Washingtonians

[Chubby Chicken]

When I was on the road (a trucker) no matter where in the country I happened to be you could always tell the drivers from Washington when it started to rain. The other guys would take off for their trucks and the Washingtonians would keep on jawing. Some could say we didn't know enough to come outta the rain but I always thought we were so use to it we just didn't notice it right away.

When I was 8 we moved from Seattle to Cocoa Beach, Fla. Mom used to get stink eye from the neighbors for letting us play during monsoons. Warm rain, NW kids dream come true.

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

We've almost done it! Chickens are spoken for except for the Catdance Silkies!

Anyone?????

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote:

GET DUCKS!

Are there any certain kind that you feel stick closer to home?

Well, we have several kinds, but since they have such a large pasture, and a pond, they don't bother to fly away. Also, we have a SERIOUS electric fence to keep predators out, so this is like Hotel Med for them. We don't clip wings, they just stay - free room and board and great accommodations!

Quote:
They have an electric fence round the pasture to keep predators out. Aerial predators don't attack the adult ducks and we keep the smaller ones in brooders until they are too big for Hawks.

They have shelters, but they never use them. Even in mid winter with heavy snowfalls, we see them out side, covered in snow, or on the pond (til it freezes).

We left the electric fence off by mistake the other day, and a fox got in and ate some babies, then tried to eat an adult, but she was too big for him. He hasn't been back!

 

[FlyRobinFly]

By the skin on my teeth. I've been home for 30 minutes. I got all four jobs done, and didn't really bleed that much. Most important lesson learned:

Bring water-proof shoes to the west side of the state.

Cflaming just dropped my beautiful new coop off. Actually, we literally dropped it on our friend who came over to help us move it. Luckily she is okay, and that was a well built coop, the only evidence of the crash was an imprint in the wire!

Thank you again so much Dave, for everything, wet feet and marathon builds included!

 

[itsren]

I becoming obsessed with ducks. Please talk me out of it. The poo is worse than chickens, right? I am going to have a free chicken coop soon, that would make a really good duck house.

Ha! Ha! This last weekend, I was totally messing with my husband because Del's has baby ducks (and, oh my gosh, they are SO CUTE!). I sent him a text, told him they had baby ducks, and ducks would do the job I mistakenly thought the chickens would do... eat slugs. Then I told him not to worry, I didn't buy one. Then I texted "(that doesn't mean I didn't buy more than one)". Well, I knew he would totally not approve, but I had to push some buttons, make him wonder, or rather - worry, because he's fun to mess with.

And, no, I didn't buy any ducks.

His sister-in-law, who has raised ducks came over the next day and we got to laughing about my little prank. She told me we really don't want ducks in our small back yard because it is harder to clean up. She said it's very slimy. I have to keep my yard cleaned up because my kids are hyper and roll around in the grass a lot - and we only have so much space. I clean up chicken poop daily, and if it isn't raining, wash down poop smears on the grass so they can play safely. That would possibly be very difficult with ducks.

Don't know if that will dissuade you or not...

But, the enabler in me thinks - you have a much bigger yard. You might have space to get away with it. It seemed you had plenty of yard space for your chickens to free-range, plus room for your child to play. Not that I'm enabling you at all.

 

[Chickielady]

Our waste disposal site takes my dead birds. As long as they are wrapped up tight and is not over 30 lbs.

Almost everything here goes up to the waste to energy plant where they burn everything and send out toxic chemicals to infect and mutate the cells of the people who live in the surrounding area................................

Oh so true !
Maybe they feel that by burning stuff, they are killing the germs ?

 

[Chickielady]

So scary and such an awful event CL. I hope you wake up to find them in your trap one morning. I would hate to have a constant threat like that hanging over my coops.

I have decided not to live with this threat.
As we have so many pens, it is impossible to secure them all with hardware wire (or poultry netting)
It is not impossible, just cannot afford to do it all.
If we had just 2-3 pens it would be different.
So that is my plan, to downscale even farther and then secure the pens so not even a sparrow can get in.
That will take time, but building the house is our #1 priority for funds to go into.

 

[Chickielady]

That's what I want to raise next year. Also in a chicken tractor. I know I'd have to make a sturdy one - not a PVC chicken tractor that my pullets hang out in during the day. I want to build a meat-bird chicken tractor that has a coop attached. When we get to that point, do you sell fertilized eggs? We want to incubate those - so the kids can watch the entire process. For us, chicken raising chickens is part education for our kids, part reducing our carbon footprint, part providing food for the family.

I was raising Dark Cornish cock over a pen of white rocks for that purpose.
But it got to the point that it costs more to feed your flock that it is to just buy the meaties from a big hatchery & have them delivered.
We get the "Bar-be-Que Special" from Murray McMurray.
We have one batch now at 4 weeks old & another batch coming on July 20th...which is butcher week for the first batch.
They are delicious !

 

[Chickielady]

I have to say that I loved pioneer farm and northwest trek when I lived over there. I graduated high school from EATONVILLE in 1992. nwtrek was only 4 miles from my house and so was kapowsin lake. both were a fun bike ride in the summer. in high school as part of my landscaping class we raised salmon from eggs. They were at pioneer farm where we raised them. AH the memories. time for my 20 year reunion this august. I can't wait.

I have class mates contacting my sister on FB looking for me to come to our 40th class reunion this summer.

40th !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Chickielady]

Silly girly why does ya think palstique garbage bags is black?
How doo ya thinks minks gets so smart ?

Cause they only eat the smart parts!

You can be spaked ya know !!!