Washingtonians

[alycoop]

Hello, I'm new here and live in Vancouver WA with my family on 1/2 acre. I've been thinking for some time that I wanted to make this 1/2 acre more productive and what better way than a few chooks, a veggie garden and a worm composting bin!

Still planning the design for our coop.
I plan to have 5 or 6 hens only so looking at small coop plans and then we will have a covered run attached.

Not sure what breed I want just yet but will want to buy locally instead of online.

Anyone else in the Vancouver or Clark County WA area?

 

[GopherBoyFarms]

HI!! we are in Vancouver (out towards Hockinson). We have 26 chickens right now and are getting another 25 in spring. We are working on our 2nd coop at the moment. Our pages are having issues with photobucket so until later this coming week the pictures arent showing up but there are tons for great looking coop designs on this site!!

Also.........
my sons 4H group is having a poultry show Feb 21st at the Clark County fair grounds. There is a chick auction that day, and there will be chicks to get and Ithink some hens also.
I will post all the info later, it's going to be a really good show!!


~Tiff~

 

[Selena]

I made it to the place my sister in law gets her feed from. It's out in the Vaughn area, but pretty nice. I got 1 80# bag of Layer Pellets for $16.25 and 1 80# bag of cracked corn for $16.00, for a total of $34.95 (that's tax included).

Dell's sells their 50# of pellets at $13.79 and corn for $12.29, and they don't have the larger bags.

It's a small drive-through. We pulled in and the owner came over. He recognized my S-i-L (she comes in every week) and said hi to the kids. Gave us all chocolates while we gave him our orders. He rang us up and then his two guys directed our car to a series of small huts and each one had different types of feed. My S-i-L got feed for her horse, donkey, and goats and I got mine. They did have 50# bags, but I figured 80# was better! In the spring he also has misc. poultry for sale and also will sell animals like Dell's sells the rabbits (you breed them, they sell them).

So, if y'all are in the area, it's a nice place to go IMO. I haven't seen the actual feed yet, as I'm not finished with my other bags, but my S-i-L is very happy with this place. Best part, we didn't even have to leave the truck!

They're made here in Tacoma.

Drive Thru Feed (253) 884-3386. Open every day.

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In other news, I'm down to 20 chickens (not including hatching eggs). My S-i-L took home a pair of Brahma-silkie mixes. YAY!

 

[JennsPeeps]

Selena, is the feed you're talking about "X-Cel"? That's waht we feed our girls. My BR went on a hungry strike when I bought Del's feed, so we went back to the X-Cel... plus, you've gotta love that it's local.

Bridy Man - I sent you a PM about getting in on our mypetchicken.com order.

If anyone is between Olympia and Seattle and wants to share shipping costs on a MPC order, just let me know. I plan to order the girls at the end of this month - I've already submitted a pre-order but can always add to it. Send me a PM if you want in!

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
If you have to buy from a feed store (vice a breeder), I'd highly recommend Monroe Farm & Feed if that's the one across from the Fairgrounds. They have a HUGE assortment, they take really good care of their chicks, and they keep their place emaculate. Friendly folks too and the prices aren't too bad.

Btw, for those who don't know, Monroe Feed Store (and others too) get their birds from hatcheries. Last year I know Monroe's birds came from Welp, Phinney, and one I can't remember but they'll let you know if you ask them. There was an outbreak of AE last year at McMurray's so I wanted to make sure that I wasn't getting any birds from MM and that's how I know they'll tell you where they ordered from.

Oh, and WRT my previous post, I forgot - I'll also be setting four dozen EE eggs from my one hen after I breed her to each of my four Ameraucana males. I'm trying to develop a tri-colored Wheaten and I think she may get me there. Right now she lays a somewhat pastel pinkish/purple egg but I have no idea what her chicks will lay. My guess is green but we'll see.

God Bless,

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
Take it from me and I bet there's a bunch of folks on here who agree, better just fence the whole 1/2 acre and build a bigger coop. We all start small and then the addiction catches on full bore!

God Bless,

 

[UrbanChickenMama]

Quote:
Hi Alycoop!

We are in Vancouver, in Cascade Park area, as well. There are tons of coop designs their coop sections.

Good luck with the designing, that's my favorite part!

Kristin

 

[Bridy Man]

Thanks much Tailfeathers/BalticBabe/PoultryMom/JennsPeeps for the info. I didn't know about Monroe's 2 feed stores. I'll check them out for sure.
I'm building a page with pictures of my project and will post it asap...

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Lol. When I first started I lived in the city and only planned on having 3 hens. One of them turned out to be a boy so I had to get more hens. Soon the small pen in the backyard was too small so I expanded. Eventually I ended up giving the chickens the whole backyard. Then I ended up giving the front yard to the ducks and geese. I had a small city lot with lots of birds and was lucky it was all fenced in. So in other words fence in the WHOLE 1/2 acre even if you only plan on having 5 or 6 hens, lol.

 

[Selena]

Chickens = ADDICTION.
I only wanted a few birds to lay for my DH and me. But there's so many neat birds out there! Plus, once your friends find out that you have home-grown eggs...

I have one friend chomping at the bit for a dozen eggs per week for herself! Oy. So, now DH and I are trying to figure out just how many birds we need for our eventual egg demand. PLUS I told him that I wanted the Marans. He doesn't know yet that I plan on getting birds from Tailfeathers & Nivtup or that I have RIR eggs in the bator with the Wheaten Marans eggs and I have BC Marans eggs on their way....

It also doesn't help if your family gives you birds every time you visit them. Now if they could only give us fencing material or Nigerian goats. Yeah.

And, I've always used his car-collecting as a sort of measure to my pet-collecting, but now he's gone and done it. He's SOLD a car!

Is giving his sister a Brahma-silkie pair even with him selling a non-running Jeep?

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In other news, had some issues here yesterday. I'd never had a big problem with my roos before my S-i-L asked me on Saturday if they ever fight. Suddenly yesterday I hear screaming. My 2 remaining mixed roos are FIGHTING. I've never seen them fight like that. It was much more than just establishing an order (which, I assumed that getting rid of those 2 birds would upset the order). I isolated them to check them out. One has the nips all over his comb and eye-area. The other doesn't seem injured. Both were lightly splattered with blood and looked dazed. The uninjured one is back with the others for the time being, and the injured one has been treated and is in a cage outside (he was inside, but he was crowing, and I didn't think my DH would appreciate crows at 10pm when he's gotta wake up at 3.) I set up a spare Ceramic Heat Emitter for him and he's in the "barn".

I was really hoping my DH would have finished the tractors last fall! Then I could have had them in separate pens. I do have a woman wanting a roo, I just gotta plan to get one to her. I'll admit it... I'm squeamish about processing animals. Any animals. I'm not squeamish about blood (in my line of work?) but I am about killing. I'm a healer, not a killer. So, I'm gonna build some rough coops today. I'll need some for my Marans anyway. If DH doesn't like me using his tools... big whoop. I'll just tell him I took a lesson from his mom on "Honey-Do Lists 101".