Washingtonians

[TheReidHomestead]

Oh! And I forgot to mention our 4-H chicken farm tour! We got to go to a breeder's facility up in Standwood yesterday and check out their set up. Talk about drool! They had an incubator room with 4 cabinet incubators, a bird washing room for prep before showing, a two story barn with over 50 different pens! A vaccum system built into the barn for easy clean up. It was awesome! I was sooooooooo glad DH could see it all with me so now he knows what I'm dreaming of! LOL!!! But I'm still working on him. Maybe one day!

 

[Ogress]

I went out and checked on the hens again today. Chirp, the one attacked by my dog last night seems to be doing fine. She's eating and drinking and walker around her isolation pen. I puter her on the ground and she immediatelyran into her coop, jumped into a nest box, and laid a big egg without even a squak! afterwards I picked her back up and put her back in isolation. I suspect we will be getting some "meat eggs" from her in the next few days! She looks a little roughed up, down and feathers not in the right order, and a bit greasy in spotes from the neosporin. Can't see the bald patches uless she spreads her wings out. Unless an infection sets in, I think she will be fine.

My dogs dug up my strawberry beds today - yesterday it was the chickens who did it; can't win. How do you all keep your free-ranging birds out of your garden?

Happy Easter!!!

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:
I bet the first time was the dogs too and they just tried to blame it on the chickens. Didn't work so good for em the second time did it !!!!!

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
LOL....we will be like second cousins. It was about the size of the cochin hen I have...and it was brown like the BRs. She is funny. Loves attention...even from us. The first few times the roo actually beat her up because he did not really know here...but she kept flashing ankle and running whenever he sang his goody song...he came around. She seldom leaves his side.

lol Could you post a pic of chcikielady and my ganchick? Im curious how she looks, wonder how much she looks like her mamma!

so far I can pick out those two biddies out of Chickieladys flock pics! Loved them, and so glad that she took them home.

My avatar is kind of dark...But that is the "hussy" Matilda (or Tilly). She is the one moving up the ranks rather quickly...and she is laying regularly...like clockwork. I will get a better photo.

 

[Kaneke]

I'm still around too

I didn't like the patter of rain on the skylights, so I quick ran out and scooped the dead leaves and branches out of another of the ore troughs, and DH helped me turn it on its side to dump out the icky muddy water that was still in there ...

but neither of us feels like using the energy to scoot them across the yard yet

one more trough to empty -- it's further under the side property line fir bushes -- neighbor continues to top them at about ten feet, so they grow sideways as a dense hedge

so to get to this one, to empty it out, I have to crawl six feet or so under branches

however, it doesn't seem to have as much water or old dead rotted stuff in it --- I bailed it out a couple days ago, but there's still quite a bit of junk to rake and scoop out, before we can turn it on its side to dump the last bit out, then haul it out from under the hedge/trees

seems to have stopped misting/sprinkling, so I will at least put my outdoor clothes on and go let the chicks out of the coop again --- the donated chicken tractor is no where near predator proof, it isn't even chicken proof -- LOL -- so I need to be out there when the chickens are in it

we have a surplus sideways-sliding aluminum framed window, probably 6 x 4 feet -- I am thinking about using that as the access/gateway to the run, with the five ore troughs completing the three sides of the run, with the crate/coop and the small coop as the fourth side -- I will see if that will work once we get the troughs all over by the coops

will have to figure out how to make a hinged roof to the run, next to the crate/coop, since the end door of that is seven feet high, plus the foot more of landscape-timber foundation and its own pallet foundation above those

not sure yet if I am going to cut a chicken door into one of the full height double opening doors of that coop, or if I will just open the whole door up and let the chickens dash out into the run

I may wait and see what broodytood does with HERS -- since she has two of the crate/coops ... I liked the idea she had, of spacing them apart and building a shed/quarantine/nesting/storage area between them

gotta figure out how to design it all, too, so that DS can fill up water and feed for the chicks, without having to do too much work --- yet have it secure enough that rodents and predators and feral whatevers, can't get at the food --- I'm thinking maybe put a dryer-vent device, with a tube down to the feeder, inside the coop rather than feeding them out in the run as I have been doing

DH wants to fly over to go to granddaughter's law school graduation in mid May --- depends on the airfare, how long we stay ... and whether we can find accommodations to fit our budget

(at least we will no longer be having to support her and pay tuition and lodging and whatevahs -- she already has found a placement she loves, back on Kauai, so she can live at home, so that drain on our finances will finally !!!! be over with)

so DS will need to care for the chicks while we're gone --- no, I won't make him scoop poo off the sand ! --- if I do this right, he won't have to go into the coop at all

 

[Ogress]

Quote:
I bet the first time was the dogs too and they just tried to blame it on the chickens. Didn't work so good for em the second time did it !!!!!

You might be right! yesterday the dogs and the chickens were in the strawberry beds at the same time, but the damage was not so severe. The dogs were lying down and the chickens were scratching all around them. Because of the rain, only the dogs were let out today. The chickens have to stay in the coop or run. Now the chickens did eat the celery yesteday . . . guess I need to look at fencing solutions cause those zappy collars are a bit too big for the chickens!

 

[Kaneke]

Quote:
isn't that what chicken wire is REALLY for ??? to keep chickens out of the garden, not IN anywhere

my smarty pants friend gets those foot square plastic covered wire things, made to lock together to form shelving units;
she puts them together as open-bottom cubes and rectangles, over any plants she doesn't want her free-ranging chickens to destroy

have also seen milk crates upended, for same reason

someone on Craigslist was offering hoop houses made of PVC, either for chicken tractors or for garden protectors -- she is worried about the possibility of
radioactive iodine in the rainfall, so is covering all her garden beds so rain doesn't get to them

too spendy for me, we will put together our own PVC chicken tractor .... got some old stuff laying around

 

[cackleberrylinda]

Quote:
I lived in Lisabeula for a few months when i lived on Vashon. the old Norwegian couple were so good to me and my kids when we were "between homes" in the old hippy days. Used to picnic there all during the 16 years I spent on the Island. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't move back "home". Miss the water. Spent most of my life either on the water or in sight of it.
Oh well, now I have lots of trees and a beaver pond. not bad

The couple was Ralph and Olga Berg. I loved them; they were like grandparents to me. Their home always smelled so good. The fire was always stoked with driftwood, and the smell of Ralph's pipe tobacco. There was something special about those smells. There will be always a sense of being home there for me. My parents moved to the larger caretaker's house about October of 1959. I was just a few months old. I think that we only lived there a fairly short time, before my parents move into a house at the top of the hill just above the ferry dock on the north end of the Island. I still consider Vashon Island my home. My family moved from the Island in January 1973. I would love to live back on the Island. My DH has pretty much said that he doesn't ever want to live there. I love the smell of the beach and water.
The old resort is no longer accessible by anyone. It private property and heavily marked with no trespassing signs. I would love to go back and see the area. I don't think that any of the cottages exist anymore. I think the dock is also long gone.

I am way behind and working on catching up on posts and got caught up to the day of this post.
I guess we have a lot in common... The Rock and chickens. Sometimes it's an ache. There's a fun whatever you call it on facebook called Nobody Believes My Vashon Island Stories.
Great fun and so much nostalgia. I think you'll love it.

 

[cackleberrylinda]

Quote:
What kind of hatching eggs did you get????

Bantam Favs, blue wheaten ameracaunas, bantam gl wyandottes

How are your bantam favs doing? What a fun concept. Favs are on my list of "I wanna have ems" and to get to have em in Bantie form... ooooooeeeee

 

[SadieSue]

Quote:
Wonderful spring pictures - it makes one hopeful!