Washingtonians

[JNB]

BABIES​

OK I finally Took the Pictures off my phone.. I wanted to share a few pictures of the new babies in my life They are kinda fuzzy but still shows the cuteness
SO FIRST THE HUMAN BABIES
Baby Aria and Hunter they are cousins and 3 months apart




NOW THE FEATHERY BABIES :) My Wyandottes Almost 12 weeks old... they were being difficult and didn't like me taking pictures. These ones show their colors of pretty well.. Im loving watching them feather out.. So excited to see final colors I have decided one of the Golds is for sure a Roo. Im holding out hope that they others are Hens.. but I think I may be being too Positive LOL looking like I have 2 boys and 2 girls








My latest editions... my 2 Furry Babies..Smudge and Oreo It has been years since our barn has had kittens in it. Man is it a blast to have them running around getting into things. They actually spend alot of thier time trying to get in with my Cornish X ???? Ive only had them 5 days but have found them in the pen with the chickens 3 times.... Silly Kittys!!! The Chickens don't mind... but I dont see it having a positive outcome LOL




OK THATS IT.. JUST WANTED TO SHARE Take Care everyone

 

[Greg Richardson]

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[itsren]

Wow, everyone's so fancy with their crazy fish set-ups! We have a humble ten-gallon tank with six neon tetras and a peppered cory. They seem content with their blue gravel, marbles and variety of brightly-colored fake plants, so I think we're good for now.

My chubby cat loves to watch them when I'm at my computer. Sometimes she sits on the glass tank cover just to freak me out. Or she'll spot the fish food and casually shove it off the desk. She's such a punk.

My kind of fish tank.

That's what we have, too.

Although the two ugly feeder fish got so big we had to upgrade to a 20 gallon. Thank goodness Petco sells them for $1 per gallon. I still need to buy a top for the new tank. Right now it is wide open so I have to keep the water level lower. DH thinks I should let the feeder fish jump out so we can buy "real" fish.

 

[Shyla-C]

Quote: I LOVE Flower World. I go there with my mom and we just wander around and make lists of all the plants we want. They have some nice chickens too!

 

[Slinglings]

Quote: I don't know about peroxide, we always just use chlorine bleach! Soak the stuff in hot water with bleach, that will kill the algae, then rinse really really well, dry in the sun. Sometimes when I'm feeling lazy, I just put the stuff in the sun and skip the bleach. That works just as well almost. I do this will aquarium ornaments, plastic/silk plants, rocks.

 

[itsren]

I've found peroxide works well on the furry black algae but not so much on the green stuff...if I'm doing delicate plants I mix it (whatever the standard strength in the brown bottle is) 50/50 with some water and dip for about 30 seconds, thick/rubbery plants I use it straight for the same amount of time, and if it's rocks or wood I'll let them soak until I remember to deal with them since it can't hurt them. Peroxide breaks down to hydrogen and water so a quick rinse and they're safe to go back in the tank. The next day it all turns hot pink and looks really gaudy, but a day or two after that it falls off and then I can just rinse it out of the filter. For the green spotty algae, I use a bleach dip...20:1 ratio of water to bleach, plants get a good swish around, rocks and wood can soak, sometimes I'll give them a quick scrub with a toothbrush to get rid of some of the dead algae if I'm feeling ambitious. Everything that touches the bleach mix gets well rinsed off in a bucket of water with 10x the dose of dechlorinator to make sure it's neutralized before going back in the tank. I've also found with decreasing my hours of light and doing more frequent water changes, I end up growing a lot less of the green stuff so I really haven't had to do the bleach thing for a long time. My black algae issues are in my upstairs tanks which are exposed to a lot of daylight so it's hard for me to limit that, but it's not really hurting anything other than my sense of aesthetics.

