Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

Thought I would mention that we're planning a good size hatch of Lavender Orpingtons, Standard Blue Cochins, Bantam BBS Cochin/Frizzles - we're doing a fairly large hatch of each about 48 lavenders, 20+ of each Cochin type- we will be keeping a couple ourselves. They will hatch out next month- we're hoping for a fairly good hatch rate "crossing fingers" - must have my Frizzles lol- if anyone is interested in more info feel free to drop me a message - I hope to get them going tomorrow if not Friday at least-

Sooo tempting..I'll have to work out a way to justify
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lol
 
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lavender orpingtons.... right up there with blue faverolies and isabel leghorns!
I love the Lavenders - I rather like the Chocolate and Jubilee as well - not a big fan of mass spots, but for some reason the Jubilee is very pretty - maybe we'll get a couple later - We have a batch of British LAVS and Imported Show BBS Frizzle and White Standard Cochins coming in next week, bloodline papers to go along with them. We're super partial to the Cochins
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My mother the Standards, me the Bantam Frizzle/Cochins - totally forgot the Standards we're getting will possibly have Frizzles - WOOT!

So we'll have possibly Standard and Bantam Frizzles to offer
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Quote: My birds are doing OK. Almost all the pullets have died, so I'm glad I won't have to deal with culling much longer. There is one sick pullet left that I hope will be the last one to get Marek's. Ironically, her two sisters are half Australorp and seem to be immune to it. They are huge and both starting laying this week. I've read that other people have had hens get sick but it doesn't progress and they live a semi-productive life as "handicapped" hens. My birds get to fight it out until their quality of life is diminished and then I have to call it for them. Unfortunately, one of my favorite pullets suddenly went blind last week. The poor girl was totally able-bodied, but couldn't see a thing so she couldn't walk or eat. That was a tough day.

I'm sure my birds will continue to shed the virus until they die. I will not be able to rehome any adult birds, ever, but I can bring in new birds if I want to risk it. I brought in several mature hens last year (1 year and up). None of them got sick. Marek's is mainly a disease that infects baby birds. All of my new chicks are vaccinated and have to spend the first six weeks of life in the house in isolation. Unfortunately this means I don't get to handle them much, so they aren't as tame as I would like them to be.

Eventually life will return to normal, with the exception that I can't sell any of my birds. Marek's is blown by the wind, so building a coop in a different area probably wouldn't do any good. Also, the virus is everywhere around us...I just happened to get hit with a particularly virulent strain and my chicks were exposed to it suddenly after having no immunity. Fortunately I think the worst is over for me. I'm also trying to make the best out of a bad situation - I'm trying different vaccine protocols to see which one is most effective. Hopefully my bad experience can help other people in the future.
 
Putting together my waterer tonight...well at least the prototype. I have the base I'm cleaning and then I need to make sure the glass container makes a seal.
Painted an old feeder today so it's good as new, I'll put it together tomorrow.
As soon as we go to storage I'm picking up the dresser to make their coop (mostly for night time safety with a wired in "porch" in case they want air) and the matching night stand to make an incubator/brooder.
I'll post pics as I finish :)
 
xoxocammyxoxo howdy! We got 6 of ours from the Del's in Montesano and I had checked the other feed store just a block away but they were a bit more expensive and said they didn't lower the prices until they were at least three weeks old. We have a Silver Cuckoo Maran that I guess in going on two month old and the rest are 4-6 weeks. As I was saying I thought about getting an Australorp but why do you want to get rid of it? They get to be a good size with a good laying prospect. I just knew that I was going to get at least one RIR because my partner wanted one and from there it was up to me.
I'm amazed at how the larger pullets take care of the baby or Banty, but my poor Plymouth Barred Rock is often on her own. Perhaps she prefers to be or she's on the bottom of the pecking order for one reason or another. I was just curious about the black Australorp just in case we have to cull out one of them if it's a cockerel. Heck, the banty could be one for all I know. They don't give guarantees of them being all pullets but they said they requested them. The Bantam just said "Assorted Bantams", so I thought what the hell go for it! I hope all goes well for you.

Because my only reason for buying chicks that day was for 2 RIR but thanks to Dels 6 chick minimum, I had to get six. So I got the four RIR (just incase one is a cockerel) and the two black austrolorps just because. Having the two RIR rounds out our number at 8 which is all I wanted. The others are extra that cant stay here.
 

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