Washingtonians

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Some people just want eggs and do not know a leghorn from an araucana.
And if the bird is POL, they will pay $50 for it.
Especially if it lays big eggs.
Had a woman here today that apparently I talked to on the phone weeks ago, wanted to buy some POL brown layers, of which I am out of now.
She was desperate, and said her Mother "is in" Hospice (did that mean she works for Hospice or that she is dying?) and Mother wanted a good big brown egg.
Even just one hen, she said.
I told her all I have is breeding stock and they are just starting to lay & will not have any more for a few weeks, and then it will be chicks.
"oh no" she said, "I have no means to raise chicks" I thought about telling her how easy it is to raise chicks, but thought diferently as she most likely wants instant large brown eggs, tomorrow!
If she would have bought chicks from me months ago, Mom would be having breakfast right now, and she did not care what breed it was..after she left I remembered the other Chickenlady here in Raymond..should have sent her over there.

 

[BarnChick]

Quote:
Are you going to set them ?
If so, I recommend you collect eggs for 6 or 7 days, then set them.
If they are dirty, you can gently scrub dirt/poop off with a dry scothc brite scubby.
Setting eggs every 6 or 7 days gives you time in between batches.
I have 3 brooders, new babies are to the right, the center is middle babies and the left is older babies with a door so they can go outside.
One they are a month or more old (started birds) they are sold, or go to the coops with the big birds.
Then each batch is moved to the left.
I have 2 hatching incubators and one big cabinet incubator.
I can set eggs every 7 days, and when lockdown comes on a set, it is removed from the big cabinet, candled, and good eggs go into lockdown in one of the 2 lockdown incubators.
So consider how you are going to work this all out.
Even with 1 incubator, 6 or 7 days works.
But you cannot keep opening your incubator to set eggs if any prior sets are in lockdown.
It would be very confusing after a while (it is confusing) that is why I have 2 just for lockdowns.

No, won't be setting or shipping, these will be for the farmer's market I am doing june 25. Just would like to sell the eggs to people who want to hatch them. I don't have an incubator so I can only eat the eggs that the chickens give me.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Me either, 50# sack food grade DE was $23 at my feed store.

since I don't use THAT much DE -- was glad that Yelm Farm & Pet repackaged their food grade DE into 10# kraft paper bags for $5

yes, it's more "per pound", but that meant I didn't have to find storage space for 50# bag, didn't have to haul it around, with the ever present danger of the bag splitting open as I hefted it

still have used less than a third of it in three months since I got the chicks

I got all my "stuff" in big rubber maide garbage cans, each has a tight fitting lid, seals out rain & vermin, and I got a big feed scoop in each one.
Each coop has it's own feed, some are 16% layer with oyster shell, some have 20% MAX GROW AND ONE HAS FLOCK MASTER (DUCKS) AND ONE HAS 28% BROILER GROWER.

But that IS a better price than I have seen in a long time..most pet shops & feed stores and health food stores (the worst) have these 1/2 pound plastic packages of FG DE for $25-$30 !!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Are you going to set them ?
If so, I recommend you collect eggs for 6 or 7 days, then set them.
If they are dirty, you can gently scrub dirt/poop off with a dry scothc brite scubby.
Setting eggs every 6 or 7 days gives you time in between batches.
I have 3 brooders, new babies are to the right, the center is middle babies and the left is older babies with a door so they can go outside.
One they are a month or more old (started birds) they are sold, or go to the coops with the big birds.
Then each batch is moved to the left.
I have 2 hatching incubators and one big cabinet incubator.
I can set eggs every 7 days, and when lockdown comes on a set, it is removed from the big cabinet, candled, and good eggs go into lockdown in one of the 2 lockdown incubators.
So consider how you are going to work this all out.
Even with 1 incubator, 6 or 7 days works.
But you cannot keep opening your incubator to set eggs if any prior sets are in lockdown.
It would be very confusing after a while (it is confusing) that is why I have 2 just for lockdowns.

No, won't be setting or shipping, these will be for the farmer's market I am doing june 25. Just would like to sell the eggs to people who want to hatch them. I don't have an incubator so I can only eat the eggs that the chickens give me.

OK, collect for 6-7 days before you go, mark the date collected & breed initials, store & tilt several times a day, keep at 50-55 degrees is what I would do.
I use a different egg carton for each breed.

