Washingtonians

[Kaneke]

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wow -- you are getting a great hatch, seems like ! I'm so glad and proud of you too for taking such good care of them

hey, with luck all those chipmunk-y chicks will be pullets

obviously your broody will need to be watched carefully if she is ever sitting on eggs that REALLY MATTER to you; but here's hoping that she is a good MAMA once they're all hatched and tucked under her

cute picture ! looks a lot like mine did when they were sitting in the bin at Del's

 

[Totalcolour]

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Hmmm, we do the deep littler and it doesn't smell much. However, this is our third year; first year we either didn't do it right 'cus it did smell, OR it needs time to ferment properly. It needs to be not too wet and not too dry. Also, the base needs to be able to drain, so that it won't stay too moist.

What kind of litter are you using? That could have something to do with it.

 

[Ogress]

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I hear you - they specify the brands of pencils and scissors and stuff. At the elementary school, the students turn in everything but the scissors and ruler in to the teacher who re-ditributes. Most teachers have a box of sharpened pencils and another for the kids to put the dull ones in and then a parent takes them to the workroom for sharpening. I can tell you that the bulk of the pencils that parents buy, the really cheap mega packs, the lead is so badly centered that I will often have to sharpen the pencil to half its size before I get a tip, and about 20% will get ground all the way down before the tip shows. The school requests Ticonderoga's, but even they are not as good as they used to be. I'm glad at the Middle School, the students get to keep their own supply. I order Musgrave and a couple other brands of pencils made here in the USA, they sharpen nicely. They cost more to buy but last so much longer it is worth the extra expense. (Musgrave is mostly known for their pencils with information on them like times tables, the preamble to the constitution, chemical symbols, etc. I bought the ones with the states and capitals on them for my kids, and they passively learned them! Olivia got 80% on her pre-test before they learned them, and she did not cheat by using the pencil with the answers.) There are a couple of other good brands too - surprisingly one of the Roseart pencils (not all - need the green barrel). I found these while sharpening pencils for second graders. Most Roseart stuff stuff is made in China, but they bought out a small pencil manufacturer in New Jersey, and the good pencils are produced there and sold at Target stores.

What cracks me up with both schools is they have this huge list of required items (pencils, pens, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, highlighters in 4 colors, dry-erase markers in 3 colors, 2 boxes of 24 count colored pencils ....) and one SMALL pencil box so that they can fit the stuff in their desks! For Alex's small items alone, I filled 4 pencil cases and a 1 gallon zip-lock bag!

My son had a pencil caddy on his desk last 2 years and this year, cause he is in JH, he has a locker so he can haul around just the things he needs. I got him a small magnetic pencil cup for his locker and a shelf.

Hope that works.
I also ended up buying a few nice things at the UW bookstore...I found the us constitution pencil as well, and a very nice student day runner that has all the UW info in it. Even when they have games, and what you need to graduate.

We try.
But I really like their note books. Nest year I am shopping there. Everything he needs plus some, and it is not made in CHINA. At least I had the options there.

Both my kids schools order day runners that we must purchase from them. The elementary school one is pretty basic, so it is $8; I don't know how much the middle school one is (DH wrote the check for it). It is very customized for the school and contains contact info, school rules, dress code, and lots and lots of pages with stuff like periodic tables, multiplication charts, instructions on how to write a report....

