Washingtonians

[FirewifeJess]

Wow! Never been to eastern WA. I like it!

 

[mikeyb]

Another 6 egg day and it looks as if one of the Eng. Orp has started to lay. An egg with no shell. So I should be seeing 5 - 7 eggs/day in another week or so.

I have a question: why is it some of you have to lure your chickens into the run at night?
My gals free range from about noon to sundown. They are all in the run and coop b4 sundown (about 20-30 min) and by sundown they're all in the coop and on their roost.
I go out after sundown, close and lock the door of the run and I'm done for the day. (after I check water food supply for the am )
Which reminds me. I need to get busy.

 

[KMHunter]

Another 6 egg day and it looks as if one of the Eng. Orp has started to lay. An egg with no shell. So I should be seeing 5 - 7 eggs/day in another week or so.

I have a question: why is it some of you have to lure your chickens into the run at night?
My gals free range from about noon to sundown. They are all in the run and coop b4 sundown (about 20-30 min) and by sundown they're all in the coop and on their roost.
I go out after sundown, close and lock the door of the run and I'm done for the day. (after I check water food supply for the am )
Which reminds me. I need to get busy.

I usually need to go in before sundown and I have had some bad experiences with predation in the last year and a half. So my chickens don't get to free range unless I am out there with them. That is why I have given up most of my normal afternoon evening activities this spring and summer. So I can be home to let them out and lock them up. I have even had predators come and take them when I have come in for a little while. I didn't have any issues for the first 2 years, then wham! I don't take those chances anymore. just my experience.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Another 6 egg day and it looks as if one of the Eng. Orp has started to lay. An egg with no shell. So I should be seeing 5 - 7 eggs/day in another week or so.

I have a question: why is it some of you have to lure  your chickens into the run at night?
My gals free range from about noon to sundown. They are all in the run and coop b4 sundown (about 20-30 min) and by sundown they're all in the coop and on their roost.
I go out after sundown, close and lock the door of the run and I'm done for the day. (after I check water food supply for the am )
Which reminds me. I need to get busy.
 

Me too. I've never had to wrangle chickens, they just go home to bed at sundown.

 

[Ogress]

What size eggs do Faverolles lay? I have wanted some since the first time I have seen them! Next spring I am going to get more BCM's and after that I want Faverolles. My 2 BCM's (one from zgoatlady, and one from cowgirlgrace) both lay the BIGGEST eggs of all my hens, so we all fight over those eggs at breakfast time. The people who buy our eggs request more of them as well. My Cuckoo Marans also lay big eggs, but not as big as the BCM's - sometimes their eggs don't fit in the carton. Usually all my Marans are aloof, but when they are broody, it is like someone has given them valium - so mellow. Nothing can bother them then.

I need my neighbor to get her chickens out of my coop. At least 2 of them have started crowing. I gave her a coop last year that I paid someone over $800 to build for me, but she is afraid her neighbors will complain.If she is not going to use it, I would rather donate it to someone who will. I need to put my foot down and tell her to come get her chickens or I will put them up on craigs-list along with some of my excess roosters.

 

[Ogress]

Another 6 egg day and it looks as if one of the Eng. Orp has started to lay. An egg with no shell. So I should be seeing 5 - 7 eggs/day in another week or so.

I have a question: why is it some of you have to lure your chickens into the run at night?
My gals free range from about noon to sundown. They are all in the run and coop b4 sundown (about 20-30 min) and by sundown they're all in the coop and on their roost.
I go out after sundown, close and lock the door of the run and I'm done for the day. (after I check water food supply for the am )
Which reminds me. I need to get busy.

Mine almost always head in to the coop themselves before sundown - all but one. She heads in after sundown. Silly New Hampshire, she sits on the steps and watches over the yard until almost all of the light has gone. She seems to like her "me" time. I never have to round her up though, just need to look out my office window and see she is still onthat step! She will be in soon.

I discovered that if I am out working in the yard past dark, most of the hens will come out too and forage near where I am working. They don't go near the lantern. When they see me pack up my tools, they hed back to the hen house and I close it up.

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: Mine will stay out later if I am out there too. Mine will all put themselves to bed. I just get them back into the run before I go in the house.

 

[Justahannah]

Welcome to the thread Justahannah!

I'm a neighbor - living in University Place just on the border of U.P. and Lakewood. How many chickens do you have? What kind?

Wow this thread moves fast! I love UP (Titlow Park is still a favorite haunt), we rented an apartment there for about a year before buying a place on the Hilltop...I hope your girl comes home, have you been checking the lost and found/pets sections on Craigslist and the Humane Society? Sometimes they get exotics in, so it might be worth a try.

We have four 2.5 month old pullets...started with 8 chicks from someone on Craigslist back in May, a few were sickly and all five of the survivors ended up roos, so they're gone now. We just picked up four pullets from Raincreek Pottery and Poultry in Port Orchard last week, they have a really nice set up and I wish I had gone there when I was starting out...but now I know. We picked out two buff sussex, a golden star, and a Rhode Island white...we're still working on names, I figure they'll tell us what they want to be called once they're completely settled in and I've bribed them into being my friends with mealworms . One of the sussex (far left) is kind of a mutant and has really non-standard markings, but I think she's gorgeous and since I won't be breeding, it doesn't matter .

 

[TerrorBird]

Wow this thread moves fast! I love UP (Titlow Park is still a favorite haunt), we rented an apartment there for about a year before buying a place on the Hilltop...I hope your girl comes home, have you been checking the lost and found/pets sections on Craigslist and the Humane Society? Sometimes they get exotics in, so it might be worth a try.

We have four 2.5 month old pullets...started with 8 chicks from someone on Craigslist back in May, a few were sickly and all five of the survivors ended up roos, so they're gone now. We just picked up four pullets from Raincreek Pottery and Poultry in Port Orchard last week, they have a really nice set up and I wish I had gone there when I was starting out...but now I know. We picked out two buff sussex, a golden star, and a Rhode Island white...we're still working on names, I figure they'll tell us what they want to be called once they're completely settled in and I've bribed them into being my friends with mealworms . One of the sussex (far left) is kind of a mutant and has really non-standard markings, but I think she's gorgeous and since I won't be breeding, it doesn't matter .

She's very pretty. Sometimes the 'mutants' are the best ones!

 

[TerrorBird]

Another 6 egg day and it looks as if one of the Eng. Orp has started to lay. An egg with no shell. So I should be seeing 5 - 7 eggs/day in another week or so.

I have a question: why is it some of you have to lure your chickens into the run at night?
My gals free range from about noon to sundown. They are all in the run and coop b4 sundown (about 20-30 min) and by sundown they're all in the coop and on their roost.
I go out after sundown, close and lock the door of the run and I'm done for the day. (after I check water food supply for the am )
Which reminds me. I need to get busy.

My problem is that my chickens all like the small home-made ladders we've installed in their house. When the young ones moved to the chicken house from my house, they had half of the house to themselves and became very attached to the ladder on that side. That's where they want to sleep every night, but two of the older girls like that ladder too. The young ones can't cope with the loss of their ladder and so they run to the tree just outside of the pen. If their ladder is unoccupied when they go in for the night, they settle in for the night. The older girls just keep switching which ladders they roost on. They keep playing "Musical Ladders" (instead of Chairs) and it's starting to drive me nuts. I got my Belgians when they were about seven weeks old and I think they were allowed to sleep in trees because they go straight to a tree when it's time to go to bed. I can't break them of the habit, but I can just grab them from the tree and toss them in the pen. They pace at the door because they want to get back to the tree. They're making me go mad!