Washingtonians

[itsren]

Quote:
Yep, that's what it was. Thanks Dawn!

Hey look up there ... nested quotes.

 

[Farmin Momma]

Quote: Jennifer I am sorry your first hatch is not going very well. And I am VERY sorry about your friend, I hope she is better soon.
If you do want to try a hatch again some time and you need eggs (don't know if you have a rooster, I just assume you don't) I can give you as many eggs as you would like for free. Just let me know.

I got my confirmation today for Salem.

This is gonna ROCK!!!!! I am being set in an island booth and EVERYBODY entering or leaving the building show must pass through my space!!!! And the RV space is very close too!! That is very important for DW.

Yes I am finally starting to get eggscited. Now to just get a bunch more items made in the next few days.

That is great CR, I wish we could come and see your stuff but that is a bit to far for us. Have fun though!

Just wanted to say hello We have had a stretch of rotten lately. First I got hurt. Then my SIL passed after a long battle with cancer. That was 2 weeks ago. Now My Grandfather has had a massive stroke and its unlikely he will recover. Add to that all the fall time colds and such ... has made for a bum go. So Ive just been lurking and trying to Keep up with ya all Thats a full time job in its self..LOL

My chickies are doing well.. My girls are going through their first molt.. what a site some of them are. The Cornish X are about 2 weeks out from processing. They have been a great "learning experience" I'm def over my ideal budget with this batch.. But I know I can do better next time... have a much better idea now how and what they will eat. Also think I will def do a tractor set up next time.

I hope you all are doing well. I think of this little group when Im out with the chicken crew each day.. I send my best wishes as always and hope things calm down enough that I can visit and maybe share pics of my newest additions

You and your family are in our thoughts! I am very sorry for the rotten you are going through lately

I hope things get better and that your Grandfather does pull though even if they say he is unlikely to.

Western WA - near Olympia! How-DEE!

Glad you could come join in on our fun.

Quote: The part that drives my DH crazy is the loud peeping in the living room when he gets home from work and would like some quiet cause that is really the only time they sit and peep loudly, then they are quiet for the rest of the day. I told him that the chicks are just so happy to see him....I really don't think he bought it! LOL

 

[itsren]

Quote:
Hugs to both of you!

I have met CR's wife, she is very sweet and does seem to have made a good recovery. If I hadn't known about her stroke from CR mentioning it, I would not have been able to tell at all that she'd had one.

JNB... I'll keep your Grandfather in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[itsren]

I guess this settles the question of whether or not to let them keep roosting in the tree or try to train them to roost in the new coop! Our plan had been to lock them in there the first night so they know it's an option, then let them decide from there. Now I just hope it won't be as difficult to get them to use the new coop as it was to get them to use the old one.

I really hope our Welsummer's injuries don't turn out to be more serious than he had thought. She's by far the smartest and definitely the only one of our flock who even remotely seeks out human interaction. When my BF and his roommates first got the chicks last fall, she's the one he picked to give a name and be "his", so she really has a special place in his heart.

Just my opinion from one backyard flock owner to another - I would train them to roost in the coop and lock them in each night. As soon as they know you have chickens, they'll probably be back.

Racoons in the city can get pretty aggressive and do things normal raccoons won't do - like hang out in day light hours. I opened my front door once to see a raccoon sitting on my front lawn, in broad daylight - around noon. I think it had just finished snacking on something in my garden or was taking food for it's baby. It lived in a tree across the street and was raising at least one baby that we could see up there. They will also come out in the evening before it starts turning dark.

 

[itsren]

This thread should inspire you for next year.
I haven't had success yet as I think I need to start in February but now my son has his band in my start grow room so not sure how that is all going to work out if the starts don't mind screaming guitars.
This guy did a fantastic job and I'm a bit like him tell me no and away I go. LOL!

Idaho Watermelon Bonanza
http://www.idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?s=188f6658c3467e3054c2c706f6ad749c&t=56879

BTW. This is the Baker Creek Seeds Forum.

LOVE it!

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

Just my opinion from one backyard flock owner to another - I would train them to roost in the coop and lock them in each night. As soon as they know you have chickens, they'll probably be back.

Racoons in the city can get pretty aggressive and do things normal raccoons won't do - like hang out in day light hours. I opened my front door once to see a raccoon sitting on my front lawn, in broad daylight - around noon. I think it had just finished snacking on something in my garden or was taking food for it's baby. It lived in a tree across the street and was raising at least one baby that we could see up there. They will also come out in the evening before it starts turning dark.

I personally have never seen a raccoon during the day. At night in Seattle they are all over the place. Our chickens rejected their current coop despite many efforts on our part to get them to roost in it. It wasn't built by us and it's too small and too low to the ground. That's why we had already procured materials for a new one and were ready to start building next week, after my BF is done breaking down all the free pallets. To be honest, since no one was seriously injured, in a way this attack could be a blessing because maybe it will make the chickens reluctant to continue roosting in the tree. Maybe it won't be so difficult after all to get them to roost in the new coop. For now they will have to make do with an expanded version of the old coop. There will be a lot of changes in the coming weeks for our flock and I hope everyone adjusts OK.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Hey, here I am! Let's see if I can put a newish photo up, one moment please.

