Washingtonians

[Chickielady]

Now that is quite the mental picture, Teresa!

X 2 !!!!!!!!! I cannot bring myself to touch the things with my bare fingers !

 

[Chickielady]

Two consumer alerts, of a sort:
1. I had a bale of what was supposedly orchard grass hay bought for me at Kipperts in Tumwater (south of the airport)- it cost the same as at Del's but was not nearly orchard grass per se; there was a lot of alfalfa in it, of the Very Old Not Mowed Last Year Mostly Stem sort of alfalfa, which means I can't give it to the chickens as greenery/bedding/toys, and, worse, it had one whole flake that was nothing but pigweed. Not only not orchard grass: barely hay.
2. Gordon's in Yelm has Holy Mole pepper plants (allegedly; I bought one at least partly because I want to see if it is) for $8.99 for a single plant. It's an admission on their part that they no longer are a store for serious gardeners and have turned into a tourist trap and place for people with more money than sense.
Also: my sister just put four yearling steers on pasture to sell as grass fed beef in late September or early October. Price is estimated as $3 a pound + cut and wrap + kill fee and may be a little less. Maybe. Smallest legal order she can take is a quarter but you can split with others on your own.
This is run of the animal: you get some of everything. It is dry-aged and handled with respect at all stages of the cycle.

And it is really really good ! The burger is very very lean, leaner than store bought "extra lean" !! Yummy !!!

 

[Chickielady]

Honey I'm home ! ! ! We had a pretty good trip. Got rained on pretty bad the first couple days but Saturday turned out beautiful. We were joined by jbear. This was our first trip together. Jen and our DD hit it off well and became wing girlz to the rails. We made it home in one piece. Although I had 2 break downs and it looks like I may be in need of a new transaxle and engine. Jbear's video on FB may explain part of what happened.

Quincy can now say he has been to the top of Coliseum.
I will refrain from posting more but just gotta put the mutt on here.

We were worried about ya sitting in the aweful rain all week end ! Looks like you finally had a bit of good weather !

 

[Chickielady]

Hello WA peeps.
Stopping by to say hi. BUSY weekend around here. Spent every daylight hour, working on our coop! Still have things to do (chicken door, enclosed run, painting exterior) but last night was first night the girls slept out in their new house. I went peeking this morning, to check on them and all were huddled on the floor. LOL Guess we need to work on getting up to the roost. I'm sure with time.

Here is a couple interior pictures. What do you think?


Ventilation: (hard to see but covered in hardware cloth)


BEAUTIFUL day today. ENJOY!!!!

Lookin great !!

 

[Chickielady]

So now there is the 500 posts I made in an attempt to catch up on the 500 pages of thread I had missed !
I finished the breeding pen yesterday for the Crele Chanteclers..........the Crele Cockerel & Partridge pullet will go in there first for egg gathering, then later 2 Wellsummer pullets will go in with the Crele Cockerel for egg collection & see what I get from the 2 pairings.

Working my rear off here...3 loads of wash on the line already.
had an egg buyer stop by in a huge tall Dodge Ram pick up & when she left she ran over the hav-A-Heart trap & smashed it to a pancake & just kept going.
Wonder if she noticed it at all ?
Darn, those things are expensive & DH is NOT HAPPY about it at all !

 

[FirewifeJess]

I need to pick your brains. My girls are 10.5 weeks old right now and at about 8.5 weeks we switched them from Purina Start & Grow to Scratch & Peck Grower. I *feel* (but don't really have much proof other than a few feathers) like that feed isn't good for them but I also don't want to switch again. It's supposed to be the best right?!?! I mean...it's whole grains, non-GMO, locally grown and milled, yada yada. But lately in the morning there have been a TON of feathers in the bottom of the coop, and today I found this spot on the grass!:

Those are Martha's BUM feathers!

Is she molting? She's only 10 weeks old! Is molting normal at this age? Could it be the feed? Lack of nutrition? They ALWAYS have clean water with ACV in it. They ALWAYS have ample feed available to them, even at night thusfar. They ALWAYS spend time outside each day too! What could cause such a large loss of feathers? A predator swooped down and goosed her?

What do you think? She isn't injured by the way; no limping, no sore spots, no missing feather spots that I can tell...but those are definintely her bum feathers on the grass.

 

[FirewifeJess]

This is what my kids are doing right now

This is what my birds are doing right now

 

[Chickielady]

"Phoenix" as some of you have seen him before, sired 3 chicks, one of which is going in my breeding pen to mate with Wellsummers to improve the vibrant Crele coloration....I am excited about this project !

 

[FirewifeJess]

"Phoenix" as some of you have seen him before, sired 3 chicks, one of which is going in my breeding pen to mate with Wellsummers to improve the vibrant Crele coloration....I am excited about this project !

What a handsome boy! Glad you're having fun with your project

 

[Chickielady]

I need to pick your brains. My girls are 10.5 weeks old right now and at about 8.5 weeks we switched them from Purina Start & Grow to Scratch & Peck Grower. I *feel* (but don't really have much proof other than a few feathers) like that feed isn't good for them but I also don't want to switch again. It's supposed to be the best right?!?! I mean...it's whole grains, non-GMO, locally grown and milled, yada yada. But lately in the morning there have been a TON of feathers in the bottom of the coop, and today I found this spot on the grass!:

Those are Martha's BUM feathers!

Is she molting? She's only 10 weeks old! Is molting normal at this age? Could it be the feed? Lack of nutrition? They ALWAYS have clean water with ACV in it. They ALWAYS have ample feed available to them, even at night thusfar. They ALWAYS spend time outside each day too! What could cause such a large loss of feathers? A predator swooped down and goosed her?

What do you think? She isn't injured by the way; no limping, no sore spots, no missing feather spots that I can tell...but those are definintely her bum feathers on the grass.

Maybe this will help:

http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/library/lvstk2/mf2308.pdf