The middle school has lockers that they made them tall and very, very narrow so no one gets a bottom locker, and not even the skinniest kid can get shoved in one. Alex has to remove his books from his backpack just so he could fit the pack in the locker! What is really stupid is they don't allow the kids to go to their lockers between classes (unless it is lunch time) nor do they allow the kids to bring their backpacks into the classroom! I bought Alex this mega-binder/book bag combo thing to hold all stuff he needs to schlep around with him. It is one of those cloth covered zip-around binders with 2 sets of 3" rings in it, a built in accordian file and 2 built-in pencil-cases. It can easily hold 3 spirals (day-timer, graph paper and Language arts), 2 black compostion books, 2 packs binder paper, plus all the subject dividers, and his calculator when we find it (they specify brand and model on that too). I can't get all the colored pencils, the tape dispenser, 24 pencils (did put in 2 of the 5 required mechanical pencils), most of the glue sticks and other bulky stuff in, so they are in a box in his locker. Alex loves the binder/bookbag thing. Last year he carried a regular binder (the cover kept tearing off) and schlepped all those notebooks and pencil bags loose. Sometimes he'd drop the binder, and all the papers would fly everywhere. I hope this one holds up better! It was pretty pricey, but not as high as relplacing all those normal binders. I did see on the school supply list, they specified "No zip-around binders". I'm breaking that rule!

 

[Ogress]

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I have not figured it out either - I even use poop boards that I scrape into a bucket about daily, and still end up shoveling the litter out of the coop and sweeping all the dust out at least every 8 weeks, and usually 4! Without all the poop on the floor, there is no where for all the dust the chickens create to stick to. so it gets in the air and drives me insane because in addition to DE, and dust from their feed, I'm sure it also contains dirt from their dust baths, chicken poop, and poutry dust (the ones in the shaker can for mite control). I don't want to breathe all that crud in! I buy a big bag of white shavings monthly.

I did buy a radiant panel heater for the coop which I will plug into one of those outlets that only comes on when the temp drops below 35.

 

[Sudsy Chick]

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I have not figured it out either - I even use poop boards that I scrape into a bucket about daily, and still end up shoveling the litter out of the coop and sweeping all the dust out at least every 8 weeks, and usually 4! Without all the poop on the floor, there is no where for all the dust the chickens create to stick to. so it gets in the air and drives me insane because in addition to DE, and dust from their feed, I'm sure it also contains dirt from their dust baths, chicken poop, and poutry dust (the ones in the shaker can for mite control). I don't want to breathe all that crud in! I buy a big bag of white shavings monthly.

I did buy a radiant panel heater for the coop which I will plug into one of those outlets that only comes on when the temp drops below 35.

I couldn't figure out the deep litter method either - so we ended up doing a version of this - more like a kitty litter box

We use coffee chaf - the outer hull from coffee beans - and a big kitty litter scoop. The chaf makes the coop smell like coffee - and the poop clumps to the chaff. We'll clean it every other day or so. The best part is the chaff is FREE from your local coffee roaster. I LOVE free!

The biggest downside is that chaff is very light - and flies around in the coop.

 

[Zgoatlady]

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Welcome this is a great group.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Bad night: forgot to take my nightly fist-full of bloodpressure meds, all of which warn against using heavy machinery while taking them, until about 3:30 when I got up to check to see if the weird noise I was hearing was something trying to get into the hoop house (turned out to be somebody trying to start a very unwell deisal engine) and checked my pill box on the way back to bed. So I'm a glorious combination of sleep-deprived and still somewhat sedated by take at bedtime meds.

So, got anything you want me to break for you?

 

[Zgoatlady]

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yes something is wrong, I never have any smell in mine. So what are you doing?

 

[Stumpfarmer]

OH: about the deep litter method: I suspect that the critical thing is that you have to keep the litter dry, water and spilled feed smells worse than chicken poop, even.


Terrifying as that may sound.

 

[Zgoatlady]

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oh so cute! I love the little chipmunk stripes

How many total now?

4 out of the 5 in the incubator have hatched so far. Nothing under the broody yet as far as I can tell. Of course, when I try to move her to see anything she gets PO'd and pecks me HARD.
So still waiting on one more in the house and 3 under the broody.

What I'm wondering now is if I have to wait for those under the broody to hatch before I can try to put these chicks under the broody tonight? I wanted to try and sneak them under her when it gets dark. This is the part that worries me but I was really hoping that the hen would be the one raising them.

If you do that she may get off the nest and think that all is done, wait a little while longer. See if you can go out late tonight and candle the ones' under her.