So, yeah: that pen is, as of about an hour ago, down four cockerels, who went off to the Coal Creek sale with my cousin Mike and four teenage boys, three of whom are joining FFA this year. I'm hoping to involve them in my scheme to buy a whole bunch of SSH's and Porcelein OEGBs, take the best pen of each, and let the kid keep the rest to show and sell.

I still need to get shed of one old BLRW rooster (the one I got from Rainwolf, who grew up to be a rank SOB and also does everything in Bizarro World fashion, including preventing his poor hen from eating and refusing most forms of chicken treats) and two red EE's (of last October's hatch of Kaneke's eggs, and hall bathroom brooding) but I didn't have sufficient transport containers, nor energy to do it.

CL's friend Andrea picked up fourteen Hamburg hatching eggs Thursday, so we will all pray/meditate on a high number of pullets, right? I figure I'm due, somehow, since of the 20 chicks I've hatched and the something like 60 from up the hill in the same period, we've had... what, maybe a dozen and a half hens reach POL?


Oh, hey, just realized I need to eat the other half of my breakfast and go take a nap. I was awakened in the wee small hours of the morning by my husband's voice saying "Oh, hello, big white cow" and got to go out in the frosty starlight to chase her in and chain the gate that some trespasser did not close correctly. We were lucky that it was one cow, no calves, not the bull; it could have been 31 all together and I do not know if any of you have dealt with thirty-one shorthorns at 3:30am while wearing your nighty, Carhardt hoody, and barn shoes so old they're probably more than 50% cow manure by weight, but I have, more than once, and it's really more of a life-enhancing experience than I'm currently up to.

 

[pettec63]

Quote:
OMG! I am so sorry!! about all of it! But, I know how you feel about the hatch, as I posted in a previous post I lost like 20 some eggs in an LG, but, ya know there are lots of people who have really good luck with them? There are are few silkie peeps on here, I really liked the color of the BLRW's and I got my first hatching eggs from Tamara too, but, I don't really like their attitude. Mine were more pecky and flighty, and I handle my chicks a lot as they grow up. I've had buff, black and lav orps, great attitude, not reliable layers. Now, I have Buckeyes that I just LOVE !! I have hatched all the said breeds myself, over the last two years, and never and I repeat... NEVER have I had day old chicks come running to jump in my hand!! My buckeyes do!! I did get a bunch of wild and crazy chicks from Chickie, and I'm still working on them they are still kinda wild, but, they are coming around.

I hope your friend is ok? hang in there kid!!

 

[pettec63]

Quote: Here here!! I second that!!!

That's horrible!! I really don't trust ANY of them!! As a vet tech I'd rather go to a vet, at least they think outside of the box!! Although I have met a vet or two I wouldn't trust to neuter my cat!! I just think the health care system needs to be revamped, and I'm not talking in a monetary governmental way here, what I'm referring to is the way the insurance company's and pharmaceutical company's have a hold on us, and the fact that a LOT of stuff in being over charged! I have been watching frontline and some other investigative reports, it's criminal really! And that doesn't even scratch the surface of the issues with the system!
sorry your kiddo had to go through all that!!

 

[pettec63]

Sorry I missed the meet up today.... so many things to get done this month!

for the splay legs... I made hobbles.
Take one of these...


Tie a knot on each end to make a loop....
so you end up with a small loop in each end and a section in between....
So it looks something like this.... (I don't have photos so all is pulled f\rom internet and just examples)


You then take the chick and slip the feet into the end loops to hobble.

The chick will have problems walking at first and will fall down and be pathetic.... DO NOT GIVE IN!Z stay strong and keep the hobbles on for at least 3-5 days.
if the chick looks like it is walking fine leave the hobbles on for a couple more days then remove.... watch carefully and if they start to spread the feet again hobble again asap!
I had 1 hen that was a complete splay leg.... (I did not breed her) She was hobbled for 3 weeks as a chick before things started working right again. She is now one of the tough buggers that lives in alaska

Books can teach you a lot and books can lead you astray....
Common sense is more of what is needed when raising animals.
I know people who have all the book knowledge in the world and I would never ever let them care for a animal.....
I also know some who have not read a thing about animals yet they "know" what is needed and I would let them care for my animals anytime....

Just be aware that even if they do not use the right words, or feed what you think they need to be fed does not mean that they are not caring for their animals.
Feeding scratch might be the best thing if they free range with a large amount of bugs to eat. I know my friends in Samoa and in Alaska can not afford shipped in grains so they have to use what they have locally and to someone here in the PNW that would seem like a crazy diet. Yet their birds are healthy, fat and laying great.

Right on the money girlie!!

Things to watch
are they eating and drinking ok? are they losing weight? how is their egg production?

Hey RW thanks for another solution to the splay leg!! Hadn't seen this one yet!! Ya know, maybe I had the hobbles I made on right after all? But, because the chick kept falling over I thought I did it wrong?