Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Smokerbill]

@Smokerbill gave me a nice big clump of chives. They are already in the garden bed. Hopefully I will have my own chives from now on. BIG thank you to Bill.

You are very welcome!

 

[Grandmas Coop]

DH planted pole beans a month ago, but something is eating the sprouts. Very annoying. I think we have an organic insecticide, but I've never had great luck with it.

mice, put out a mouse bait box

 

[ValerieJ]

mice, put out a mouse bait box

Well, we never even considered that. Good idea! Thanks.

 

[The Rinaest Rina]

Wool hen project! I've eight baby cochin bantams and I've become very leery of heat lamps. Our heating pad broke years ago and they're expensive, otherwise I would make a mama hen brooding pad cave.
So far this is working really well, but I will add more cardboard to the sides for better insulation/less drafts. Basically I took a wool scarf I had knitted, cut it into strips, sewed them onto the thin cardboard of a pasta box, and made the little cave in the corner of their brooder box.

Last night they were happy next to warm mason jars wrapped in wool, but after the water cools it tends to draw heat away from the chicks so these jars are empty now. I put a baggie of warm rice under the length of wool scarf on the floor of the WH. That taught them quickly that that is where they are to keep warm now.
I absolutely loved getting to tuck them into it like a real hen. If they continue to be happy with this method I think I will always do it.

 

[Smokerbill]

I picked a couple pounds of leaf lettuce from the garden this morning and had a big breakfast salad with the lettuce I couldn't fit into the refrigerator.

There's a lot tomato seeds sprouting out of the chicken run compost pile I put out by the garden. That made me think that I'd plant winter squash on top of the pile and see what happens.

Edited to add:

I went ahead and planted my butternut squash seeds on top of the compost pile. Hope it works! Another fun experiment...

 

[TeePants]

Im in Graham. I prefer to hatch in September because they will lay earlier than 9 months for me. Ive had silkies hatch and raised chicks in December. Don't care for that because of the freezing water issue.

I have to have the pens covered and wrapped because silkies will stand out in the rain and get soaked. It wets the crest so they can see. They dunk their heads in water as well.

Just chicks raised inside and put out, you'd have to get them acclimatized before leaving them out. That's much easier in warmer months than October/November. I did a New Years hatch a long one year with the incubator and couldn't get them adjusted to the temps until April. Long time to have them inside

Ah, yep, I read about how they stand in the rain, haha.

My plan was to have a full roof over the entire run and only turn them out to the whole yard on nice days when they’re supervised. Our neighbor refuses to keep her cat inside (which would be ok if we lived rural, but we are right off a major road and this cat has already lost a leg to a coyote).

Anyway - if there’s a barrier on two sides (one long one short) is that sufficient?

We can also just build the coop this summer, and order birds later in the year. Theres no rush if that would be easier on them. I was going to order one of those coop heating panels but I read a few reviews that said they caught fire??

 

[ValerieJ]

Ah, yep, I read about how they stand in the rain, haha.

My plan was to have a full roof over the entire run and only turn them out to the whole yard on nice days when they’re supervised. Our neighbor refuses to keep her cat inside (which would be ok if we lived rural, but we are right off a major road and this cat has already lost a leg to a coyote).

Anyway - if there’s a barrier on two sides (one long one short) is that sufficient?

We can also just build the coop this summer, and order birds later in the year. Theres no rush if that would be easier on them. I was going to order one of those coop heating panels but I read a few reviews that said they caught fire??

Poor cat!!!

I'm not sure I understood the barrier on two sides question, but I would definitely want my coop built before I got chickens. In fact, I brood my chicks in the coop once they are about a week old. I use a sweeter heater for them out there. I have also used panel heaters in the coop when I used to worry about the cold, then I learned that chickens, grown chickens, do just fine in the cold if they have shelter. They don't need heat. Chicks, of course, do.

I've never had a panel heater catch fire. That would be pretty devastating.

 

[TeePants]

Apologies! Let me doodle what I mean.

So I want the walls of the run to be 6ft, with an angled roof for additional headroom. The back side will be along a wood panel fence. The right side is where the coop will be located and will be mostly solid (except a 2ft high section at the bottom).

And yes, the coop will be built before we get any chicks regardless. I will be building it next month and we were planning on ordering chicks for the end of August at the earliest. I was saying that I could also just wait until next May.

Brooding them outside would be lovely. We don’t have a garage so they usually end up in my office - at least that’s what we did with the quail when we had them. Not my favorite arrangement and very smelly!

 

[Smokerbill]

My last chicks stayed inside for about 2 weeks, then it was out to the coop into the brooding side, look but don't touch the big chickens through the hardware cloth. A single 75 watt ceramic heat bulb hanging about 10 inches above the woodchips to keep them warm. And a light on a timer that comes on at 7am, off at 8pm. They are healthy and active.

Busy day today. Sold some scrap copper and aluminum in Centralia, dropped off a remote control at Staples for return to Amazon. Went to HomeDepot and got a refund for strawberry plants that didn't grow. Bought two sizes of multicolor zip ties at Walmart that I'll use on my chickens' legs for identification, ate at Taco Bell, went to an orthopedic appt for my hip, hit the bank and deposited my scrap metals check, and bought cheap chicken legs at the IGA. Cooking a pan of legs now. I was going to plant tomatoes too, but I don't think so. I've done enough for one day. LOL

 

[Hinotori]

DH planted pole beans a month ago, but something is eating the sprouts. Very annoying. I think we have an organic insecticide, but I've never had great luck with it.

Probably cutworms (moth caterpillars). Mom always planted out starts and wrapped the stem with a bit of newspaper because cutworms are such an issue there.