Washingtonians

[JennsPeeps]

Quote:
Geez, I know! My poor girls were so unhappy earlier this week when it was over 90 - panting and holding wings out from their bodies.

Someone posted a picture of a plastic garbage can on its side with ice packs inside of it. I may try that for my girls.

 

[herbandteas]

Quote:
Geez, I know! My poor girls were so unhappy earlier this week when it was over 90 - panting and holding wings out from their bodies.

Someone posted a picture of a plastic garbage can on its side with ice packs inside of it. I may try that for my girls.

That does sound like a good idea using the garbage can. I use 2 liter bottles with water in with each of my rabbits to keep them cool.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

I installed an osscilating fan in the coop for my ladies. The fan is on a timer so it comes on at 9:00 am and goes off at 8:00 pm. The girls seem to really like it, they will go stand in front of the fan for a while then go out side for a while.

Will be thinkin of ya'll this weekend. We will be on the oregon coats where it is supposed to be in the mid 70's. Dang that's just too perfect to be playing in the dunes.

 

[Drafthorsegal]

Have fun Iron... hehe I was thinking about how blissful you would be in all this heat too! The fan is a good idea. I might run an extension cord out and turn a fan on... even though that seems silly outside. I already moved the portable coup over to underneath the evergreens so they are in total shade.

I think, on a funnier note, my chickens have totally won my hubby over with their cuteness. He was lukewarm to the idea of getting them this year, but when I came home today, he had (of his own volition) built a free-standing roost for the RIRs that was big enough for all of them to 'all hang out together'. It was so touching.

 

[TurtleChick]

holy cow, our thread was on page 2! and no one's posted for a couple days... it's cuz we've all been running around enjoying the cooler weather, huh??? i know i have!

NOT looking forward to the extreme heat in the next week or so. grrrr. there's such thing as TOO hot (and too cold - like last winter!). i would like very much for it to be in the mid to high 70's for the rest of summer.... with a few rainy days mixed in - who's with me?????

hope everyone weathers the weather okay! our girls will be feasting on frozen watermelon (and other chilled-for-their-comfort fruits and veggies)! haha!

i don't know if i've mentioned...

anyone need a gorgeous blue orp roo??? neighbors aren't hating me yet... but he's getting louder all the time...... eep!

stay cool.

 

[Greg Richardson]

Chicken coop tour raises scratch for needy
Story Updated: Jul 25, 2009 at 10:11 AM PDT
By RACHEL PRITCHETT, Kitsap Sun
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/51698037.html


BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. (AP) - So this is what the recession has come to - a tour of chicken coops on Bainbridge Island.

It was no showcase of lavish estates or spectacular gardens. Instead, the island's recent "Tour de Coop!" was a starkly modest public look at eight of the island's backyard chicken coops.

Long symbols of strapped times, chickens and their coops are enduring symbols of self-reliance, the good earth and the promise of never going hungry as long as there is a scritch or scratch beyond the kitchen door.

Fittingly, proceeds from the tour will go toward Helpline House, which is weathering a 30 percent hike in demand over last year for the food and social services it offers. Last month, 320 families received sustenance from Helpline's food bank, up from 270 in June 2008 and 246 in 2007, according to Joanne Tews, Helpline's executive director.

"It's a weekly occurrence to have residents come in who said they never expected to be on the receiving end of Helpline. They had always been donors," Tews said.

Longtime islander and tour organizer Jo Ann Trick wanted to raise money and give visitors inspiration to grow their own chicks and eat local. Hence, the tour was hatched.

"It's easier than raising a dog," Trick said.

The purchase of a ticket for the tour gave the holder a map of the coops located all over the island. After visiting the coops on their own, visitors were invited to meet up at Bay Hay for a party to toast the humble chicken.

Tour-goers were able to glimpse a myriad of birds from Americanas to Aracaunas, and Delawares to New Hampshires. And the coops were just as varied.

Claudia McKinstry's coop for 20 was built intentionally crooked, by a group of fine woodworkers.