No shame in having feeder goldies, I've seen some beautiful comets come from the fairs! But they can get huge, so of you have a friend with a koi pond, maybe they'll take them in so you can get something prettier and the kids could still visit and feed them..the fish equivalent of finding them a nice farm home

. Goldfish do love to eat plants (I feed them duckweed for a treat), but I've had good luck with them not killing plants that have thicker or rubbery leaves. If you're ever in Tacoma I could share some cryptocorne (the leafy low purpley stuff in the front of the big tank) and java fern starts (the bright green stuff in the goldy tank), they've both stood the test of my goldies and are easy, low light plants. If they get eaten, at least they were free

. I've also heard they won' touch anubias, but despite being told it's one of the easiest to care for, I can't seem to keep it going, in my tanks it grows so slow it just gets taken over by algae and looks ugly, so I gave up on trying it.

I have the green algae. I have never seen black algae. I don't have a light on the tank, so algae typically doesn't grow. I read somewhere (don't know if this is true) that feeder goldfish really don't like light, which was fine with me. When our hood light rusted out, I switched the 10 gal. tank out to a glass lid and skipped the light. We recently upgraded to a tall 20 gallon, and I still don't have a top. Gotta get one soon. The glass top was more expensive than the tank. Bleh.

I suddenly got an algae burst when we hung the chick's heat lamp near it. Just about killed the feeder fish, too, because the tank heated up. They're OK now that I replaced the 250 w heat lamp with a 100 w heat lamp and lowered the lamp so it no longer shines on the fish tank.

I know my feeder fish are in the wrong size tank, so please, nobody judge me for having the wrong fish/tank ratio. I can't justify to DH to buy a larger set up. One is a comet about 5 inches long. The other is a common about 3 inches long. They were teeny, tiny little things when they were given to the kids 3 years ago. We lost one the 2nd day we had them - the common ate it's fins off. Sadly, it was the prettiest one. My oldest was devastated, so we had the big ole funeral thing. It was buried in an origami casket and we planted a magnolia tree over it. LOL. About the time the fish passed away, we had lost our dog, and my MIL, so losing that fish was just too much for the kids to take. We also put a little dinosaur ornament in the fish tank in memory of my oldest son's fish. After that, I became determined to keep the other two feeder fish alive no matter what it took. Oh goodness, what crazy things we do for our kids.

My BIL & SIL has a pond, and we're waiting for space to open up in their pond. After we do that, we'll let the kids pick new, smaller fish. When we go visit the kids won't know which fish is which. She just keeps goldfish in the pond because they have a heron problem and she restocks it each spring. Last spring I asked her if she had space, but she had just taken a bunch of goldfish from someone else, and the pond was packed full. I'm hoping she may be able to take them in the spring. But, we know if they go there, they really are going to become "feeder" fish to a heron.

Do the plants have to be planted in some sort of special dirt/sand? Right now, I just have fish tank rocks.

 

[itsren]

I kept hearing a clinking sound coming from the brooder. I went to look. Yesterday I put a small plastic golf ball in there. Today, they're playing soccer. So funny! Yesterday they were afraid of it. Glad they got over that.

 

[Nikki99]

Quote:
No problem!!

Was it you that said you had a dirt floor?

I do have a dirt floor on my run (not the coop). I'm not sure that it is large enough for a deep litter run, though.

Oh, gotcha. I was just curious is all.

This thread moves so fast some days!
Quote:

What kind do you raise?

I'm starting to get the bug to get back into discus but only one tank this time. until I get a pair.
I love using the water I change out on plants. Big difference in growth.

I have a 75 gallon South American biotope (mostly angels, diamond tetras, and lots of live plants), a 46 gallon fancy goldfish tank, a 20 gallon long divided so two bettas can share it, and a little 5 gallon I'm using as a grow out for some baby bristlenose plecos spawned by my adult pair in the big tank . I've noticed I have to change the soil in my plants more often (like once a year instead of every few years) due to too much mineral build up when I use the aquarium water, but the extra growth is amazing and definitely worth an extra "play in the dirt" chore.

