Washingtonians

[hallerlake]

Hi everyone =) the chicks are getting bigger at our house! More pics!

Here is the Appenzeller Spitzhauben from Hallerlake - isn't she a cutie???


Here are all of Blueberry's babies - Blackberry (the other mama) laid her egg and left the chicks over a week ago.


The Easter Eggers are from Ogress' flock. Pretty sure at least two, if not three of these are boys.


Here is Juno with her three chicks, yesterday when she was still hanging with them.
Juno laid her second egg today, and this evening she wanted nothing to do with the chicks. She's done.


The Blue Copper Marans chick from cflaming - pretty sure she is a girl! Beautiful coloring!


Here is the mystery bantam chick, still tiny and adorable =) The adorable Jap bantam =)



The two bantams <3


Juno and the Blue Copper Marans chick. Isn't she getting big?

Brabanters pullet and cockerel.


Brabanters cockerel - he is so sweet! And still not crowing too loud - so he's not been kicked out yet.


Foxglove - one of our EEs


thank you for looking! =)

Blondie, your cockerel's father, was a sweetheart.

 

[hallerlake]

7 Week old india blue black shoulder peacock

When do they change color?

 

[TerrorBird]

Though I completely missed the rat discussion, I still feel that I must mention the .22 as a fantastic solution. It's target practice and pest control at the same time!

 

[chickenjane82]

Rat question for you all...

Our neighborhood has had a rat problem for years. We live on a cliff overlooking the valley. Because of this, we end up with quite a few animal problems (raccoon, rat, owl, opossum, gopher, bobcat, coyote, etc.). Even though this is residential neighborhood, with so much unusable and overgrown land on the steep cliff below us, there's just no keeping them away.

Because of our kids, we don't set out bait blocks. We'll use sticky traps around the compost bins, but, since our bins are overflowing with chicken shavings we no longer have room to compost food, so the rats seem to be leaving our bins alone.

A few different neighbors are seeing rats again. One neighbor set out bait blocks. I guess the rats drug the bait blocks to another neighbor's yard, where his dogs ate part of them and got very sick. Now that neighbor is afraid of setting out bait blocks.

I've been looking online for different solutions. There is this heavy duty bait box available at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Protecta-HEAV...8&qid=1343740293&sr=8-1&keywords=rat+bait+box

Has anyone used this before? If yes, can the rats drag the bait blocks out of the box?

I just use the old snap traps. They are cheap and the rat/mouse is dead and the body is right there so you know it didnt die somewhere you dont want it rotting. Peanut butter works best, maybe you could smash some feed in it too...

 

[itsren]

Though I completely missed the rat discussion, I still feel that I must mention the .22 as a fantastic solution. It's target practice and pest control at the same time!

Darn! If only it were legal here.

I have a .22 that I won at an NWTF function, but I've never gotten a chance to use it.

 

[itsren]

I just use the old snap traps. They are cheap and the rat/mouse is dead and the body is right there so you know it didnt die somewhere you dont want it rotting. Peanut butter works best, maybe you could smash some feed in it too...

I may try that again. Someone else posted putting the peanut butter beneath the food plate. We haven't tried that. So far, snap traps haven't caught anything. I wonder if the rats "wise up" - because glue traps used to work very well. Now we don't catch anything on them. So... either they are not coming to our yard, or they know what to avoid.

The yards they have been spotted in are the yards that have wild bird seed out. We don't want to attract wild birds to our yard because of the chickens, so we no longer set seed out. My chicken feed seems to be pretty secure - no holes in a metal garbage can yet.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Though I completely missed the rat discussion, I still feel that I must mention the .22 as a fantastic solution. It's target practice and pest control at the same time!

While that is a good option. Many live where that solution just won't work for one reason or another. Also one must spend time setting there waiting. With traps it is automatique and then one would have more BYC time.

 

[Sudsy Chick]

dawng, wow, gorgeous collection!

The bird at the top is spectacular.

Thank you! Hallerlake (here on the board) has beautiful Appenzeller Spitzhaubens and Brabanters, I'm lucky to know her

And cflaming has the pretty BC Marans and Ogress the EEs and kanake (whom I haven't seen on here forever) gave me the eggs that Foxglove came from.

Dawn, your birds are just gorgeous! They must be such a fun flock to watch.

Thank you, they really are. My favorite part is the Brabanters walk around the yard beeping/honking very quietly...it's really cute!

Quote:
Aw, that's good to know! This morning he almost had a real crow, much louder than the last couple weeks but still not as loud as my girls when they want a nest box

 

[Teva]

Teva, do you have adult peafowl, too? Are they much different to raise than chickens? I've always thought of peacocks as such a mysterious bird.

They are a little different. They don't eat as much as chickens, that's for sure. And they can fly, so if you don't free range them, they have to be in a big covered (net) pen with roosts about 10ft high. Mine are free range. I don't have a covered pen. (They hang out in the carport when it rains.) Thankfully, they are trainable and no longer roost on the vehicles. William also likes to hang out on top of the dog house, which is under the eave of our garage, when it rains. Kate just hangs out on tree branches. (William would too, but he has a broken wing that was not fixable).

They mate only once a year, and that's the only time she lays eggs. She doesn't leave her nest except for maybe 10 minutes daily to quickly grab a bite to eat. They nest on the ground so the eggs very succeptable to predators.

Peacocks molt after mating. I think he only has three tail feathers left now-he looks like he got attacked! (We have a great feather collection, though!)

They eat sweet COB, I mix it with black oil sunflower seeds, and they love the Layena. I guess they are getting enough protein from free-range (they are supposed to eat turkey&game feed, which has alot more protein than Layena, but mine just don't like it.)

The peachicks are the same as chicks, with heat lamps and degrees drop down by 10 each week. I had them in a brooder for the first 5 weeks, and now they are in my mini coop. I have the lamp in there still for the cool nights, but they are mostly feathered out. This summer I've spent way too much time away from home to turn them into pets. They are very skiddish and I'm having a hard time getting them to eat out of my hand, or even come to me at all. Right now I am trying to get them to eat more than just medicated chick starter. They like the COB and sunflower seeds, but I can't get them to eat it out of my hand yet.

It's been a great learning experience, that's for sure!

 

[Teva]

When do they change color?

They are starting to feather out on the wings and the back, the rest I think will take another 6 months or so. They will be completely feathered out by winter. By next late spring I think the boys will have their full tail feathers - I'm not sure, it might take 2 years for those (this is my first time with chicks) since they don't mate until that age.