Washingtonians

[Imp]

Very cool nests 4312.

Russ

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Well I spent some time in the growing on pen yesterday...and the birds are coming along so nicely !
Almost POL...Blue Copper marans, BBS Jersey Giants~~~~~~~~
So many Blue, Black & Splash that I have to look at shank color to tell them apart, that and the JGs are slightly bigger at this time.

Almost have to waite til they are full grown to seperate who is what they look so much alike, and to top it off, I have 4-5 Black java in that pen too...which look so much like Black JGs that I can not tell them apart !
Have to waite til they are adult sized !!!

Note to self: Self, never brood Black Javas and Black Jersey Giants in the same brooder ever again !

Venison and Jumbo Prawn Kabobs on the barbie for dinner~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
yesterday I was mildly upset at the fact that dinner was a left over casserole, and I had no dirty laundry to wash

It seemed like such a shame to waste the sunshine with no laundry hanging on the clothes line~~~~~~~~~~~~and no barbie going.
So today I stripped the bedding & have it washed & on the line and feel much better......

Geez lady. Come to my house. I have coops to build. Runs to clean. Yard to mow. Weeds to pull. 4 piles of clothes on the kitchen table. And tomorrow I leave for Toppenish for swim event with son.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Well I had a scare today, the birds decided to check out the rest of the drive way and went around the bend while I was cleaning my car. Something startled them and they all started screaming and flying back up the road....all I could see through the grove of trees were ears and it looked tall enough to be a coyote....so I took off to check it out and count the chickens. Whatever it was high tailed it out of there....it took me a couple of hours to get a good re-count (I was missing one) since they all went for the bushes on the other side of my house. Birdies are all accounted for, and now that I think about it, it could have been one of the fawns that I've seen wandering around. I haven't seen the deer for about 2 weeks, so I am sure the fawns are about coyote height by now......

And I know it's crazy to consider that a coyote would attack in broad daylight, but one of my neighbor's white geese got hauled away in broad daylight about a month ago...

I don't think it is crazy to consider that a coyote would get one in daylight. They are opportunistic...if it is there...they will eat it. Especially if they are sorta used to people.

 

[Rainwolf]

Anyone's chickens ever make quacking/honking noises? Yup, QUACK. Over and over again! *sigh* Not all of them do it, but quite a few! Don't know if it's a typical teenage-voice-change chicken noise, or if it's a respiratory infection. I'm not worried, I just keep hearing these noises and it's weirding me out! My 2 newbies do it, Princess does it, and 1 or 2 others.  Oddly enough, so many strange noises have been happening lately. My black australorp sat all by herself making so much noise clucking like no other, for at least 10 mintues before I went to check on her. She was alone under a bush in the shade; maybe calling the other girls? "Where are you all?!"   They didn't care enough about her to answer...:/

Chickens have over 30 vocalizations.  Some are quite easy to recognize.  Like the egg song.. bock, bock, bock, bock, BOCKAA (repeated).  With the age of your birds there is a high chance that they will lay their first eggs in the yard and not in the provided nesting boxes.  I use wooden eggs (golf balls work as well) in the nesting boxes of young birds to try and train them where they should lay. 

Would it work fairly well to begin keeping them in the run all morning and only allowing them to free-range in the afternoons? I've read that most chickens get their cue to lay from the sun coming up so most of the laying *should* happen in the morning right; keeping them confined to coop and run should give them no other choice but to lay in the nest boxes, right? Wonder if that would help train them at all, along with the golf balls in the nest boxes.