Quote:

Quote: My coop's not so big, so I use a sand box under their roost for easy poop scooping. I haven't had chickens long enough to have formed a real opinion on a lot of things, but I am trying the deep litter method in my run, which has a dirt floor, and so far it's working great, I fluff/stir it up and add some shavings once a week. I just pulled an all-nighter writing a paper, so I'm in explaining/rambling mode...so here's my take on the science of why deep litter works and why I chose to try it for myself.

First, a little background. I have a lot of fish and I've noticed fish and chickens have one thing in common...both make a lot of ammonia and ammonia is bad for them. In my fishtanks, what keeps the ammonia from harming my fish is my filter, and what the filter provides is water flow over an aerobic space for beneficial bacteria to live. These bacteria convert the ammonia to nitrites, then other beneficial bacteria turn the nitrites to nitrates. The bacteria can live in both water and land (but need a surface to attach to), and will naturally populate a filter over time as long as they have a little ammonia to feed on, a sponge to cling to and proper oxygen flow (provided by the moving water). If I were to change my filter media every week, my fish would quickly die of ammonia poisoning unless I also did daily water changes to manually remove the waste they're secreting. Big pain in the butt..with the bacterial conversion, the colony grows to a size the ammonia can sustain, so it's self regulating and my ammonia and nitrite readings are always zero, but it does take about a month to get this bacterial cycle established which is one reason so many people have dead and sick fish when they first start keeping them. I still need to change the water periodically to remove the nitrates, but I can do that once or twice a month without the fish taking any damage since it's a much less harmful substance (and why fishtank water and chicken compost make plants grow well...straight ammonia burns, but once converted to nitrate, it's great fertilizer.)

I see my chicken run as a similar biological system. The chickens are providing a constant source of ammonia, and if I keep the bedding fluffy, those bacteria have a nice aerobic place to live and convert the ammonia to less harmful substances as it's deposited, so if I stick my face down in the bedding (ended up that way last week trying to make the run more secure) there's only an earthy compost smell. I refresh the bedding to help keep it from getting compacted, and if water were to spill, I'd pull that out and add fresh dry stuff...but I always leave enough of the old bedding to help inoculate the new with the good bacteria so the colony doesn't have to completely start over, just play a little catch up. If I were pulling everything out every week, a few bacteria in nature would try to start over every week on a sterile bed, and given the length of time it takes for the bacteria to establish a good colony, it's just not gonna happen so the run gets stinky and has to be sterilized week after week and in the meantime the chickens are stuck breathing it until I have the time to catch up on the cleaning. I figure why make extra work for myself when nature has a better handle on waste management than I do anyway?

So yes, so far, it's working for me. Also, I live on top of a hill with good drainage, my run has great ventilation, and between my weekly additions the chickens do a pretty good job of keeping things stirred up, so those are some factors that help keep it from getting muddy and gross. Also, knowing that it takes some time to get the bacterial colony going, if I were to try it in a coop with less ventilation, I'd be concerned about an initial ammonia build-up. To counter that I'd probably do a modified version at first, pulling out at least half of the bedding and replacing with new (I'm thinking at least weekly or as needed...if you can smell the ammonia, it's needed) to try and keep the ammonia levels down for the girls, but leaving enough of the old that the bacterial colonies have a chance to keep growing, and then once there was no trace at all of the ammonia smell shifting to full blown deep litter.

Just my thoughts, I know different folks have different strokes and that's fine too.

