Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[avidity]

I’m wondering how the chicken processing went. It ended up being a mostly lovely day here, I’m hoping you were able to stay dry.

It went great! It was a little wet toward the end, but we kept out of most of the rain.

Re the processing, it turns out the heads will come off fairly quick with a firm grip and a big knife. I think my first bird had some pain for a few moments, but it wasn't difficult to pick up the trick of it.

Went great did 5 birds in couple hours .. They where doing all alone the last 3 so it was great

We can't thank you enough for doing this for us!! We just finished up washing everything and stuck the lot in the fridge. Lawdy, that was a lot of work haha.

 

[pennyJo1960]

It went great! It was a little wet toward the end, but we kept out of most of the rain.

Re the processing, it turns out the heads will come off fairly quick with a firm grip and a big knife. I think my first bird had some pain for a few moments, but it wasn't difficult to pick up the trick of it.


We can't thank you enough for doing this for us!! We just finished up washing everything and stuck the lot in the fridge. Lawdy, that was a lot of work haha.

Funny we did it to eat. But it was allot fun having you both here

 

[TeePants]

Any hot tips on how to keep an A-frame quail pen dry? First rainy couple of days of the year here in Seattle, and it didn’t go well. We put a tarp over it, but the wood shavings got soaked anyway. Not promising, given how much rain we get.

I will say the tarp we got was too short to go all the way down the sides, but underneath the tarp we have a waterresistant somewhat translucent rainbow flag thing (our kids picked it out) that has worked for us over the summer since it’s hardly rained. Would a tarp that we can anchor to the ground work better?

 

[Hinotori]

My silkies get their pens wrapped with translucent greenhouse tarps to keep most of the rain out. It still drips from the roof and inside in the small gap between the roof tarp and side tarp. So there is a small edge on each side that gets wet a bit inside. Pens are 10x10 and have another pen on each side. End pens have roof tarp coming down the side so there isn't really much of a rain issue there.

I've never had an A frame coop. I couldn't figure out how to keep the silkies dry because they WILL stand in any rain to wet down their heads. So I never built one.

Maybe make a rain fly over it? That way the tarp comes out on the sides farther than the coop.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Our Tractor here we used metal panels over the top.. Yes Sikie can get wet but not too bad in it .. We did not take them out in downpours ..
Had to run into Chehalis pay our cellp hone bill this morning.

 

[TeePants]

I hear you. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that the A-frame would present a problem later with rain; I guess in Louisiana we had our chickens in an uncovered run and they did fine, but the quail do NOT seem to have the same tolerance.


Alternatively, is anyone here raising quail who’d be interested in a small flock (1 male, 6 female), one celadon layer and the rest celadon carriers? We hatched them at the beginning of May and they lay basically every day. My wonderful kids have decided they don’t like quail eggs anymore, and my fridge already has an entire shelf dedicated to the eggs that I cannot seem to give away fast enough.

We slaughtered all but one of the males (kept the most mild-mannered one) and decided raising them for meat isn’t really our thing either, though we are capable.

They have a…*unique* 3x5 A-frame they live in that can be moved & is tall enough for me to climb inside of, although I have not successfully arrived at a waterproofing solution.

I keep thinking about selling them on craigslist but I worry that they won’t be well cared for.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I would go to home depot the metal can be bent need people on either side could not need more than three to cover all of it

 

[TeePants]

I would go to home depot the metal can be bent need people on either side could not need more than three to cover all of it

Hmmm, I thought about doing that, but worried that it’d block too much light? sides are still open obviously. I think I’ll try a rain-fly first since that’s pretty easy to pull up on days where it’s not going to be a heavy rain; the little flag-tarp they have is fine for a drizzly day.

Beginning to regret not having them on wire, but they really enjoyed being on the ground all summer.

 

[CascadeQUAIL]

Looking to downsize my flock before winter, I'm in the Kelso area. Anyone in need of some NOVOgens, salmon favorelles, or some miscellaneous layers that I can let go for cheap?

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey there welcome to the state thread.. I am not having anything but chickens here sure hope you can find others here