Washingtonians

[hallerlake]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160676863425&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:1123

Over three hundred dollars for six eggs! They'll be lucky to get a pair!

 

[justbugged]

Quote:
DH and I skin the birds. I also learned the hard way to de-bone most of the meat also. I save all the bones for stock and chicken soup. We first bleed the birds, then skin it and then remove the craw/crop part. At that point it is gutted and then put into ice water. I finally learned to de-bone it about 3 days later, and I bag everything in vacuum bags.

The grocery store where they make chicken and no animals are involved still sounds much easier.

I agree that is does sound much easier when no animals are harmed when with the making of store bought meat. So if you only buy meat from the grocery store, you could still think of yourself as a vegetarian, by using this reasoning?

 

[SadieSue]

So how long does this "hawk season" last? We've had the coop up since April with the older girls and later the "chicks" free ranging all summer. In very early October I had my first hawk sighting in the back yard. Last week I heard the crows warnings and saw one take off out of the fir trees with the crows hot on it's tail. This weekend, I was driving to the Fred Meyers just 6 blocks down the hill from me and there was another hawk circling overhead and finally lighting atop one of the firs.

It's been pretty quiet outdoors today - DH and I are both home so we've let the girls out while there's no rain, but I'm a little on edge about it. (DH actually let them out while I was at the dentist) I know some of you are familiar with predatory birds habits (Julia, I might be looking your way

), so although I'm always watching and listening, it's just worrisome to have those darn things lurking. Can't they fly to Miami or something for the winter?

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:
The grocery store where they make chicken and no animals are involved still sounds much easier.

I agree that is does sound much easier when no animals are harmed when with the making of store bought meat. So if you only buy meat from the grocery store, you could still think of yourself as a vegetarian, by using this reasoning?

Vegetarian...... Native American name for lousy hunter !!!!

 

[Ogress]

It is 33 and has been sleeting and snowing here all day. When I was waiting at the bus stop with DD this AM, It was coming down so hard my windshield wipers could not keep up. I drove to Issaquah for my tax final right after. On the big hill on I-90 between Noerth Bend and Snoqualmie, there was an inch of slush on the road and it was coming down real heavy. The roads were slick. I did not see the guy spin out, but I saw the tracks, so it must have just happened; there was a car stuck in the ditch in the median.

It warmed a lot dropping down the hill to Issaquah; 41 and drizzle. The sky appeared to be pretty clear above Seattle. I was hopeful that meant it warmed up at home while I was gone - no luck. Wet, slushy snow coming down hard, 33, and an inch of slush on the ground.

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Quote:
If you have hawks they will always be there. They do not go elsewhere at different times of year like ducks and geese.

 

[RustyHen]

It's 57* here but the wind is howling at 32 miles per with gusts, we have not had more than a sprinkle for a week or two you must be keeping it all on the wet side or farther north.

 

[Sudsy Chick]

Quote:
Oh my goodness

I would love to take you up on this if you are not terribly far (I'm in the Kenmore/Kirkland area.) I know Honeysuckle Hills will have some to butcher soon, and mine will be ready in a month or so and she is close by as well.

Also - I was telling folks I saw equipment for rent in Pierce County from WA DOA- here it is on Craigslist again. Too far for me...but perhaps some folks down South?

http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/grd/2702442778.html

Poultry Processing Equipment - $20 (Puyallup)
Current Washington State Department of Agriculture regulations allow farmers raising less than 1,000 birds to process and sell them directly to customers. Small poultry producers wishing to process birds for personal use or to expand their product offerings and increase on-farm income may rent the Pierce Conservation District's poultry processing equipment for $20 a day or $35 per weekend. The equipment can process up to 100-200 birds a day and is easily transported in a pickup truck. For more information or to reserve the equipment, contact Mike Baden at 253 845-9770 x 104.

And more stuff down south!
http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/zip/2702541867.html

Free Farm Animal Food (Sumner Food Bank)
Produce and bread that is no longer suitable is discarded every day. The produce and bread is placed in food grade barrels. We have a crane to lift the barrels into your pickup or truck. The barrels must be cleaned out prior to returning them to the food bank. Prefer pickup every other day. Call Tim at 253-753-0340 for additional information.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Depends on the weather, sadly: there will be the resident Red Tails and Coopers all winter, and they will be unlikely to take after your chickens if they haven't already. If we're talking about the Fred Meyer's on Bridgeport Way, that Red Tail has a nesting territory at the golf course; there's also a pair of Cooper's Hawks that nest over by Curtis (we used to go to the Trader Joe's on Bridgeport Way; anywhere I go more than a few times, I've scoped out the resident Red Tails and Coopers at least, also Ospreys (the closest to you is at Gravelly Lake) and Bald Eagles (They nest somewhere inland from the mouth of Chambers Creek but not too far from the New Tacoma Cemetary).

However, if there's hard weather north of us all winter, we'll have Fraser River vagrants, and they are the ones to worry about. Arctic outbreaks that drive lots of snow all the way to southern Puget Sound push the hungry travellers south of us, and out to the ocean beaches, so there's times right before and right after that you'll see more migrants- especially down at shoreline below you. Blue freezes are worst for places like the Kent Valley and Nisqually Delta- the travellers like to hunt open spaces more than forests.

If it stays damp and breezy, you just have to worry about the residents, and that not very much- there's a lot of prey species habitat where you are, and unless you're close to a roost tree (which I suspect is the source of hallerlake's eagle problem, although I'm yet to figure out where that bird is perching) where they can drop out of the sky in a moment when they're just bored or hungry enough to risk close human encounters, you shouldn't have any active attempts at predation. I watched the resident Red Tail here ignore the heck out of my cousin's free ranging chickens all last year and as recently as today- the only attempted bird predation here was that one migrant Coops earlier this fall.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
If you have hawks they will always be there. They do not go elsewhere at different times of year like ducks and geese.

Or what CR said more economically.