Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[justbugged]

How do you keep sphagnum moss alive? Unless it is buried under the grass, moss always seems to die around here. I have quite a few metal planters that I'd love to have lined with moss. So, I'd need to know how to grow more moss from whatever I can get my hands on.

The moss needs the conditions of the rain forest. It thrives in older, or old grow fir forests, and heavy rain conditions. It's hard to get it to grow in most other conditions. The same thing with huckleberries, the plants are often found growing out of old fir stumps, and in forests that have a lot of fallen fir trees. The soil in and around a fir is I believe very acidic. Plants like strawberries will tend to thrive under a fern. But then the plants like Sphagnum moss, and huckleberries seem to need a decaying fir tree to survive. Most of this has been only my observation of where I have found the moss, and huckleberries growing, but as far as I know there are no known commercial growing operations of either plant. All the moss that is sold in the Floral wholesale houses comes from the existing natural environment. It hasn't been farmed. So trying to grow it anywhere, but on the Olympic Peninsula would most likely be a lesson in futility.

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
Im in the same boat JB -- I think I have more than 60 and less than 80, but I'm not sure.
I suppose you have found as difficult as I have to get them chickens to line up and to count off. It would be so much easier to count them if they would line up in say rows of five.

 

[justbugged]

Quote: Well and of course that is that small problem.

 

[justbugged]

Quote: This means that I finally remember the story from last year or years correctly.

It's is amazing what a good nights sleep will do for the memory banks.

LOL Last night it was all I could do was recall that Cheryl was the person that had told the original story, but I could remember any of the details. Sleep is a very good thing.

 

[justbugged]

With all the quilting talk a few days ago, I decided to try a small project for my porch display. I may change the colors somewhat. Is there anything I should know about paper piecing? I don't have a sewing machine, I may adapt the design for needlepoint. There are stitches that coulld be used to produce different textures.

I have read quite a bit about paper piecing, but have yet to try it. I believe that paper piecing was originally designed for hand sewing, and like most quilting been adapted for the machine. So it should be very hard to find a YouTube video, or a written tutorial about how it's done. At this point, I am going to need to either see someone doing paper piecing in person, or take a class in it. I sometimes need to "feel" how something is done, to understand it completely. I can read about it, but so far it hasn't clicked into my brain as to how it is really done.

 

[justbugged]

I have a question for silkie keepers. What other breeds do well with silkies? I would like to have silkies as part of my flock. Right now I think I only have 2 pullets out of all the chicks (not counting the undersized GLW, who may end up culled even if it's a girl) and they are a salmon Faverolles and a spotted Sussex. If I were to add a couple more pullets to my flock in addition to 2 silkies, what breeds would be nice to silkies? Or will I just have to write off having silkies until someday when I can have 2 separate flocks? (I can't do that right now as I don't have the room and the city limits how many birds I can have.)

I wish the boys would start crowing soon so I can be certain and start weeding them out! The 2 girls are trying to avoid the fighting but the 3 Wyandottes are too rowdy.

Jennifer

I haven't had any problems with keeping my SQ Silkie in with the rest of the flock. I have a large variety of the rarer types of breeds. I must note that Miss Totoo isn't the smartest Silkie in the world. I think that due to her fluffy little head of Silkie feathers, that she doesn't have very good eyesight. I also don't think that she had ever been part of a normal flock, before she came to live with me last year. Still she manages to have a place in the flock. It took a long time before she was admitted into the flock though. The hatchery quality Silkies that I have had have never had any problems with being part of the flock.

You shouldn't have any out of the ordinary problems with keeping Silkies with any type of flock. I would only be concerned if you were to try to place very young Silkies in with a flock of older Jersey Giants or other extremely large fowl. Otherwise the bantams seem to know how to keep out of the way of the larger birds. The main issues will be the same as they would be anytime you integrate new member to a flock.

 

[VelvettFog]

Quote:
Im in the same boat JB -- I think I have more than 60 and less than 80, but I'm not sure.
I suppose you have found as difficult as I have to get them chickens to line up and to count off. It would be so much easier to count them if they would line up in say rows of five.

Yes.. I lean on my Army Training .. I yell .. FALL IN .. and they just look at me .. one or two will cluck .. then someone poops .. and they're all distracted again.

 

[justbugged]

Well, last night was day three of kicking one of my hens out of the nest box at night. She's acting broody at night, but during the day is out and about as normal. If she starts trying to really be broody, I'll just put her in with the silkies. The rooster in there will fix her up. He doesn't really care for her.

She's half silkie, was raised by a silkie, and used to go out of her way to pick on any silkie she could find. I was so glad when she got that chip off her shoulder a few months ago.

I've thought about getting rid of the rooster in the large fowl pen. We're getting a little rooster heavy in there. Duke still hasn't figured out what he's supposed to do with the girls at 7 months. He has started sharing treats and calling when I toss them out. He just started crowing Friday. It was a short ridiculous sound. He's been practicing every day now and it's getting better. He's got a sort of chirupy musical voice right now on all his calls that I rather like.

If Duke is a large fowl roo, then it is well within the range of normal for him to be just getting with the program at 7 months of age. I do know that I learned this when I had a couple of light Sussex roo's. I am told by his owner that Carlos is a wonderful roo to his ladies, and that he a very nice rooster with his people. I just wish could have kept his bother Harold.

 

[JennS]

Quote:
Thank you for the advice! I'm trying to get my flock put together while they're young. It's just being a total PITA. LOL

I wish there were a way to keep roosters from crowing. I just carried Jerk out to the garage to show him/her the coop for a motivational talk. I told Jerk that if it's a girl, it can live in the chicken palace. Otherwise we might be having a BBQ. Jerk is such a sweetie! No pecking, biting or anything when I carry it around. (The pronoun confusion is getting annoying.) It sits quietly on my arm, looks around and just enjoys being carried. Is this unusual for a rooster?

Jennifer

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
Im in the same boat JB -- I think I have more than 60 and less than 80, but I'm not sure.
I suppose you have found as difficult as I have to get them chickens to line up and to count off. It would be so much easier to count them if they would line up in say rows of five.

Yes.. I lean on my Army Training .. I yell .. FALL IN .. and they just look at me .. one or two will cluck .. then someone poops .. and they're all distracted again.

And here all I have been relying on was the idea that I can be an out of control crazy b***t, and the threat of going postal on them. They seem to have exactly the same reaction to my threat as your have to you. I have also proved that I can and will actually kill a chicken. Mine seem to think that they a protected under Obama Care.

(Has anyone been able to read through the whole thing and ever been able to tell if this isn't somehow true?)