Washingtonians

[Chickielady]

pips&peeps :

Quote:
The problem with live virus vaccines is that it actually GIVES them a small dose of the actual disease, and they will be carriers / shedders of the virus. Our state vet told me to never use anything but killed virus with chickens, unless your flock already HAS the disease, and you need to build immunity to cut losses in your other birds....

Mareks vaccine does not shed bird to bird, I called Fort Dodge and asked......... neither does the Schering Plough LT-IVAX.​

True.
And the virus is live and weakened so that the birds can build an immunity to it.
You can also give any age bird the vaccine, it does not have to be a day old chick.
The reasoning behind the instructions stating "give to day old chicks" is because every day the chick does NOT have the vaccine, they have a greater risk of being exposed to Mareks in the environment.
I have vaccinated 2 and 3 year old birds and 2 week old chicks, all in the same day.
The vaccine is cheap, and easy to administer, but once opened, it has to be thrown away and cannot be saved 3 weeks til the next hatch, so I waite until I have 4 or so hatches, and then do them all at once.
The costly part is getting the vaccine shipped, it has to be in a cooler with a gel ice pack..and you do not wanna know how many people in my family have Jeffers Livestock soft sided coolers for a lunch box !!

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
A fertile egg will have a white bullseye in the yolk verses an irregular edged circle. Blood spots in eggs is not an indication of fertlity.

True, and the little blood spots are called 'egg meat' and are actually a tiny harmless rupture when the hen passes the yolk into the egg chamber in her body.
Big egg farms candle their eggs and reject any with egg meat in them as it grosses out the general public for that very reason.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Got my Delawares today, had asked my PO to call me this morning and I went to the back door to knock, they are great people and all want chicks, too.
I have to take them photos of the birds...
When they called I carefully manuvered the ice out here to find the van had a flat tire..so DH had to knock the ice off his compressor and air it up, then off to find an opened tire shop where they fixed it for free !!
Cannot beat that with a stick!!
Our power has gone off 1 X for 20 minutes since we have been here 1 1/2 yrs..it is all underground way from Aberdeen..and the one time it was off was for maintenance, still..I got a generator !
One egg in the box was smashed to hell, but contained.
Nice pack job all the same.
Checked air cells and 3 look suspicious but I marked & will set them in a few hours.
So, one way or another you will have Dellies !!
The visit sounds great!!

Edited to add:: I think less the one smashed egg, I have 14, 3 with Q air cells.
Keep your fingers crossed !!

 

[WhySayWhat]

Quote:
To Spokane? Spokane got like 2 feet of snow or something on Thursday....so maybe she got stuck over there?

Well, they say we got 8-15"...looked more like 12" or so at my house on the northside of town.

It was bearable though, and is mostly off the roads now except for the nasty ice that was under there before it snowed from the day before anyway. Now, if it would just warm up, I could finish my coop I started building last weekend!

 

[Chickielady]

another shot of the inside of one of the coops, bucket is inside.
I had them outside, hanging from the tree, but song birds and mice/rats...ewww, need I say more ?
Not to mention that feed can get wet, cold, and also the birds constantly kick it out with their beaks, while sifting for the perfect morsal to eat, pounds of feed was kicked out onto the floor/ground.
I still have not posted the water bowls, have I ?
Well, I will go out and do that now...so nice, NO FROZEN WATER !!
No POOPY WATER either!
We no longer have the garbage can indoors, so the birds have plenty of space.

 

[blueducklings]

Quote:

I think your hummer comes to my house too.
I think he has a school out in the trees and he is teaching all the other birds 2 byb2.
Our humming bird will stalk me down and stare at me from whichever window I'm at and demand that I fill his feeder.
It froze today and boy was he MADD. His girl friend came by and tested the warm syrup. I think she approves. He'll by by soon enough.
Slave to hummers, ducks, dogs, & 2 boys, big & small.

 

[Eagle2026]

Quote:
"holesaw" is the implament that you fasten to the drill motor.
You can get them in verious sizes. 1"-6" and everything in between. Maybe even bigger?
I'd like to see a pix of one of these feeders, please if anyone has one uploaded.
Mike

here ya go:
Go higher and larger for a big rooster or single combed bird
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/50801_buckets_030.jpg

I like it, gone to make some of those for sure!
Thank you.
Mike

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
At least it didn't until you put all your stuff in it.

I feel like I have to declutter my purse every couple days...

I know that feeling. Just keeping up with all the paper in it is a real chore. Of course it doesn't help that I like to carry pens with a lot of different colors. In fact the TSA was confused by all the pens I was carrying one trip, but once the girls saw all the colors they seemed to understand.

 

[Rainwolf]

Quote:
Humming birds are supposed to migrate but due to food being out year around they start to hang out here year round. I pull my feeders just before they are to migrate then put them back out for the lazy ones after all the migratory ones have left.

Rufous Hummingbirds usually arrive in March and is usually last seen in the fall, late August. Anna's are year-round residents. Calliope and Black-chinned occur in migration.

Black-chinned Hummingbird Migration
In spring Black-chinned Hummingbirds can be seen returning to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona from mid-March through May. They reach Southern California by late March. It may be May before the species reaches the northwest states and British Columbia.

In fall they leave west-coast areas in mid-August and September. In Texas they are usually gone by mid-October. Most Black-chinned Hummingbirds winter in Mexico.

Rufous Hummingbird Migration --
In spring Rufous Hummingbirds migrate up the Pacific coast, passing through California from February to May. The birds reach British Columbia in early April and Alaska by mid-April. Birds arrive in Idaho and Montana around the end of April.

In the fall Rufous Hummingbirds are gone from Alaska by the end of August. They migrate through California in late June, July, and August. Many Rufous Hummingbirds pass through Colorado in late July and August. They pass through Arizona and New Mexico from mid-July to August. A number of fall migrants end up far east of the normal range. Some vagrant birds spend the winter at feeders in the east, especially at locations along the Gulf Coast.

Calliope Hummingbird Migration --
Breeds in western mountains as far north as central British Columbia. Spring migrants arrive in southern California in early March. Arrives in Oregon in early May. Birds may not arrive in Idaho and Montana until mid-or late May. Fall migration is early. Calliopes depart from Washington, British Columbia, and Idaho in late August. Migrating birds can be seen in Arizona and New Mexico.

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
so funny--they really ARE chatty lil things too. Once, when the feeder was empty at my mom's.. she had one come buzz her right in the face. Let her know exactly how it felt about the empty feeder!! They have long beaks--could take out an eye if you don't continue to feed the monsters!!!

So true. This is why I am scared of hummingbirds.