Washingtonians

[RonB]

MY only BR (thanks to a coyote, who got two ) lays a very cream color (almost white) egg. she isn't very friendly. I added her and a white leghorn to my flock when they were about four months old. She is one of my BEST layers. She usually gives me 6 eggs out of a seven day week

 

[weaveagarden]

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Roz, my BR (who now resides with Chicken Rustler) is a bit of a loner too. All business... The business of getting out of the coop, scratching in any gravel she can find and wandering down the alley until animal control came to give me a ticket..... Which is why she was not a hen I decided to keep.

I have heard from others that they need to be handled a lot if you want a pet chicken out of them... Otherwise they are all hen!

 

[weaveagarden]

Hey, I didn't get a chance to tell this group that my Avatar pic (which has gotten me many compliments) was taken by my dil of one of the eggs that we brought to them at Christmas time...... Anyway, she entered one very similar into the Seattle Erotic Arts Festival and after a juried showing was admitted into their annual Art Show. I love my avatar. Who knew it was smut!??

Seriously. I am very proud of it and most especially of my dear Shannon

 

[Jessica Rabbit]

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in spite of that? ok if I have done something wrong please tell me and I will correct my erroneous behavior.

 

[Jessica Rabbit]

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Cooked? you cook oysters? lol I LOVE them raw....mmm with just a lil Tabasco or horseradish! YUMMY

Me too, and drink up all the liquor...oyster liquor !!!

its the yummiest! I love Kumamotos!or however you spell it and Kushis

 

[RonB]

OK weaveagarden I NEVER said I EAT WHITE eggs

I just said I like the WHITE eggs.

I only eat about a dozen eggs in a month. I don't care if they are white or brown. They taste the same. The brown egg just gets too much credit

I use to spray the weeds around the house. but now that I have chickens, I use a hoe or the shovel. didn't take long for my girls to figure out the shovel meant WORMS. Today My Calf. White was right at the end of my shovel as I turned the dirt over. Don't know now many times I picked her up with the dirt

I had to try and beat her to some of the worms so I could give some to the other girls.

 

[martinifontaine]

Just joining up today, but this is my second year with chickens. Woot!
I'll admit I've been loitering for the last year, learning things about my girls.

Here's our MO: Me, my husband and my ten year old son live on the Kitsap Peninsula. We are in a neighborhood, but it's an older one and no one here seems to mind our hens - we do keep them in eggs, so that may help.

We have 5 hens: one buff Orpington, two Rhode Island Reds, two Ameracaunas. We had six, but our other Orpington died suddenly last month. We have no idea what happened. She seemed fine right up until she laid down in the middle of the pen and croaked.

It was rough. We decided not to replace her though...we've plenty of eggs to try to keep up with.

We got all of our chicks last May and they started laying last October. We are so happy with them! I tell everyone: if you can handle a dog, you can certainly handle chickens. They are so easy and oh so entertaining. We like to sit out and watch them (what we call "chick TV") and let them hunt bugs around the yard. Mostly they are in a pen that we move to a new location in the yard every day. Moving time is very exciting at our house. Ha!

I'm looking forward to meeting more local "peeps". haha.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

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LOL....the white egg shell competition is hilarious. I can just see the egg shells flying now. White...no green...no white....no brown....no (what other colored eggs are there?). LMBO

I have 12 BR, what colored eggs will they be laying when they get to that age? that way I know which team to root for. Also, what age do chickiepoos start laying?

On that note....when do I take babies off of the baby start & grow and change to grownup food? I have a roo and hen born in February and my chicks I got from the feedstore in March.

My one BR had a very light brown to cream egg. But I have heard others say theirs were more medium brown.

On the chicken food. There are varying opinions.... Here is mine. I kept mine on 24% chick starter until about age 12 weeks.... Then I mixed it about half and half with the 20% because I could get it a little bit cheaper. My chickens started laying in record time, and I credit the higher protein, but who really knows.

Some will tell you to take them off of the chick feed and put them on all purpose. But that is a significant drop in protein. Also, if you are also giving them scratch, why not keep it (the protein) up a bit to be safe.

Once one of my girls started laying, I put them on layer (which most of them hated). I still put some 24% in the mix in the winter because I was also feeding them scratch and oatmeal to help them handle the cold weather.

That said, you probably don't have to worry much... They will eat what they will. They will lay when they do. And it is all good.

Thank you so much for the info. I will start looking into the other food...I have not give them oyster shell stuff yet (i will get some) and I have not done yogurt yet (only cuz I keep forgetting to buy it). We can have cold winters so I had already planned on doing the oatmeal for them. what is 20%? I am assuming that this is not layer...but a grower or a maintenance food? They do get some scratch too, along with all the greens they want. I want to keep my chickies healthy...they are more pets...the eggs are just a perk.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

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Thanks Russ.... But, what energy. I am not feelin' that today. Found out this morning that the noise that was keeping me up last night was a drunk woman sleeping in my yard the the cops rousting her this very early AM (when only white egg eaters are awake

).... Oh the joys of living in the huge city of Hoquiam.

My new roommate found her wallet and some cash this AM in the yard and we called the cops to pick it up from us. He heard the story at that time. I told him we should have kept some of the money for renting her a camping space.....

Okay Weavegarden:

I do not know the entire story...but you had to give up your flock because of some city code....but a drunk lady can camp in your yard? Hmmmm?

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

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My little girls are all into what the shovel is about. When building the run, me trying to dig post holes....I had at least 4 young girls hangin' out to catch worms or any other bug.