Washingtonians

[JennsPeeps]

We went to see "Harry Potter" tonight and just over an hour into the movie the power cut out.

<sigh>... evacuated.

So, we went to Safeway for the free WiFi, ate dinner in the deli, and finished addressing our wedding invitations.

 

[AnnesChicks]

Hi all, yep even out on the coast we're roasting. I let my girls cool off with a bowl of cold yogurt, did ya know chickens can lick the bowl clean.

I love the new tractor/coop you are getting, very cute and functional. We found out one of the best things we did was to elevate our coop, our girls spend a lot of time hanging out in the shade underneath.

Yes chickens may draw rats, but there is a lot of great advice on here for minimizing that. I keep their feed in a hanging metal feeder inside their elevated coop, which is closed up tight at night. I feed treats/scraps early in the day so there are no goodies left to draw critters at night. I keep a homemade box of death behind the coop, but outside of the run. Just a plastic shoebox from the dollar store, holes cut in one end, cardboard inside keeping the poision bait inside duct taped shut and weighted down with a huge rock. Every so often I have to replace the bait so I know I've had customers (ugh). But in truth we have always had to keep bait out, from time to time they just show up...nasty creatures.

I did see an idea on here I want to try, take a five gallon bucket, cut a rat sized hole in the center of the lid, put poision bait and a little chicken scratch in the bottom, it said the rodent will climb in, eat the bait, not be able to climb out and will /croak/expire/kick the bucket (I couldn't resist) inside the bucket so no danger of family pets getting sick from eating the rodent.

 

[AnnesChicks]

Quote:
I would be so disappointed to miss the rest of the HP movie because of a power outage. And it was a good one too! I really am glad the same young actors are in each movie, part of the fun is watching them grow and change just like in the books.

 

[Imp]

Do chickens really pant when they are hot? Mine seem to be OK with the heat. Not acting or looking different from normal. I do have a very shady back yard and it's always breezy here. The cats on the other hand, I don't think the neighbors old cat is going to make it much longer.
Monday to beat the heat I decided to clean the coop with a sprinkler. It was a blast. Wash a roost stand in the sprinkler to rinse it off. Wash a bucket, stand in the sprinkler to rinse it off. The downside was I was several shades darker when I was done. Who would of thought you could use chicken poop as a natural sunless tanner. Lol

Imp- Can you catch Hepatitis from a chicken

 

[alycoop]

Mine have been panting. It's been around 106 degrees here this afternoon.

I've been tossing frozen grapes to them and putting ice cubes in bowls.
I finally took the hose and sprayed them on a mist setting. They ran away but I think it helped them.

BTW - we've found that our Buff O is most likely a rooster. It's been crowing every day, during the day at random, and the crows are getting stronger. Anyone from the Clark County area want a nice large Buff O rooster? Send me a message if you do. Im in Vancouver, near Hazel Dell.

 

[Gwen]

Annes, I'm very leary of rat bait. We spent $5k putting in retrofit radiant floor heating when we moved in. That winter, we had barely even used the system, and the power went out for a week. Unknown to us, there was rat poison in the crawl space. A rat was in there, ate the poison, became dehydrated (which is what the rat poison does to them to kill them), and went looking for water in our radiant heating tubes down in the crawl space. Since the power was out, meaning the water was also out, he didn't find any, so he kept chewing holes all throughout the tubing. Once the water came back on, it just sprayed out all those holes. We were sick. We have never fixed the heating, altho we did close up the crawl space so no more rodents could get in. It is quite cold in our house in the winter. We tore out most of the other heating when we put in the radiant floor heating. Now all we have are cadets in a few rooms and over time, they have slowly kicked the bucket. I thin we have them left in only the 3 bedrooms and 2 of the baths.

I also am cautious about the poison because we have dogs and cats. My cat is pretty skinny. I think he could get in any space a rat could. If I get desparate, I'll remember the bucket trick. It sounds the safest. Altho I don't know if hubby will allow it. The guy who came out when we hat the crawl space rat problem cautioned us that rat bait usually causes way more problems than it solves.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Be thankful you didnt go to "our safeway - in MapleValley". I sent my daughter just a bit ago for ice to put in the hen house to bring down the temp some.... She came back and told me she was NOT successful in getting ice because Safeway IS ON FIRE! Good grief..... I'm going to watch the news for the whole story....
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[Chicken Rustler]

Another good trap for rodents that I would say is "pet safe" . Take a 5g bucket or bigger add several inches of water make a teetor stick and put some thing like peanut butter on the end over the bucket. critter runs out stick to get food stick tips dumps critter in water and resets for next critter. The water is so they can't jump out and have to keep swimming till they drown.

 

[crazychickenluver]

Hi all,

So here in Belfair my thermometer informaed me it was 110 yesterday.

Sill trying to figure out where these weather reporters get their temps because they are never anywhere near what we actually see!!!

The hens hate it!! I finally took my hens some of those popsickle's you get at walmart(otterpops) they loved them. Last night I let a sprinkler run all night in their favorite spots then turned it off this morning. They are over at the wet ground right now laying in the water!!! I had 10 chickies about 4 weeks old that Iactually brouht into the house yesterday because I was concerned it was to hot for them. Hopefully I can send them back outside today.

Nivtup-If any of your wheatens or goldens hatch I would be interested in some hens. I would take eggs but have no way to incubate them just let me know.

Ok so since I am really new at this I noticed alot of name shortening ie...BBS, BLRW, EE etc. What exactly does that mean? Sorry for a dumb question.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

crazychicken I know what ya mean. I am fairly new and still have trouble figuring out some of the lingo. I am not positive but think I did find somewhere on BYC that told what a lot of these are. If nothing else just ask and yer BYC buddies will help ya out. These are some VERY kind and helpful people on here. Just be very careful cause they are kind of like street dealers and will get ya addicted and coming back for more more more!!! lol