Justahannah, I love how you laid this out! Nice job!
I haven't had my chickens very long either, and they've only been in their permanent house since July. We are also doing the DL method with a dirt floor. So far, it's working really well. I also rake the shavings around to get them fluffed up and rotated every few days/as needed and sprinkle DE all around too. We have good ventilation as well and I haven't noticed much of a smell at all. I don't keep their water inside with them because the ducks throw it everywhere and soak the shavings to the ground so I nixed that real quick! I don't have a poop board under the roost yet, but that's our next project.
Someone on this forum posted a really good article awhile back (during the summer) that was really informative about the DL method, I wish I would've saved it. It included everything from what the DL method is, how to do it, what it does (like you explained w/the bacteria) and why it doesn't work for so many people, (according to this article, it's b/c most people don't do it correctly, they change the litter to often, not giving the bacteria time to do good things).
I also used to have a fresh water tank. It took me forever to figure out why in the world my fish kept dying in a brand new set up. That's when I stopped listening to the "fish" people at petco and petsmart and did my own research. After that, I rarely lost a fish, had the same fish (until we moved from Co. to Wa.) for 5 years, one of which was a gold fish my kids won at the fair. Funny thing about that was that I relied mostly on the filter, doing only partial water changes and keeping ALL chemicles out of my tank!! Worked like a charm!
Anyway, I really liked how you broke this down!

Thank you! I'm an environmental science major, so I'm used to translating what I'm up to to my less-scientifically inclined friends. The only thing about your set-up that I'm concerned about is your use of DE with the deep litter. I bought a bunch when I got my chickens because everything I read made it sound like a necessity for healthy chickens, but after doing more research into how it works, it's counter productive to making deep litter work. DE basically dries out the fatty layer around and dehydrates microfauna, so while you're doing deep litter to build a healthy environment for beneficial bacteria with the theory that the good colony will outcompete the bad stuff (just like eating fiber and yogurt to boost your gut fauna), you're simultaneously adding an agent (antibacterial) that's nuking everything indiscriminately. So instead of a healthy decomposition, you're stirring around a bunch of poopy litter that's just being dried out by the addition of new litter and DE, and stinks when it gets wet again (And by you, I mean what I experienced at first before I did some extra research). I'm not down with that...I want their poop converted to healthy mulch full of beneficial bugs that flourish and leave no room for the baddies. Since I still have my DE and don't want it going to waste, I've switched to mixing some in with the sand on my poopboards to fight any potential issues there since that's where they poop the most (I scoop that daily), and that is working great for me so far. If what you're doing is working for you so far, that's great and I'm not criticizing....I just thought I'd point out where it doesn't make sense to me and I experienced some issues at first doing the same.

Quote:
I'd be interested in seeing studies to compare the hazards and constituents of compost gasses versus ammonia gasses since I honestly don't know much about what compost puts off and the health of my girls is more important to me than being right about a method. I'm guessing it's also probably dependent on the materials being composted and how it's being composted (deep litter with ample oxygen vs. anaerobic hot compost comes to mind). Either way, I think that's where ventilation comes in to play...whether it's a week's build up of ammonia or a week's build up of compost gasses, chickens need fresh air.

Quote:
I have read that, too. That said, experience has taught me that what you "read" about can be very different from what you actually "see" or experience. People can describe things, and then when you actually see the set-up it is a lot different from what you imagined it would be. I'd be cautious about trying that unless I actually witnessed a set-up where it really worked.

Microbes help break down compost, but that doesn't mean I'd want my animals walking, living in, sleeping near said compost. Not to mention, compost is a huge attraction for rats. They like to dig into the warmth of it.

Common sense needs to come into play into animal husbandry, as well.

As for your question - I have a dirt floor in my run. I scoop it. It is a small run so I scoop it daily. Those with larger runs wouldn't need to do that, but I need to so my girls always have a clean place to walk around on. They poop a lot. It doesn't take long before my girls won't have clean places to walk if I don't scoop. But it also only takes about 5 minutes of my time to completely scoop the entire coop and run each day. I also keep a sprinkling of oyster shell and cherry grit over the top of the dirt floor.

This kind of reinforces how someone may read about something that may not translate into what everyone should do. If I had just told you that I scoop daily, and you have a huge run, you might imagine someone scooping a huge run on a daily basis. I've seen large runs that I wouldn't scoop daily - no way! But, mine is small, so I have to if I want my tiny flock to stay healthy.

