're close enough to Graham I can hook you up but you need to slaughter and pluck yourself.

 

[Hinotori]

 
I'm curious. What do you guys see as the future of chickens?
I've noticed a void in chickens for the residential/city situation where pedigree isn't important. Quiet, Cute, non broody, production style laying, w/an array of egg colors.
With the ever growing trend I wonder if anyone is breeding for these qualities? 

We;re not supposed to to have chickens, but the neighbors seem to tolerate it because the coop is cute, clean and we occasionally give them eggs (when there's enough). They love the colored ones. Ofcourse the cuter the better so they're viewed as pets rather than farm animals.We have 5 girls total and we eat them as fast as they come out   

There is 4 kinds of "Chicken" people I have noticed:

The first person is (usually) a man & wife who both work, and have 5-10 year old kids, and these people usually want breakfast,.and all colors of eggs (and multicolored hens) are what attracts them.
They care little about SOP, 'TYPE' or lineage.
The kids around here LOVE 1) olive eggers, 2) easter eggers and 3) "chocolate eggers"
I have 1 woman who comes every spring & begs to buy my most "colorful" hens, regardless of their breed or even their age.
She wants "yard eye candy"  
These folks are about 80% of my sales.

2nd person(s) are the same as above but kids want into 4-H or FFA and looking for pedigree birds to raise & show.
Alot are interested in the smaller breeds at first until their kids grow, and then the kids can get into anything from heavy chickens, to ducks, geese & turkeys.
I get about 2-3 families in this category, per year.

3rd person(s) is raising at least 1, if not quite a few, heritage & "purebred" breeds of poultry, game birds and water fowl, and shows, sells, etc.
These people are far & few.
I get about 10% of my biz here, in egg & chick sales, depending on how hard I advertise.

And the 4th customer is the person(s) who can barely speak English, and are usually Latino or Asian, and they want Roosters & hens to eat.
They even pay $10 for the birds, insisting that there is better "magic" (for lack of a better word) in a fresh killed bird than a fat store bought bird.
The Asians LOVE silkies, and refer to them as "Black Chicken" and they do not mean a chicken with black plumage, but black skin, bones & blood.
These birds have special health properties to these people.

Someone    (KIM ! ! !  )  SHOULD TRY CROSSING A CORNISH WITH A SILKIE !!!!!!!!!
I cannot imagine what that hard feathered breed & the extremely soft fluff breed would hatch out, but it would be hysterically fun !

As far as breeds............"designer" breeds such as legbars & Bielefelders are all the rage.
The Serema & bantam world has exploded !
And smaller seems to be the rage.
You can have 2-3X as many  or raise them in a very small area.

 Hope this gives you an idea.

I have to find it but apparently one of the hatcheries sells giant silkies that were bred for the meat and size

 

[Espresso]

If you're close enough to Graham I can hook you up but you need to slaughter and pluck yourself.

Awesome. I am for it. I am in Tacoma. Sorta. Puyallup Reservation. It's a bit of a drive but not an unwelcome one.

 

[Frenchcuffs13]

There is 4 kinds of "Chicken" people I have noticed:

The first person is (usually) a man & wife who both work, and have 5-10 year old kids, and these people usually want breakfast,.and all colors of eggs (and multicolored hens) are what attracts them.
They care little about SOP, 'TYPE' or lineage.
The kids around here LOVE 1) olive eggers, 2) easter eggers and 3) "chocolate eggers"
I have 1 woman who comes every spring & begs to buy my most "colorful" hens, regardless of their breed or even their age.
She wants "yard eye candy"

These folks are about 80% of my sales.

2nd person(s) are the same as above but kids want into 4-H or FFA and looking for pedigree birds to raise & show.
Alot are interested in the smaller breeds at first until their kids grow, and then the kids can get into anything from heavy chickens, to ducks, geese & turkeys.
I get about 2-3 families in this category, per year.

3rd person(s) is raising at least 1, if not quite a few, heritage & "purebred" breeds of poultry, game birds and water fowl, and shows, sells, etc.
These people are far & few.
I get about 10% of my biz here, in egg & chick sales, depending on how hard I advertise.

And the 4th customer is the person(s) who can barely speak English, and are usually Latino or Asian, and they want Roosters & hens to eat.
They even pay $10 for the birds, insisting that there is better "magic" (for lack of a better word) in a fresh killed bird than a fat store bought bird.
The Asians LOVE silkies, and refer to them as "Black Chicken" and they do not mean a chicken with black plumage, but black skin, bones & blood.
These birds have special health properties to these people.

Someone (KIM ! ! !

) SHOULD TRY CROSSING A CORNISH WITH A SILKIE !!!!!!!!!
I cannot imagine what that hard feathered breed & the extremely soft fluff breed would hatch out, but it would be hysterically fun !

As far as breeds............"designer" breeds such as legbars & Bielefelders are all the rage.
The Serema & bantam world has exploded !
And smaller seems to be the rage.
You can have 2-3X as many or raise them in a very small area.

Hope this gives you an idea.

I completely agree about the types and like the way you describe them LOL. I'd fall into the 1st catagory, minus the kids. We had a cancer scare which prompted us to keep chickens. We are also avid gardeners, so it was a no brainer. Love the eye candy bit haha!

 

[clawstar]

Anyone ever try the "no-crow-collars"???