Washingtonians

[SweetSilver]

What a great day we had! I had a friend and her 3 kids over, and my sister and her 5 kids over...along with me and my 3 kids. The big kids had fun playing in the creek while the little kids took naps. The chicks spent the majority of the day outside and even gave me a bit of a stress when I simply *couldn't* get the little boogers back into the coop before leaving for my kids' Tae Kwon Do lessons! They went out at 1pm and were not ready to go back in at 4:45; I kept catching them and putting them in the door and by the time I caught a couple more the original ones had hopped out again! Sigh. When we got back from TKD at 5:50 they were all huddled together under the ramp and nobody ran away, they all just stood there waiting for me to put them back inside. Goofy girls! I hated leaving them in the uncovered run but just prayed that no hawks would come along during the one hour I happened to be away! I will have to work at getting them back inside the coop long before I have to leave from now on. or really convince DH it's time to secure the run FINALLY!

Best way I have found herding chickens is have treats in a can that make noise when you shake it. Start off feeding them in your run with that noise. I use bird seed as one of my treats and they remember that noise. I have changed containers many times didn't seem to matter the container it's the noise along with the word treats. Then after they get programmed to the noise when they are free ranging call out treats, shake your container, those greedy birds follow you right into their run. LOL!

HERE CHICKCHICKCHICKCHICKCHICK CHICKEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Brings them every time. Of course, you don't have to shout embarrassingly loud as I do. You must have raisins or frozen corn or something like that for a while for them to learn it. Now they come when call--always. I say it when I bring them a load of weeds from the garden. They come so reliably the I can trick them and lock them in. But, don't abuse it too much. Even if they come without the treat, give it to them anyway as often as possible because they did what you wanted.

 

[SweetSilver]

So I have read alot of the pasted post I missed... I have seen a bunch of you are posting about composting. I have to say I have never composted before... Thought about it but never got around to it... Can anyone tell me how long it takes straw n chicken poo to break down and what is the smell factor if any? I have had chickens over a year I should probably get on the ball with composting for my garden

The smell depends a lot on how much litter you use. The more litter, the less smell, but also the longer it will take to break down. If it's dry, like from the covered coop, you'll want to wet it down. Dry litter and poo take a while to start absorbing water. If you do deep litter, you can clear it out in the fall and let it get rained on for a month or so, until it's wet to the core, then it's best covered after that. However, I am just as likely to drop it straight on the garden then and skip the compost. My dh adds some to the worm bin--worms love chicken poo.

Straw and poo will take a season to break down. The best size pile is about 5 feet in diameter. Larger than that, you risk overheating the pile and losing some of it's nutrient value. Smaller, and you risk not heating up enough and it will not break down as well, and the edges will sprout. we don't turn ours, but then we don't expect a smooth, even compost. Sticks and junk don't bother us, and it's a lot less work.

 

[LovemyBabies]

HERE CHICKCHICKCHICKCHICKCHICK CHICKEEEEEEEEE!!!!

Brings them every time. Of course, you don't have to shout embarrassingly loud as I do. You must have raisins or frozen corn or something like that for a while for them to learn it. Now they come when call--always. I say it when I bring them a load of weeds from the garden. They come so reliably the I can trick them and lock them in. But, don't abuse it too much. Even if they come without the treat, give it to them anyway as often as possible because they did what you wanted.

hahahaha ours is BABIESSSSS! -- they all come a running... well minus the ones who refuse to have much "people" contact...lol... but everyone else sure does...lol

 

[Chickielady]

VERY NICE! ! ! I wish I had a tiny bit as much talent as you. Heck I can't even draw water out of the tap with out messing it up!

You have your own talent, dude !!!

 

[Chickielady]

or The Knack, BTO, The CARS, Foreigner

All the good stuff !

 

[Chickielady]

I guess I am guilty as charged.
See All that what dots go where never made any sense to me and furthermore never made me any better electrician, mechanic or welder!

It is just easier to read , if there is proper pauses & indentations.
My daughter got on me about it.
She said it was impossible to read the little type when all the sentences run end to end...easy to loose your place.
So, typing this way is easier to read than a big BLOCK of written text.
Your posts are fine to read !

 

[Chickielady]

WOW What a surprise when I looked out the window this morning to see we had a pretty good frost. Check of the thermo shows it got down to 28* last night.

FYI Seems once again one of us is facing what I feel is a pretty serious med issue. I am not at liberty to discuss who or what. While I would really like to I am respecting their wishes.
So I am just going to ask that we keep this person in our THOUGHTS and send positive energy their way!

28 ??????????????????
It was 45 here & I was stressing....but the Tomatoes made it just fine~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Chickielady]

me too!

I moved up here January '93, It snowed from Red Bluff all the way to here. I had only seen snow 3 times in my life prior, and now I was driving my car alone with all my possessions either crammed in it or tied to it. What an interesting drive! I followed a plow from Red Bluff to the Oregon Border, and then I had to put on chains. Luckily one of my friends had baked me a pan of brownies, so I went car to car until I found someone who would take the brownies in exchange for putting the chains on. Then I couldn't understand why everyone was staying in the right lane, crawling along down the pass at 5 mph! That left lane was wide open, and it was mine. I zipped past the entire traffic jam and pulled over near Medford to remove the chains. This time a trucker stopped and removed them for me. I spent the night at a friends who lived in the mts west of Grants Pass. Early in the morning I stopped for gas, and the attendant was flirting with me. He noticed that there was snow covering my license plate. I told him to leave it, but he kicked it off, and when he saw the California plates, he went from being friendly to instant jerk with an attitude. I told him not to worry, I was moving to Washington.

I hate it when people blame Californians for all their ills. Most of us are nice people who are not out to change the laws. There are jerks in every state, so please stop blaming Californians for your issues.

This is the kind of giant block of print that I find is hard to read.
There is no paragraphs or indentations.....just sayin'.no offense Ogress, just using your post as an example of what I was talking about.
Pettec63 and KMoran do it also, among many others, and it is hard to read.
Maybe I am just OLD !!!!!!!!!

Course my daughter is the one who got on me about typing giant blocks of text with no paragraphs.

 

[Chickielady]

Have to go shoppin' and get all the stuff to make a HUGE Lasagna for Mother's Day.............Mom found out I had made 2 small lasganas yesterday, and she requested a big one for her day.
So...off I go shopping.
It really is super easy to make given the gluten free De Boles lasagna pasta, pre cooked, all ya do is build your layers, and I do my own sauce w/shrooms & fresh pork ground sausage & fresh spinach, basil & fennel seed.

YUMMY !!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk to ya all later ! Enjoy the SUN !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[pettec63]

Quote:
Oh yea!! No problem, last year I had Def Lepard on while I was milking, problem is I don't have a system loud enough to wake the dead! But a semi air horn?? They would be sitting bolt up right in bed at 1 am!! LOL!