 

[BarnChick]

ok thanks

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
X2 I do not think I would spray that anywhere I had animals. Diesel (Kerosene) has alot of nasty stuff in it, and the oiliness would really attract the dust & make oily mud.
I knew an old man when I was a kid who would hold his horses' hooves up like to pick them, and pour turpentine in them, and like count to 100, to kill hoof rot.
It must have stung bad cuz the horses went nuts stamping their feet for quite a while.

Ive heard of turpentine being used. We use a bleach solution for thrush. Or thrush killer if its so bad that bleach isnt enough...

At the big ranch in Ione OR I worked on, we sunk two posts about 3 feet apart in between sheep pastures, and sunk a 8" deep LONG trough in the ground & used the bleach solution in it.
Animals had to walk through it several times a day.
We still had to "prune" hooves, but had no thrush, no hoof rot.
Works for cattle too, just have posts farther apart, and hang a lice bag between the two posts, and the cattle KNOW and will rub all over under the lice bag to powder themselves.
Saw too many big nasty worms in their skin..had to use a box wrench to pop them out..but the lice bag worked & hoof trough worked great!

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Please, tell me you're not serious. It's toxic, and carcinogenic, not to mention flammable.

No no, not the diesel fuel (that for sure is carcinogenic)- I meant the "eco" spray.

If you are prego, avoid everything.
But the eco spray is a dirivative of crysanthemums, and there are also alot of products out that are SYNTHETIC dirivatives of chrysanthemums.
That is not to say you should spray it on yourself (especially if prego)
But I have sprayed my chicken's nether regions (as they run across the yard with mites

just A squirt per, and not on the skin but the egg sacks hanging down THERE

) and there are alot of products stronger made for dogs, like Top Spot..but NEVER spray on a cat.
I heard tell it is toxic to cats.

 

[Chickielady]

Quote:
store collected eggs in an egg carton, paper is best, in a 55 degree enviroment, large end (air cell) UP.
A warmish (55 degree refrig is best in summer) in winter I keep mine in a cooler outdoors.
They should be tipped back & forth several times daily until shipped.
I do not keep eggs longer than 6 days, and then ship priority mail.
I always either date the carton or the eggs of the day of collection, to ensure there is no stale (old) ones.

I keep meaning to ask: is the Postal Service the only way to ship eggs or can you use Fed-Ex or UPS?

The USPS does not give a hoot how you ship eggs.
They are oblivious to the Dept of Ag and the NPIP and when I asked why they do not have NPIP numbers written on the boxes of shipping hatchings eggs, they said "what??" I seriously discussed this with my post master, such a sweet guy...and he said that the USPS is under NO jurisdiction to NOT ship eggs due to the LACK OF a npip number on said box of eggs.
According to Dept of AG, you must have YOUR NPIP certification number written plainly on the outside of the box.

This reminds me of the state saying yes, you can legally grow medicinal pot if you are varified by a doctor to need to do so..but the feds say NO POT IS ILLEGAL>

But ship any way you like, as long as Fed Ex and the like also do not check for a NPIP certification.
I found it best to NOT write "HATCHING EGGS" on the box, and so who will know ???????
I am going to get NPIP certified as soon as this last shipment of chicks is done.
OK, That is all I know~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Chickielady]

OK, time for MY problems.
Here is the biggest one I have:
Tinnitus, started about 3 years ago, no hearing loss that I could tell, just infinite ringing.
Doc said it must be nerve damage due to hunting alot with long guns..but in the left ear ??
He said well..could happen.
That was all I got for my $200

Since I have hunted down no reason for it, but it continues, until about 3 months ago, I got fluid in the ear.
I could & can hear it...
Thought it was swimmer's ear, but once again another doc says there is nothing in there, clean, clear.
But the popping, gurgling continues especially when I go up heights or down, even when I bend over.
Was awful going to Ogress' fortress on the mountain top~~~

I have come to discover it is INSIDE the ear drum, ::: Eustation tube blocked, crimped shut, nothing will get it open.

So, does anyone know how to deal with this ?
I have tried the "nose plug blow" and I have tried blowing up ballons.
I hear scubba divers know tricks to unpop their ears..I am seriously thinking a trip over the Siskiyous or up to Hurricane Ridge will be the only way to unpop myself.....

 

[Chickielady]

It drives me crazy!!!
Especially at night when everything is quiet..the gurgling and ringing...........eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!