"You look at it, and you can't see it immediately. It starts shifting on you," said McKinstry, who loves chickens so much she paints them, and her works are often displayed on the island.

When not posing, her chickens produce eggs for the family and for sale, and manure for her expansive garden.

"So I use every bit of it," she said.

The tour lineup also included a coop called "the chicken palace" aside a 1901 farmhouse off Old Mill Road. Owners Tami Puu and Maurice Emery admitted to Trick they got carried away in embellishing plans for what was supposed to be a modest coop for 10.

Jill and Brian Arlt of Day Road showcased their movable, bottomless coop, called a tractor in coop culture.

Moving it around the yard, the chickens trim fresh vegetation and leave rich soil nutrients behind. When vacation time comes around the coop conveniently fits in the back of a pickup so the couple can take their chickens to friends to be watched.

Architect Stephen Gibson used recycled doors and windows to build his Weaver Road coop. His brood of five give up three eggs a day.

One broiler-producing coop was featured. A Madison Avenue farm run by Jeff Krueger and Russ Berg produced 200 chickens for neighbors last year.

But most coop owners allow their feathery wards to live out their days far from the gallows.

"Our point is that we will have an old chicken's home," Gibson said.

"They go on welfare and die of old age," McKinstry said.

Organizer Trick says recession or no recession, she's planning to make the island's Tour de Coop! an annual event.

After all, there are as many as 400 of them on the island.

 

[crazychickenluver]

Hello All;

I am new here and am located in Belfair between Bremerton and Shelton. I started my flock this year and am addicted!!! I have 1 RIR, 3 buff Orphingtons and 3 hens that I have no idea what they are because they were given to me. Then I got an aracauna Roo that addedd to the fun. Then addedd a buff roo and a barred rock. Figured I was done until yesterday. My son wanted a aracauna hen so I got her. Went to farmland to buy chick food and ended up leaving with a turkin, 2 cuckoo marans, and 2 black cochins. Whew! I think I better stop or get a bigger coop!!! (ok so I am already working on building a bigger coop )

I am still hoping to find a Black Copper Maran and a splash Maran and maybe the blue marans....wow good thing I lve on 2 acres!!!!


Anyway nice to meet all of you and I look forward to getting new ideas etc.

 

[weaveagarden]

Hello to you newbies. I just started myself in the last couple of months.

crazychickenluver I have visited Belfair often when I have taken my Girl Scout Troop to St Albans Camp near there.

I want some Marens next year as well. Not nearly as lucky with the acreage, so I will have to keep myself in check.

Glad to meet you all.

 

[AnnesChicks]

Shout out to the new members! This site is so helpful, everything I know about chickens I learned here. They are so easy. Today I made a mush of almost sour milk, stale ricecakes, fresh corn kernels and soaked layer pellets-oh my they acted like a bunch of feathered hogs at a trough. I swear I heard a couple of them burb when it was all gone.

I read the post about the chickens winning over your DH with their cuteness, same here. My husband thought I was nuts to get chickens (not the first time nor will it be the last time) now we race each other to get out to collect the eggs and check on our fat girls. Our eight hens are averaging 5-6 eggs a day, in spite of the heat today was a 7 egg day. My son & his wife, my mom and dad and our dogs are also enjoying the bounty, once you taste fresh eggs you are hooked.

 

[crazychickenluver]

Ok, seriously I am

laughing. So I called my mom to tell her about the new babies

(just some history I am a divorced survivor of domestic violence with two kids and am currently living with my parents.) So as I was telling my mom about them she said for me to make sur that we upgrade the coop so all our ladies are very happy. She then said to me that she wanted me to go find some guinea hens.

I thad to crack up because I thought she was going to kill me when I added our new chickies to the bunch, now she wans the guineas!!! Wow our flock is really growing.


On a side note I was in Costco the other day and they have a large rubbermade type shed 4x4x8 with a floor. I was thinking of purchasing it and turning it into a coop for the ladies. It has windows and a nice thick floor(no rats) does anyone else think this may work. I really do not have anyone to build a coop and what they are in now works but I am afraid I want something nicer for them.