Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Smokerbill]

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.

Cutworms? Are the beans getting cut off at ground level?

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.

You beat me to it! LOL

 

[TeePants]

Yay, gardening talk!

I still haven’t planted our garden beds yet; we dug out a terrace garden into the side of a hill with our neighbors last weekend. The soil here is clay and rocks and garbage, so we had to dig deep with pickaxes to make sure we could put in enough garden, topsoil and manure to compensate.

Meanwhile, our indoor worm farm got fruit flies. They get into the house every year but it means I need to dig out my little Terro traps and refill them with vinegar and dish soap.

Hilariously it also sprouted a potato?! Going to throw him in the garden and see how he does. Hoping to get the other half of the terraces dug out, finish the steps up the hillside to the meadow on the greenbelt we live by, and get dirt into all of them this weekend. And pick up some sod for the areas that were too steep to bother. The sod I’m hoping will keep the blackberries at bay; I like them but they’re invasive and the kids are constantly getting stuck in them.

I managed to grow peppers last year, it was so dang hot and humid here! I think I want to set up a hothouse alongside the coop to grow peppers year round if I can. Our parrots love them and I’m from Louisiana so most recipes I know involve peppers of some kind.

 

[FeatherAndBloom]

Hey everyone! Question for my locals (driving distance of Longview/Kelso) - has anyone used this forum for a rooster re-homing? I've got a very nice 14 week old white cockerel who I can't keep and don't personally use Facebook Marketplace or groups.

He was sold to me as a Delaware but he clearly is not, most likely some sort of mix with those mystery colors. He's been so good with the gals (all are his brooder mates) getting them to roost every night and being generally nice to them with some expected alpha control. No crowing yet, no aggression towards me though I've treated him as a roo since he was 4 weeks and stayed dominant. If I had the space and lived more rurally I would 100% keep him. Would prefer he doesn't immediately end up in a freezer. Anyone have local auction house experience? Is it easy?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts or if you want to adopt him

 

[ValerieJ]

Apologies! Let me doodle what I mean.

View attachment 4136256


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!

You need a warm enclosed area for the chicks outside, so you would need to add a couple walls to their space, but it would be a small space to begin with. Once they have feathers, it's not a problem anymore.

The reason I would say your coop will work in the short run is twofold. First, summer is coming. Second, I read that when large farms decided to completely open up both sides of their very large coops, the circulation of air was more important than the warmth. They had a huge change in the number of lost chickens in the winter. I don't have, nor have ever been to a large farm, so I can't imagine accepting any loss in the winter. Figure it out. Good grief. But for us small time chicken tenders, that is not such a problem.

Still, my best advice is to build a coop, bigger than you think you will ever need, and way more secure than you can imagine. Ask me how I know.

 

[ValerieJ]

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

I have a couple packages of chicken marking dealy-woppers, one spiral and the other just bands. You are welcome to them. I never did get around to marking chickens, and never will at this point.

 

[ValerieJ]

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.

Thanks. I don't think I've seen anything like that around here, but now I may go on a search.

 

[ValerieJ]

Cutworms? Are the beans getting cut off at ground level?

You beat me to it! LOL

The leaves are being eaten.

 

[Smokerbill]

Hey everyone! Question for my locals (driving distance of Longview/Kelso) - has anyone used this forum for a rooster re-homing? I've got a very nice 14 week old white cockerel who I can't keep and don't personally use Facebook Marketplace or groups.

He was sold to me as a Delaware but he clearly is not, most likely some sort of mix with those mystery colors. He's been so good with the gals (all are his brooder mates) getting them to roost every night and being generally nice to them with some expected alpha control. No crowing yet, no aggression towards me though I've treated him as a roo since he was 4 weeks and stayed dominant. If I had the space and lived more rurally I would 100% keep him. Would prefer he doesn't immediately end up in a freezer. Anyone have local auction house experience? Is it easy?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts or if you want to adopt him

That's a confident looking rooster. Nice. @pennyJo1960 has experience with the auction place up in Chehalis/Centralia, I think.

I already have at least two, maybe more young roosters. A couple of the pullet chicks I bought are about double the size of the others so I'm kind of suspicious they're roos.

 

[Smokerbill]

The leaves are being eaten.

Maybe it's some kind of worm that BT can control. I'm just guessing here. I bought some to kill cabbage worms but only used it a couple times.

 

[Smokerbill]

I have a couple packages of chicken marking dealy-woppers, one spiral and the other just bands. You are welcome to them. I never did get around to marking chickens, and never will at this point.

Thanks, but I'll stick with the zip ties I bought. I've been getting the teenage chickens used to me handling them a little so it shouldn't be a problem zip tying their legs with the color bands