Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[nuklee0]

I got two Americanas, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 1 Barred Rock and 1 Welsummer. All seems to be doing well so far in the brooder in my spare bath!  What about you?  They were very nice at the Grange- I work on the eastside, but it was my first trip there.  I'll likely have to go by whenever work takes me to Issaquah, just to see the latest gear and babies.  I nearly picked up a silkie, but stopped myself.  I love silkies.  Is that the feed store you use?  There is supposed to be a nice one in Burian too, but I've never been and don't usually drive that direction. I'm making an effort to "urban homestead" as much as my land allows.  I want goats next.  

Yes that's the closest feed store to me. You made good choices! I had to be good so I only got a couple Ameraucanas and a couple Welsummers. I'm very curious how these Ameraucanas will grow out though because everyone always says hatcheries don't breed true Ameraucanas and are most likely Easter eggers. I didn't see any silkies when I was there. I have quite a few silkies and I love them too. They're like puppies! We thought about goats too, but since we don't do goats milk and would only be using them as brush cutters, we decided to get pigs instead. Our first time raising pigs so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Gatewayto]

Thank you BGMatt - we do not have a CCA, Wife really wanted rooster for fertile eggs but was worry about the noise factor since we are in a neighborhood.

 

[BGMatt]

Pea comb is the most dominate, so IF you had a mixed breed in your wyandotte pen, it should hatch pea combs, not rose combs.
If you bred a rose comb to a pea comb, you'd get a cushion comb...that is how we make Chanteclers...
We had pea comb chanties sport out from cushion comb stock...so we bred rose comb into the pea comb to get them back to cushion comb.
Weird, huh ?
The other thing to remember is that many hatcheries really are not hatcheries, but Clearing Houses for hatched poultry, in other words, they buy lots of chicks & ducklings from others who just hatch those breeds, so in other words one of those birds may have come from an entirely diferent breeder than the other.

Some hatcheries actually do have their own breeding stock, but not all, and usually they do not keep ALL of their own breeding stock year to year.
It also goes to remember if someone got really nice _____________ chicks from a "hatchery" one year may not be the same provider the next year.
I have a list of those clearing houses somewhere...lost in my paperwork....

You're assuming a pea comb would be present somehow. She was likely just correcting that a Wyandotte has a Rose Comb, not a pea comb. It isn't unusual for Wyandottes (even in some show lines, let alone hatchery stuff) to occasionally be heterozygous Rose Comb, and eventually two recessive single comb genes line up and you get a single combed bird.

You're right on the Cushion Comb stuff, it works because of the two dominant genes, but isn't stable.

 

[Chickielady]

The three youngest are in a huge Rubbermaid tub. I was hoping to move them outside this week but I'll probably wait now. I have two or three of those large Rubbermaid tub's, I use them as temporary enclosures for my tortoises. So I could do that instead of the dog crate also. I just want to get the new coop built then put them all in it.
I am starting to learn that you should never throw any animal supplies away even if you don't have that animal anymore. It seems like I am always grabbing something from the other animal category when I need to Jerry rig something.

I have a few pieces of hardware cloth wire that I lay down on top to keep the popcorn chicken in the tubs..and the dog out, LOL
If you are short on space, they can be stacked as long as they all keep warm & get good enough ventilation (wire in between)

 

[Chickielady]

You're assuming a pea comb would be present somehow. She was likely just correcting that a Wyandotte has a Rose Comb, not a pea comb. It isn't unusual for Wyandottes (even in some show lines, let alone hatchery stuff) to occasionally be heterozygous Rose Comb, and eventually two recessive single comb genes line up and you get a single combed bird.

You're right on the Cushion Comb stuff, it works because of the two dominant genes, but isn't stable.

What was weird was getting a pea comb sport (on occasion) from good solid (Unhatchery stock) Chanteclers, very weird

 

[pennyJo1960]

What do you mean peanut butter in cheesecloth? Don't bears like peanut butter?

they could smell the peanut butter but when they got to close the ammonia burned their nostrils

 

[Chickielady]

they could smell the peanut butter but when they got to close the ammonia burned their nostrils

Wouldn't it work better to not attract them with peanut butter ?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Wouldn't it work better to not attract them with peanut butter ?

they always after garbage cans or the fence where we kept dogs

 

[Chickielady]

they always after garbage cans or the fence where we kept dogs

After the dog food ?
Not afraid of your dogs ?

 

[pennyJo1960]

After the dog food ?
Not afraid of your dogs ?

naw they wanted to eat the dogs