I think another misconception is the idea of the deep litter composting like a standard compost pile...when I started reading about it, I had this idea of a chicken run full of food scraps and garden leftovers and all the other yard waste that takes forever and a day to break down. I don't want my chickens living in that kind of mess nor do I trust them to keep a pile like that aerated so I still keep a separate compost pile for the gross stuff as well as utilize my yard waste bin. I think the idea of that kind of easy catch-all solution for organic waste is far too good to be true and won't work due to scale and moisture and rats and, I agree, it would get disgusting pretty quick. The only things breaking down in my run are pine shavings, dried leaves now that it's fall, and chicken poop. Over the week, it starts to flatten out and when I notice it's starting to look a little thin, I add more and fluff it all together. The older stuff starts to take on a mulchy consistency and smell, kind of spongy like a forest floor, that's way different than the stuff I pull out of my compost pile. Since I've only been doing it this summer, I don't have a lot of build up yet and my experience is just my own...so far I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it works for me. But I am honestly curious as to whether it will hold up through the moisture and the cold of the winter since bacterial activity often slows with the temperature...I may end up becoming a fair-weather deep litter user depending on how it goes. Theoretically the mulch should keep itself warm enough to maintain the process, but I can't feel any appreciable heat coming off it (my litter may not be deep enough yet) so I'm not depending on that to keep my girls toasty. I'm glad I can share my experiences and ideas here, the feedback really helps me understand the pros and cons and have alternatives in mind should things go south...so thank ya'll!

Hi all, my husband I just moved to Kettle Falls, WA (Northeast) and we're looking for a homestead so that we can raise chickens (among other self sustainable ventures). If anyone is in the area, please get in touch. I don't know many people yet and I would love to find a community here!

Welcome! Good luck in your search, I love the landscape in eastern WA and miss living on that side of the mountains dearly.

Justahannah, I didn't know that about DE. Hmmm, well that kinda changes things. Lol. I've really liked using the DE b/c it helps to dry the shavings and get rid of the smell when it does get a little yucky.
Do you use anything to help with those two things?

SO VERY COOL! (since everything turned out well). TWO beautiful bald eagles just flew over my back yard below the tree line of my next door neighbor's maple tree. They looked like they were coming down but went back up when I called for my husband to come see them. Oh my gosh - that was the most awesome sight I've ever seen in my urban neighborhood.

Thankfully, I had just put the girls away from a day of unsupervised free-ranging. Rhodie and Drama escaped the back yard through a piece of fence that fell this weekend. I didn't know it had come down in the wind. Another neighbor called and said she saw them walk across the Cul-de-Sac and were free-ranging in another neighbor's front yard. So, DH and I went to get them, put them in "time out" in the run, and I went back over to clean up chicken poo from the Cul-de-Sac. I had just walked back into my back yard when I heard the bald eagles talking to each other above my neighbor's yard, next to their Maple tree and watched them come down toward me.

Makes me wonder if the bird that attempted to pick up Drama that day may have been a juvenile Bald Eagle. It did not look like any picture of a hawk that we were ever able to find. I'm off to look for pictures of juvenile Bald Eagles...

Oh my gosh - I am so excited about what I saw!

Granted - if it had turned out badly, I'd probably be on here crying.

That is awesome!! I love Bald Eagles, they are my favorite bird!! I love driving along I-5 b/c often times you can see them perched in trees alongside the river. It's really neat!

The Star Spangled Banner like you have never heard it before.
Check it out............

http://www.starspangledbannerchallenge.com/

I really love the original version of this song, but I'm diggin this one too. Thanks for sharing! I posted it to FB as well.

