Washingtonians

[FlyRobinFly]

Quote: Well it turned into a fail. See I was supposed to go to DW's sisters to pick up a tanning bed (to sell) and then go catch bees. Ended up spending 3 hours there loading scrap metal including said tanning bed that will probably go as scrap ($3800 and she said haul it off besides they lost the gas springs) and a $1600 jennair flat top range, Scrap cause the crew who removed it for the remodel broke the top !
Bummer!

Hopefully the scrap brings you some decent $ at least.
Will you be able to catch the bees another time? I've been keeping my ears out for swarms for you since you lost your bees but it seems lots of other folks are out capturing them for their own hives.

 

[Teva]

Who's going to Mother Earth this weekend? I'm going both days, likely with my friend Anna, my DD and her DD as Don just told me he had never planned on attending (but I ordered the tix when he said it would be a nice thing to do as a family!)

I'll be there with my kids on Saturday to check out the chickens!

 

[SadieSue]

Who's going to Mother Earth this weekend? I'm going both days, likely with my friend Anna, my DD and her DD as Don just told me he had never planned on attending (but I ordered the tix when he said it would be a nice thing to do as a family!)

 I'll be there with my kids on Saturday to check out the chickens!

Yeah, I had purchased two weekend passes about a month ago but don't know if I'll be able to go on Saturday at all now. A cousins wife passed away unexpectedly and they're having her Celebration of Life that day.

We'll have to see how it goes. Is there a chicken show on Saturday that I'm going to miss?

 

[mikeyb]

Well my girls have had sometime free ranging and I've been introducing them to Jake (he was on a leash, just in case). I think they were more interested in him then he was in them.
We did that for a couple of days for short periods of time and all went well. Then I took him off the leash and waited to see what would happen. He stayed by me (I have a bench that I sit on just outside the run) and all was fine until the girls spotted his tail. They love his tail. He was a tad confused about being attacked. The looks he gave me made be chuckle.
Then he found he could chase them and they would run and fly, oh what fun! I dang near had a heart attack. Finally got that under control, whew, he had me going there.
Today was great, I think. All 7 girls and Stu was out and about in the yard and Jake was in the house. He must of got up on the back of the sofa where he can see the coop, saw me out there and the chickens wandering around in the yard and that was not to be, no sirree. No dang wandering chickens in HIS yard.
He came out and came over to me and sat for a bit and then took off after the chickens and herded them back into the run. That wasn't good enough, he herded them into the coop and then came out to me and I swear he had a smirk on his face, really.
He miss counted, there was one gal he missed and he was off like a shot this time and then he barked (the first time since he came out of the house) and the chase was on. The gal headed straight for the run and into the coop lickitysplit.
Hopefully a few more days of mingling all will be well and he'll ignor them or better yet protect them.

 

[Rainwolf]

Great responses about ventilation everyone - thank you!  Your input has been passed along to my friend so that she and her DD and friends building their coop can make an informed choice.  You guys are awesome.

 

a nice trick is to add a window that opens top down... so you can crack it or open wide as needed... just make sure to screen the inside so even when open it is secure

 

[Chicken Rustler]

Well my girls have had sometime free ranging and I've been introducing them to Jake (he was on a leash, just in case). I think they were more interested in him then he was in them.
We did that for a couple of days for short periods of time and all went well. Then I took him off the leash and waited to see what would happen. He stayed by me (I have a bench that I sit on just outside the run) and all was fine until the girls spotted his tail. They love his tail. He was a tad confused about being attacked. The looks he gave me made be chuckle.
Then he found he could chase them and they would run and fly, oh what fun! I dang near had a heart attack. Finally got that under control, whew, he had me going there.
Today was great, I think. All 7 girls and Stu was out and about in the yard and Jake was in the house. He must of got up on the back of the sofa where he can see the coop, saw me out there and the chickens wandering around in the yard and that was not to be, no sirree. No dang wandering chickens in HIS yard.
He came out and came over to me and sat for a bit and then took off after the chickens and herded them back into the run. That wasn't good enough, he herded them into the coop and then came out to me and I swear he had a smirk on his face, really.
He miss counted, there was one gal he missed and he was off like a shot this time and then he barked (the first time since he came out of the house) and the chase was on. The gal headed straight for the run and into the coop lickitysplit.
Hopefully a few more days of mingling all will be well and he'll ignor them or better yet protect them.

Mikey sounds like Jake is off to a good start. No offense to you or Jake but proceed VERY cautious. I would hate to read that something went bad while you were distracted for a few. It can happen so easy and especially since Jake has learned the chase game.
I have made a point to teach my dogs that they are to stay away from and leave the animals alone unless I ask for help. I have done this when we had horses, goats, pigs and now the chickens. So far it has worked well for me.

Keep in mind this is just MY opinion and the way I choose to deal with it. Good luck with what ever works for you or others.

 

[Totalcolour]

Judges4​

Are those ducks in your profile pic? I'm seeking honest opinions on keeping ducks. My husband is convinced they're mean and messy. I'd kinda like some duck eggs, but I don't want mean and messy. They'd have to be enclosed like the chickens, too.

We have mostly ducks - right now about 40. They are so laid back, not at all mean, but then some ducks are meaner than others. Really, it's like chickens, some good, some bad, some just plain ugly! They can be messy - depends on how you take care of them. I'd rather have ducks, but some of my customers wouldn't buy the eggs (I have converted a few to duck eggs though!).

I gave my sister "Yaun (one) duck" and it bonded with her rabbit, the two are inseparable.

Some of our babies

 

[BerrytangleFarm]

Judges4​

We have mostly ducks - right now about 40. They are so laid back, not at all mean, but then some ducks are meaner than others. Really, it's like chickens, some good, some bad, some just plain ugly! They can be messy - depends on how you take care of them. I'd rather have ducks, but some of my customers wouldn't buy the eggs (I have converted a few to duck eggs though!).

I gave my sister "Yaun (one) duck" and it bonded with her rabbit, the two are inseparable.

Some of our babies

Well, you're the first to say they "can" be messy. How can they be kept and not be messy? We use the deep litter method in the chicken coops/runs so cleaning them out is just twice a year and pretty simple. Can that be done with ducks?

 

[Totalcolour]

Well, you're the first to say they "can" be messy. How can they be kept and not be messy? We use the deep litter method in the chicken coops/runs so cleaning them out is just twice a year and pretty simple. Can that be done with ducks?

Well, they are in a pasture so any manure is spread out. They don't have a duck house, they use the chicken coop when they want to be inside (rarely, even in terrible weather) and they have a big pond.





(They have eaten a lot of the ornamental grass plant though)

 

[Totalcolour]

In winter with ducks, chickens and Goats. The ducks simply aren't interested in the coop.



This is a panorama, which is why it's not level, I "stitched" the pics together)