Washingtonians

[hallerlake]

Quote:
Well since i live in the city i have to say nope I have never had bear issues...

I'd guess the honey would be in more danger then the chickens but since it is fall and they are stocking up fat to hibernate I'd watch the bird pens too. Maybe you can get some rubber pellet shots for a shotgun? The Fish/wildlife re-locators tend to shoot rubber pellets at the bears who get to close to humans. after a couple times they learn people = loud noise and some bruises..

Or you could stock the freezer

Don't be too sure of that. Last year a bear was sighted about three blocks from me, and I'm only about a mile north of you.

 

[cheryl98117]

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I saw that one. But it just seems so narow... Like they would being squeezed into a sardine can... I'm picky about the amount of space that they have... Right now I'm not happy with the 4sq feet per bird in the coop... It just seems SO very small...

Anyways, I am off to bed. Must drag my butt out of bed early tomorrow... Ugg... But on the up side... My unkle is giving me a 10 x 12' shed in the next couple of weeks...

 

[Rainwolf]

Quote:
I saw that one. But it just seems so narow... Like they would being squeezed into a sardine can... I'm picky about the amount of space that they have... Right now I'm not happy with the 4sq feet per bird in the coop... It just seems SO very small...

Anyways, I am off to bed. Must drag my butt out of bed early tomorrow... Ugg... But on the up side... My unkle is giving me a 10 x 12' shed in the next couple of weeks...

Congrats on the shed! is it to become the new coop?

 

[Rainwolf]

Quote:
Well since i live in the city i have to say nope I have never had bear issues...

I'd guess the honey would be in more danger then the chickens but since it is fall and they are stocking up fat to hibernate I'd watch the bird pens too. Maybe you can get some rubber pellet shots for a shotgun? The Fish/wildlife re-locators tend to shoot rubber pellets at the bears who get to close to humans. after a couple times they learn people = loud noise and some bruises..

Or you could stock the freezer

Don't be too sure of that. Last year a bear was sighted about three blocks from me, and I'm only about a mile north of you.

yes but you have the lake area.. I'm next to a shopping mall... sometimes a mile can make a huge difference.

 

[cheryl98117]

Quote:
I saw that one. But it just seems so narow... Like they would being squeezed into a sardine can... I'm picky about the amount of space that they have... Right now I'm not happy with the 4sq feet per bird in the coop... It just seems SO very small...

Anyways, I am off to bed. Must drag my butt out of bed early tomorrow... Ugg... But on the up side... My unkle is giving me a 10 x 12' shed in the next couple of weeks...

Congrats on the shed! is it to become the new coop?

Ok I lied... Im not off to bed just yet. lol

No the shed wont be the new coop. It will be hay and yard tool storage.
I will be building a coop for the Ameraucanas. I ordered chicken coops for dummies last night. lol So we will see what I come up with. I know I want to build in sections, and just put them all up at once. What design I use, I have no clue yet... But it wont be aby bigger than 8x10 with storage space included.

 

[Rainwolf]

Quote:
Congrats on the shed! is it to become the new coop?

Ok I lied... Im not off to bed just yet. lol

No the shed wont be the new coop. It will be hay and yard tool storage.
I will be building a coop for the Ameraucanas. I ordered chicken coops for dummies last night. lol So we will see what I come up with. I know I want to build in sections, and just put them all up at once. What design I use, I have no clue yet... But it wont be aby bigger than 8x10 with storage space included.

Check out my coop page

I am building a section'd coop granted its 4x12 but the design is easy to change
I'll try and add more photos soon since I have added the left section to the center. I made mine to try and be 2 person movable and able to move in a pickup.

 

[ultasol]

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Isn't that the OPPOSITE of immunity? You're using a drug to supposedly fight off the disease, not the flock. . .

Thus the bird itself has no clue how to actually prepare its body to fight sickness.

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Of course I've got some for you too!!

Most of the vaccines are iradiated or other wise injured virus, which makes them very weak, but allows the bird's immunal system a chance to build immunity towards the bug..and the bug in weakened so cannot harm the birds.
Do you vaccinate ?
Do you get a fly shot evey year ?
I did not get one last year despite the commotion of the Mexican flu (H1N1) swine flu from mexico...but maybe I will this year...Cheryl already had a flu this season, maybe it will be bad this year ?

To Ilia: Do you know how measles and mumps was almost entirely eliminated? How polio, which used to be the #1 cause of disability and a big killer of children, was eliminated? By vaccinating a majority of the children, even when one child got sick the rest had antigens so that their lymphocytes (white blood cells) recognized the disease and was able to fight it off. The outbreaks of whooping cough in CA, and other almost eradicated diseases of childhood have occurred in populations of schoolchildren that had a significant number of unvaccinated individuals.

By the way, I just did a paper on the supposed autism and vaccine link. There is NO hard scientific evidence to back that up... not even in studies comparing vaccination records with the number of those children who have autism and visa versa.

If you trade, sell, show, or swap birds, or have anything other than a closed flock, vaccination can be a prudent way to protect your birds health.

 

[ultasol]

If anyone is interested in a more in depth description of how a body gains immunity, how immune cells go from 'naive' to able to recognize a disease and fight it off I will do so. To expect that a bird, or a person, exposed to a virulent strain of disease should just be able to have a strong enough immune system to fight it off is absurd.

We're not talking about a common flu which can be easily fought off by all but the most immunosuppressed individuals. We are talking about some serious, virulent, and often deadly diseases. I am not saying we all need to vaccinate, but if you do bring in new birds, go to swaps, etc it might be wise.

 

[PitterPatterPalace]

Quote:
Don't be too sure of that. Last year a bear was sighted about three blocks from me, and I'm only about a mile north of you.

yes but you have the lake area.. I'm next to a shopping mall... sometimes a mile can make a huge difference.

Back in 2005 or so, a bear made it as far south as the UW. Not a likely problem for us, considering the huge amount of unsecured garbage cans, etc, but still a possibility.

 

[PitterPatterPalace]

Regarding the multistrain influenza vaccine, we pretty well have to get one in the health care field considering the large amounts of patients we see.

Just had to get mine yesterday. I'm always punky afterwards. Went down for a nap at 630pm and got up at 5am.

Ugh, and I'm still pooped today.