I have some hens that have very distinct "voices".
Nymph is my chirper and likes to lay her egg under the porch in the garbage can I use to store clean shavings...
I have some "screamers" when they lay a egg and they want EVERYONE to know and everyone MUST JOIN IN THE EGG SONG NOW!!!
I have some silent hens who rarely make any noise except for a very short egg song after laying
and a few Jurassic type sounds from everyone.... dunno about QUACKing tho... you have weird birds

Every few days I do a full yard sweep to check for hiding nest and etc... I've found eggs in the middle of the path/gate door, under bushes, in flower pots, between 2 cement blocks, under my wood/lumber pile (dang those are hard to reach!) Oh and in the nest boxes They tend to like laying earlier in the day but will lay anywhere at anytime if they feel like it.

we collect eggs all the time through out the day, every time I go outside, when working from home at each break and lunch I check, opening coop time and closing coop time.... so about 5 times at least from me and then mamawolf checks about 5 plus times too.... then we bring them in and place in carton, and carton is in a nice cool spot that does not get over 70F When I'm collecting to hatch I put them in the egg refrigerator which keeps the eggs at 50-60F and I turn em every time I put another batch in so 3-4 times a day easy.

Pullets will "practice" laying before they start laying, so if she is under a bush doing this you might want to check there when she does start laying or you can grab her and tuck her into a nest box with a fake egg. Hoping she gets the idea....

 

[Rainwolf]

Look what a friend gave me:
It is a little old. 2 of them have holes in the bottom, but I think I can fix with with some plywood or something. Little rust here and there.....but other than that great. I am going to put it somewhere protected for now. I plan on doing up a nice "layer" coop - probably next year - I want to be able to sell eggs.

This is SWEET! I would take some time to sand the rust areas, fix the "holes" and then get some spray enamel paint and spray paint it to seal up the metal as well as help it last longer.
I personally would go with a nice dark blue or green inside (or other dark color) and nice bright color outside

You could let me have it and I could show you....

 

[FirewifeJess]

I have some hens that have very distinct "voices".
Nymph is my chirper and likes to lay her egg under the porch in the garbage can I use to store clean shavings...
I have some "screamers" when they lay a egg and they want EVERYONE to know and everyone MUST JOIN IN THE EGG SONG NOW!!!
I have some silent hens who rarely make any noise except for a very short egg song after laying
and a few Jurassic type sounds from everyone.... dunno about QUACKing tho... you have weird birds

Every few days I do a full yard sweep to check for hiding nest and etc... I've found eggs in the middle of the path/gate door, under bushes, in flower pots, between 2 cement blocks, under my wood/lumber pile (dang those are hard to reach!) Oh and in the nest boxes

They tend to like laying earlier in the day but will lay anywhere at anytime if they feel like it.

we collect eggs all the time through out the day, every time I go outside, when working from home at each break and lunch I check, opening coop time and closing coop time.... so about 5 times at least from me and then mamawolf checks about 5 plus times too.... then we bring them in and place in carton, and carton is in a nice cool spot that does not get over 70F When I'm collecting to hatch I put them in the egg refrigerator which keeps the eggs at 50-60F and I turn em every time I put another batch in so 3-4 times a day easy.

Pullets will "practice" laying before they start laying, so if she is under a bush doing this you might want to check there when she does start laying

or you can grab her and tuck her into a nest box with a fake egg. Hoping she gets the idea....

I do have weird birds

LOL

Anyone know is 14 weeks way too early for an Australorp to start feeling the urge to lay? I thought I still had a good 6 weeks to go before any eggs, my 7 oldest birds are 14 weeks old yesterday.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:

I'd "help" out with it too...

 

[Rainwolf]

Hey Russ, My solid section of fence in the dirt is set and cemented... Big gate goes up tomorrow morning, Holes in cement driveway go in soon after that and the little gate will be set... all the prep work is done! finally getting rolling!

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote: Oooooohhhh, good ideas (well other than the one of giving it to you...LOL). I will remember to do this. I love it. My mom wants it so she can plant plants in it. LOL.

 

[Imp]

Hey Russ, My solid section of fence in the dirt is set and cemented... Big gate goes up tomorrow morning, Holes in cement driveway go in soon after that and the little gate will be set... all the prep work is done! finally getting rolling!

I'll have to come over and see.