Washingtonians

[blueducklings]

Quote:

CONGRATS and welcome to the mommy club.

 

[VelvettFog]

Speckled Sussex

At the Stevenson show my wife saw a Speckled Sussex and really liked the coloring and pattern. Anyone have any I can buy?


VF

 

[Imp]

Quote:
What is your insulation like? When we took out the lowered ceiling in the living room and dining room, we found that the walls were not insulated for those two feet. Once we insulated it, our energy bill was about a quarter of what it had been.

Hey JB,

I get the same letter. But I am probably more wasteful than others. Plus my house is marginally insulated. Built in 1957. I think they are comparing me to the empty house across the street.

Russ

 

[Totalcolour]

Chick Sizes

I was checking my babies and it was interesting to see how the growth rates varied among breeds and cross breeds at the same age (18 wks).

#1 - The Speckled Sussex are the biggest.

#2 - The BLRW/Polish cockerels are next, with the RLW Cornish cockerels

#3 - The BLRW/Ameruacas are almost as big as the #2, but I can't tell the sex of those yet (Ameraucanas ALWAYS stump me!) These are really stunning in coloration. The Cornish hens are the same size, not what I hoped (Hatchery stock)

#4 - The BLRW/Polish hens are smallish, and of course the pure Polish are the smallest of all.

Wonder how much of a change there will be over the next few months.

 

[Totalcolour]

I'm sure folks are wondering WHY I am crossing Polish with the BLRW. Well, I like the "shape" of the Polish, and for their size, they lay a pretty decent egg. I like the crest, but it's too big and hard to manage in our climate.

So far, I'm REALLY happy with the cross. The crest is more like a Mohawk, so they can see better and they don't need as much care. The birds are somewhat bigger than the pure Polish, but they have retained the body shape, and the coloration from the BLRW has made some really pretty birds. Well, two are pure black, but I have a really gorgeous BLRW/Polish with the BLR coloring from dad, and one really pretty gold laced - both I think are pullets.

Also a cool looking splash cockerel - sadly DH says he must go. Oh well.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
fer cryin' out loud CR, you aren't LEAVING us are you? oh don't

yeah, sometimes a few more smilies would make your printed words sweeter and easier to swallow

takes a bit of getting used to; the newer ones on the list might take a thing or two the wrong way, until they get to know you

stick around a bit, ok ?

x2....don't leave us.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
I changed them twice a day the first couple of days, then once a day and now they're on newspaper and aspen shavings like the big kids. I'm hoping I can put them all in one box and switch back and forth to make cleaning easier, but that may not happen before I get their hoop house made on the unused part of the front porch. That's going to be all pvc pipe, greenhouse plastic and cage wire with a loose linoleum floor and one of the plastic bins made into a coop. Framing the door is going to be an SOB, my least favorite job in the world, but oh, well, has to be done.

Tip:
Get a few bags of playsand at Home Dept, and use it for your brooder bedding.
#1) Chicks need sand to digest..
and better yet:
#2) Sand is non flammable, and oh so warm for the babies to get in...
no worries that the heat lamp will ignite anything...
#3) Sift the sand with a cat box spoon, to collect doo doos.
#4) the sand will naturally dry the poops, and so it will not remain gooey & get everywhere.........ick.
Just the way I do it~~

CL also helped me with this. This is how I do it and makes things SOOOOOO much cleaner and nicer. I also have a thick layer of sand on the floors, absorbs heat and it is easy to clean.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
What is your insulation like? When we took out the lowered ceiling in the living room and dining room, we found that the walls were not insulated for those two feet. Once we insulated it, our energy bill was about a quarter of what it had been.

This house was built in 1991. It was supposed to be heated by gas. The builder came in and built some of these houses with Cadet electric space heaters. Because of that they had to increase the insulation in the house to meet the different code.

But it is possible to add more. It is also possible that the builder cheated with insulating the walls. I am just not sure that I want to remove sheetrock to find out. Over the years DH has had to do things in the attic spaces, and it has lightly compacted some of the insulation. So I will prioritize some more insulation. I need to replace the sky lights. There are much better options now.

We have maximum insulation- we are real farmers, and live in a MO-beel home, one of the ones the BPA subsidized in the early 1990s, with r-45 walls and R-90 roof insulation and triple-paned argon-filled Low E windows. Unfortunately, we have lost almost all the insulating qualities of the windows on the weather side of the house, so part of our temperature management is covering those windows against radiant heat loss with two or three layer drapes (all of them made by me, and rather eccentric in design, to say the least). But the BIGGEST energy savings was to shut down the electric forced air furnace and use nothing but oil-filled radiant heaters for winter heating. The next biggest was getting a front-loading washer, with additional savings on winter drying costs when we got a high-extraction one last year and cut dryer times for towels to 45 minutes.

We've had episodes of sudden high electrical usage over the years. The most traumatic was when the water heater was about ready to blow, and was leaking heated water at about a gallon an hour. Then there was the episode of the dining-room slider having a one-inch air gap when the wind was out of the south. That needs a real fix because it's just taped closed at the moment and makes all of my outside chores about 100 feet further round trip than they need to be. Twice the high bill was a result of a TV or CRT monitor nearing the end of its useful life and not actually turning off.

Your aquarium pumps might be at fault, too- which is a problem, because they're not covered by Energy Saver laws and it's hard to find out where to get cheaper ones.

Of course the really fun thing lately, speaking of pumps, was the primary pipe in the well nearly rusting through so that it leaking about half the water it moved. That is on a separate meter, and went from a maximum of $20 a month in the summer to $100. I used to be able to hear when stuff like that was going wrong (my side of the bed is directly over the waterline into the house) , but between traffic noise and a replumb of the waterlines that put me at the end of the line, I can't anymore.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote:
That's why I'm doing Spitz and Brabanters. Those crests are cool, but they do make the Polish more vulnerable.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Tip:
Get a few bags of playsand at Home Dept, and use it for your brooder bedding.
#1) Chicks need sand to digest..
and better yet:
#2) Sand is non flammable, and oh so warm for the babies to get in...
no worries that the heat lamp will ignite anything...
#3) Sift the sand with a cat box spoon, to collect doo doos.
#4) the sand will naturally dry the poops, and so it will not remain gooey & get everywhere.........ick.
Just the way I do it~~

CL also helped me with this. This is how I do it and makes things SOOOOOO much cleaner and nicer. I also have a thick layer of sand on the floors, absorbs heat and it is easy to clean.

Sand in the poop trays under roosts is excellent!
I sift the sand every 2 days or so depending on how many birds are in each coop...keeps the coops very clean, and the sandy poops go in a bucket & out to the compost.

Dirty poop tray:

Cleaned poop tray:

Oh, and I do not have ladder roosts anymore, got tired of stooping.
My poop trays are on the nest boxes, so I do not have to crawl around under roosts cleaning the floor.
I am too old for that !!