 

[Shyla-C]

BABIES​

OK I finally Took the Pictures off my phone.. I wanted to share a few pictures of the new babies in my life They are kinda fuzzy but still shows the cuteness
SO FIRST THE HUMAN BABIES
Baby Aria and Hunter they are cousins and 3 months apart




NOW THE FEATHERY BABIES :) My Wyandottes Almost 12 weeks old... they were being difficult and didn't like me taking pictures. These ones show their colors of pretty well.. Im loving watching them feather out.. So excited to see final colors I have decided one of the Golds is for sure a Roo. Im holding out hope that they others are Hens.. but I think I may be being too Positive LOL looking like I have 2 boys and 2 girls








My latest editions... my 2 Furry Babies..Smudge and Oreo It has been years since our barn has had kittens in it. Man is it a blast to have them running around getting into things. They actually spend alot of thier time trying to get in with my Cornish X ???? Ive only had them 5 days but have found them in the pen with the chickens 3 times.... Silly Kittys!!! The Chickens don't mind... but I dont see it having a positive outcome LOL




OK THATS IT.. JUST WANTED TO SHARE Take Care everyone

All the babies are just SO CUTE!!

 

[Nikki99]

While I was wandering down the hill today following the girls, I was blindsided by Lyle. He attacked my leg for no apparent reason. Then he sat there all puffed up. I waited until I could sneak up on him and grabbed him. I carried him around like a football for about 20 or 25 minutes. He managed to bite me a few times before I could secure him, though.

I'm going to work with him until he understands that I'm top dog around here. I've heard that roosters will go through a phase like this, and I will do whatever it takes to teach him. He's smart, so I'm sure he'll learn.

Oh no!! That's very irritating isn't it!?! Hopefully your able to set him straight! Good luck!

My bantam OE just did the same dang thing to me yesterday as well. I was walking into the barn, (he follows me everywhere) and he decided he was gonna try to run through the door the same time I did and I bumped him accidentally with my leg, I didn't even know he was trying to run through the doorway. Well that set him off and all of a sudden he comes runnin at me all puffed up and attacked my boot. Dang thing!

Quote:
These are good ideas, I'm going to have to try them too. The roo I'm having issues with *is* the sub roo. I guess he figures he's got more of a chance with me then he does my LF roo. Hahaha, boy is he in for a surprise!

BABIES​

OK I finally Took the Pictures off my phone.. I wanted to share a few pictures of the new babies in my life They are kinda fuzzy but still shows the cuteness
SO FIRST THE HUMAN BABIES
Baby Aria and Hunter they are cousins and 3 months apart




NOW THE FEATHERY BABIES :) My Wyandottes Almost 12 weeks old... they were being difficult and didn't like me taking pictures. These ones show their colors of pretty well.. Im loving watching them feather out.. So excited to see final colors I have decided one of the Golds is for sure a Roo. Im holding out hope that they others are Hens.. but I think I may be being too Positive LOL looking like I have 2 boys and 2 girls








My latest editions... my 2 Furry Babies..Smudge and Oreo It has been years since our barn has had kittens in it. Man is it a blast to have them running around getting into things. They actually spend alot of thier time trying to get in with my Cornish X ???? Ive only had them 5 days but have found them in the pen with the chickens 3 times.... Silly Kittys!!! The Chickens don't mind... but I dont see it having a positive outcome LOL




OK THATS IT.. JUST WANTED TO SHARE Take Care everyone

Oh my!!! All of your babies are adorable!!
I love the baby kisses! I can totally imagine all the drool involved while they show their love! Lol

Your chicks are super cute too! I think your right about the 2 roos. I'm definitely no expert but the pics of the 2 standing in their food look like little dudes to me.
We have 7 babies right now, and I'm thinkin we have some roos too...booooo!! I have enough roos, no more!!

I love the kittie pics! They are adorable!
We got 2 outdoor kitties in Aug. this year. They are definitely entertaining! Love watching them! We are amazed at what incredible little hunters they are already, wow!

Loved the pics! Thanks for posting!