Washingtonians

[SadieSue]

Here are a few pics of my Silkie babies. I took them with my phone so they aren't great. ADN the little buggars weren't too happy about having their pictures taken.
These two are the fluffiest and the biggest.



These next two I call the twins, and they are still working on being fluffier. Lol!



They are so cute and I find mysefl sitting down to watch and forgetting how much time is going by!

Have a great weekend everyone!

What cuties! I am loving the silkie babies!

 

[SadieSue]

Well, this website answered one of the questions lurking in my mind... free-range or chicken tractor? Looks like there's going to be a need for a chicken tractor. I plant way too many ornamentals that are toxic to chickens. I also need to go weed the greenhouse! Darn it. My birds have been out there with chickweed in there.

http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

Edited to add... good thing I pulled the flats out when the birds started flying and landing on them. I had 2-1/2 flats of bleeding hearts in there.

Oooops. Meant "Love Lies Bleeding" (Amaranthus caudatus). Whew! *Might* have been safe afterall. There are other "Amaranthus" on the toxic list.

Criminy Sakes. That is one long list of toxic plants! I've seen it before but hadn't checked it for a while. The chickens ate most everything green we had in the yard last year including DH's little Azalea which is on the toxic list. I knew Rhodies were toxic but that Azalea was gone before I realized it was on the list too. Landscapers are pulling it up today anyway. Then we'll see what is left to plant in the beds later. I have a list of herbs and plants that are actually beneficial to chickens. Interestingly, one of the things you want to plant for it's natural insect repellant and medicinal qualities for chickens is Sage, which is also on this toxic list. Hmm...

I have a little herb garden planted on the deck this year because I was planning on using a lot of cuttings in the coop this summer then drying the rest for use year round.

 

[VelvettFog]

My free-range area has wild sage - and the birds don't eat it .. they do however occasionally lay an egg under the cover of the sage bush.

 

[ChristineR]

Well, just great. I have azaleas, rhodies, daffodills, lupines, sweet peas, columbine, hydrangea all over the place here. To include bleeding hearts that grow wild all over my 8 acres. The birds (all free range) seem to be fine around them - I'm not about to re-landscape my whole yard. Also, I have leftover onions and garlic growing in my 'garden' (I didn't plant anything this year because it's become their dirt bathtub) and they are leaving those alone, too. I had no idea they weren't supposed to eat onions or cabbage/kale! I was just told not to feed them onions or garlic because it makes the eggs taste funny! So, I guess that chickens are smart enough to leave these plants alone?

A lot of animals won't eat toxic plants unless they are starving. Not all, though. For instance, tansy is toxic to both horses and cows. Cows will eat it, horses generally won't (unless they have nothing else to eat).

I'm not sure about chickens, but it sounds like they naturally stay away from the bad stuff.

 

[Ogress]

Mine eat the berries off the Daphne in the fall. They LOVE them and fight over them. I have to strip the plant of its berries when I see them. Luckily they won't touch the St John's wort plant nor the berries. There is a big patch of it growing wild in my yard. I wonder if you gave some to a depressed chicken, would it help it like it does for people? (St. John's Wort contains a chemical very similar to those found in tri-cyclic antidepressants) They also eat marsh marigold, and there is not a darn thing I can do about it since it is all over my property. I have not noticed any ill effects. They leave my chives, onions and garlic alone.

I had read somewhere a few years back that the posted list came from a reptile website, and therefore some of the plants on it may not be toxic to chickens. Several of those ingredients you will find in natural wormers to give to your flock.

 

[RonB]

Hey VelvettFog

Ya might want to CHANGE your mind about getting WHITE EGG layers

I know you have said you can't keep up with your customers demands for eggs.

I just got this months Backyard Poultry Magazine. Heres one for ya. Back in 1979 at the University of Missouri a White Leghorn laid 371 eggs in 363 days

AND another one laid an egg for 448 straight days!

what Brown layer has done that

I have one White Leghorn that is 2 1/2 yrs. old and still lays 5 -6 eggs a week! I can tell its hers because she lays the Biggest egg in my flock
White leghorns start laying at about 20 weeks and are heat tolerant. They don't eat as much as my other girls either!!!!!!!

Better buy yourself a dozen before everyone else gets them

 

[itsren]

Criminy Sakes. That is one long list of toxic plants!

That's what I thought, too! Seems almost too long, huh?

I pulled up the chickweed in the greenhouse. Then I put a bowl of plain yogurt mixed with oats and hung a suet feeder filled with lettuce leaves out there for them. They're walking around it, as far away from it as they can get, and acting like an alien invaded their territory.

I cut up a strawberry and gave half to my little chair-bound Brahma. BIG mistake! She absolutely freaked out and ended up getting her bad leg caught in the leghole of her chair.

We decided we better not try anything that's not green while she's chair-bound. Now she has lettuce to play with and is happily flipping that all over my living room.

 

[VelvettFog]

Hey VelvettFog

Ya might want to CHANGE your mind about getting WHITE EGG layers

I know you have said you can't keep up with your customers demands for eggs.

I just got this months Backyard Poultry Magazine. Heres one for ya. Back in 1979 at the University of Missouri a White Leghorn laid 371 eggs in 363 days

AND another one laid an egg for 448 straight days!

what Brown layer has done that

I have one White Leghorn that is 2 1/2 yrs. old and still lays 5 -6 eggs a week! I can tell its hers because she lays the Biggest egg in my flock
White leghorns start laying at about 20 weeks and are heat tolerant. They don't eat as much as my other girls either!!!!!!!

Better buy yourself a dozen before everyone else gets them

Yanno Ron, I'm tempted. But I really think my customers would say .. hey -- what are these white eggs? Maybe I should get one or two, and just call them "really light tan" I could put one or two in each carton, just like I do with my blue eggs. Hmmm....

Where did you say you lived again?

 

[Chickielady]

Yes = how could I forget about that - Chickenace with candlelabras and sequined chicken saddle etc.

Chicken-nache !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most people here probably have never seen the splendid Liberace !

 

[Chickielady]

CL the hen is a wheaton and boys are not that color. Remember the one you got for me?

No...not really, but I was referring to an mutt EE cockerel I had that was red-ish like that, kinda...kind of a cross between that hen's coloration and red pyle.
he was gorgeous, but useless being a mutt-EE cockerel.
I think the one cock bird I picked up for you from Illia was a Blue Copper, wasn't it ?
I really paid little attention to him.