Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[pennyJo1960]

Looking for Ameraucana fertile eggs in Vancouver WA/PDX area. Anyone?

Hope you find them but wanted to say

 

[ochochicas]

Quote: What is a U of A blue bird? Do you have any pictures of him?

 

[pennyJo1960]

@ leighti

ok here are a few closeups

 

[Chickielady]

HA HA HA for the day...................................

How do you get a squirrel down from a tree? Stand on the ground and act like a nut.

sounds like a plan !

 

[Chickielady]

Do any of you use a large pen (i.e. No free ranging)? We want to let our girls out into the yard, but not until we fence in a portion of it. So they are in a 10x10 pen during the day. There are only 3 of them. The floor is grass (well, was grass, now mostly dirt and poop). How do you keep it clean?! Do you poop scoop every day? Do you use sand or bedding? I'm attempting deep litter inside the coop itself, but the pen is getting kinda gross.

And sorry for the newbie questions. I'm learning on the job!

This is the outside looking in, and notice the NO DIG/NO CLIMB.the green 1" square plastic fencing on the right pen is the chick pen, for growing out birds 2 weeks and up.


Corner of the chick pen to right

NO DIG detail, just get a roll of 6' fence, some tin snips, and a lawn chair & sit down and strip the 6' roll into 2 foot strips....hard on the hands if you are a tad arthritic, and the rolls will spring up and scratch you bad if you let them, then you get to sit in the dirt & fold over the cut squares all along the bottom of your pen, and the top is a 2" strip of the same fence...fold that over or use small zip ties to string it all along the top (especially the wooden posts that critters love to climb)
We also have bird net over the top, and this has worked really well so far.

 

[Chickielady]

I have nets over pens to keep my birds in. 6 foot isn't anything to one that can fly a bit. They will flap climb their way up the chainlink if they aren't good flyers.

I have a few Ameraucana girls who will go up to the top of the pasture, and RUN DOWN full bore, then throw it into turbo charge (wings added) flapping & running and then the mighty scream, YAK YAK YAK YAK...and over the fence they go!

LOL

They do not do this going up hill, but they can fly over going down hill, across the garden & gain some breeze & UP into a fir tree....no lie !

She ends up at least 20 feet up in the tree !

I clipped her wings.

 

[Chickielady]

I did the same, there is chicken wire mine is 8 ft tall
but put a wire top to keep the birds from flying out. We are plotting a new run
of pcv pipe and wire curving the pipe over half circle style.
I use shavings 7.49 a bale at dels mine are white as pine is more expensive

Not my shelters, but done by a woman in Oregon, nonetheless I saved her pics as I think this is an awesome design...and the birds have a blast !
There are down sides, like when the sun comes out it can get very hot, very fast....but imagine how much poultry would love to be in the light, not a dark coop...and dry, and have dirt, they love dry dirt! The hook seen below winds the wire fast, with a battery powered drill gun ! I think you can get one of these hooks at HD in the concrete finisher area, for tying rebar.


And here is another, but has a dark tarp, but a great fast cheap shelter ! This one is for livestock, but I am posting these so you can use your imagination !
Dig in the wire to prevent predation under (do the no dig I showed earlier) and wire & plastic on both ends...what an awesome coop!






Edited to add: The big wire over the top in all these photos is HOG WIRE panels, get them at Del's or most any Farm & Feed Store.

 

[Chickielady]

Caught my 8 month old cockerel sparring with his own shadow! Hilarious!

Try a mirror !
One day when we were moving, we had various full sized mirrors , dresser mirrors....and paintings leaning against the house...and we heard this bump, bump, bump...and went outside to see my Bantam Cochin cockerel just kicking butt on his reflection, to the point he had bloodied his spur buds....

He was a favorite, the cutest and the most cuddly little guy you'e ever see !

 

[Chickielady]

I haven't been on for awhile I have a few questions I need advice on. I had a hen go broody and I don't have a rooster, I managed to find five fertile eggs from a neighbor and put them under her along with the two dozen she ha slated and stolen from the other girls! To make a long story short none hatched so late night I slipped five chicks from the feed store under her and she took right to them.

My question is I have heard their is a good chance she will continue to go broody in the future so I was thinking of getting a rooster. What breed would you recommend and where would you suggest I look? I really don't like the idea of the poultry auction because of the chance of disease. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. She is a white Plymouth Rock if it matters.

Thanks
Ken

Guy in Chehalis area breeds to die for White plymouth rocks, and he will no doubt be at the upcoming Junebug Jubilee, and no doubt he probably will win again !

His birds are AWESOME!!

 

[Chickielady]

I do not any experience with roosters... but you can check with ChickenHermit, she was looking to give away a rooster...

From ChickenHermit "One of my bantam cochin roos might be a particularly good fit- he's extremely calm, totally fine being picked up and held, and is really, really gorgeous. He's a partridge, so he's all red and black, and almost exactly a year old."

Remember, a Bantam Fowl may have a seriously hard time hitting "the mark" as their body is so much smaller...they may try, but come up quite a bit short on the target....