Washingtonians

[FirewifeJess]

Quote: But are ya prepared to keep things goin ALL night???

Nah, I gotta be up before the kids! They are all awake no later than 6:45 every morning, so I gotz to get my beauty sleep or I'm a hot mess! BUT.....I still stay up late

Gotta have some time to decompress after busy days filled with sweet littles

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote: Scratch being basically cracked corn it tends to lower protein % which can cause lower egg production.

Thanks! I'll have to check my bag of Scratch & Peck scratch...I don't think it has ANY corn in it! Maybe it's a higher protein one? Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Rainwolf]

Hello Washington BYC folks

I was wondering if anyone here has Quail??????????  I have been offered 5 hens. Thing is I dont know much about quail so Im gonna dig through BYC for information to learn more about them and see if I am smart enough to take them on They are all laying eggs and I know I like quail eggs. So Im considering it. If not I might have 5 quail if someone wants them LOL Just wondering if anyone has them oe has any expierance with them ??

Thanks

 

What kind of quails?
I know a bit about them.
#1 rule tho is you will need to divide and make a bio secured area that the quails do not encounter any of the chicken or wild bird droppings/etc
They do not have any immunity to basic strains of viruses that chickens (and wild birds) can commonly carry.

 

[itsren]

She might not be mad, is she singing an egg song loudly and obnoxiously though? When someone is in the nest box, my Buff Orps, sometimes my GLW, and sometimes my Marans/EEx sit outside the box talking and screaming and complaining up a storm. I think it's normal; they are basically "encouraging" each other to lay! I hope you get a different colored egg today, how exciting!

Yes - very obnoxious!

No eggs today! Bummer. Rhodie didn't even lay. And I thought I was gonna get 3. Oh well, tomorrow is a new day.

 

[itsren]

No wonder out of the 5 laying hens I was only getting 2-3 eggs a day in the nest boxes. I was thinking someone must be holding out, hubby & I were starting to get annoyed I was feeding them & they weren't giving back. I even had to buy some store bought eggs. This is either Red or Lacey doing this or they both are sharing this hole in the grass, cause they both lay a light colored egg. They made a tunnel in the grass & sticker bushes. 10 eggs total in there.

Good thing you found their hiding spot! Now you know where to grab the eggs from. What a bummer they laid 10 with you knowing it.

 

[FirewifeJess]

JNB I don't know if this will help you, but The Chicken Chick has both chickens and quail. She might have some useful info on her wonderfully informative blog.
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/
About her quail coop:
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/search/label/quail coop

 

[JennS]

How do you all afford the water to have a garden? Do you have your own well?
The cost of water where I live is ridiculous. If I was to water the lawn and garden everyday, my water bill would be over $60/month. So when the dry comes, my shrubs get some water, the grass (otherwise known as weeds) turns brown and goes dormant which inturn mean I don't cut grass which saves me buku $$.
With that said, I am leaning towards a garden next year, but I will have to see when the time comes.

I think our water bill is $40-50/ month? We live on 1/4 acre and the back yard is completely landscaped with mostly flowers (I like perennials and bushes) and some edibles. The front yard has several large landscaped areas with the same sort of mix. I have tomatoes in black plastic pots that are doing pretty well. The yard also includes 3 fruit and 2 ornamental trees. I mostly conserve water by using soaker hoses. When I landscape an area (or plant a bed of veggies) I run a soaker hose through and pass it by every plant. I use quick-connect valves on all my hoses and sprayers, and a timer. If I need to water an area, I connect the main hose, turn the dial of the timer to 30-60 minutes, and walk away. No overwatering, and less waste from evaporation. Also, if you have squash or roses you won't get the leaves wet and encourage disease! I also like to mulch everything, although it's really been hard to keep up on that with the kid. I did manage to put down straw on most of my veggies, which conserves water and helps choke out weeds. Next spring I'll have to order a dumptruck full of mulch and spread it around. It's not fun, but at least the yard slopes downhill from the driveway so I'm not pushing a loaded wheelbarrow up a hill.

I also let my yard go brown every summer. I'm not a big fan of grass anyway.

Jennifer

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
But don't forget, that's what they do. She's been fairly predictable thus far, this was just her skipped day. She may very well lay an egg first thing upon waking up in the morning since she "should" have laid late this afternoon. Sorry Caunnie didn't lay!

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:

Nah, I gotta be up before the kids! They are all awake no later than 6:45 every morning, so I gotz to get my beauty sleep or I'm a hot mess! BUT.....I still stay up late

Gotta have some time to decompress after busy days filled with sweet littles

Well I don't claim to be part of the true night crew but I am usually on here until about 11:00pm and back about 3:00-4:00 am. It sucks but hey what else am I gonna do at that time??

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote: Scratch being basically cracked corn it tends to lower protein % which can cause lower egg production.

Thanks! I'll have to check my bag of Scratch & Peck scratch...I don't think it has ANY corn in it! Maybe it's a higher protein one? Thanks for the heads up.
I would be curious what the label says. Please share?