Washingtonians

[itsren]

Ok and one more thing: I read that birds who are laying will have wider more "open" vents and they'll be juicy and moist. I know, gross. But today Scarlett my RIR squatted for me so many times I thought "I have to check and see!" and, well, she was huge, open, and very moist. Could she have already laid an egg or is her body just priming up? I searched EVERYWHERE on the 1/2 acre but I guess that doesn't mean she didn't hide it really well. WDYT?

I think I'm glad I live on a quarter acre! I would hate to look for an egg on your lot!

You might want to keep your birds confined for a few days... or you might be finding some rotten eggs in your yard.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Yeah I think I'm going to put some jeans on first thing in the morning when it's still cool and do a more thorough search; when I looked I was in flip flops and capris and didn't want to get snagged by thorns or get filthy. Wish me luck!

 

[justbugged]

We had very successful Intro to Freezer Camp today. Several members came today. It was wonderful to meet Shyla, and her DH, and Teresa. It was a bit warmer than my DH prefers, but I always feel better when it's warm. We had a good time swapping chickens between the three of us girls. Shyla now has a very nice Silkie trio. Teresa had a cockerel and I had 2 Blue Splash hens. I also got 4, 1 week old EE chicks.

I have had a couple of requests about buying meat birds next spring. I know that I will buy my meaties from this hatchery again next year. http://www.schlechthatchery.com/ They sent me the biggest healthiest chicks that I have ever gotten from a hatchery. So if anyone is interested in combining an order, so that you can buy less than 25 chicks at a time let me know. I am willing to coordinate an order for a group. The chicks are only .95 cents each for straight run chicks. I would think that there would be some saving on the shipping with a large order. I buy normally 30 chicks per year. This feeds DH for a year. I should note that my DH travels during the week, and so we are normally only cooking on the weekends at my house.

I will admit that I am a very spoiled rotten princess when it comes to hot weather. DH and I had a heat pump installed a couple of years ago, so we have air conditioning in our home. All our dogs were more than happy to hang around inside today. I mist say that I don't regret the cost of the heating and air conditioning on days like this. I did put some large ice block in the chickens run. I don't know if it made any difference, but it made me feel like I was at least trying to keep them a bit cooler.

Right now I am babysitting a broody hen, and hoping that she will accept the chicks. I am reluctant to leave the chicks with the broody over night. So I guess I am going to have indoor guests to night.

 

[TerrorBird]

My OEGB likes to scurry off to the back of the house and lay her eggs on a rock shelf covered in detritus. I think she's trying to kill me by making me climb down to get them (we're on a hill)...

 

[Teva]

So my last peachick escaped out of the mini coop today. Ever since he lost his last brother (to a good home, I hope!

) he's been a little out of sorts. I think he's a social bird! I was able to catch him but thank you (was it CL?) for that wing clipping link, it refreshed my memory from when I had a parakeet as a teenager. I was able to clip his wings and brought him in the house for a while. He found his reflection in the glass on the TV stand and stood there and cheeped at his new "friend" for quite a while!!

I took him outside and let him hang with his "Dad" for a few minutes - I think he knew the big bird was like him, he followed him around it was pretty cute. Then I took him in and put him in the big coop with all the chickens. (it was dark by that time) I hope they don't pick on him in the morning. He needs some friends!

 

[justbugged]

How old are they? I think worming should be done routinely but that's just my opinion. I will do it in the spring and fall for all my girls. Also, my birds were not growing well or thriving at all until I switched them OFF the organic non-GMO feed we were using to Purina instead. I never wanted to use that but as my last attempt to get the girls something they'd grow well on, it worked! Within 4 days of the switch they all started in on a major growth spurt and now they're seemingly healthy and the right size for their age.

I've been wondering about worming as well. The response you get depends on who you ask. I haven't wormed my chickens yet, not sure if I'm going to do it as a preventative or wait and do it as needed. I looked into it on this forum and wow, a bit overwhelming and confusing! There's so many different worming meds to choose from, some wrk for these worms some work for others, some people like this one, some people say it doesn't work, OMG.....
What do you use? And how do you apply it? I know some are in the water, some you actually hand medicate each individual bird and some you dust.
If you wait until you notice a worm problem, the first warning often will be a dead chicken. Chickens like most prey animals tend to hide the fact that they are sick. I personally lost at least 1 or more hens because of worms in the first year. I bought into the DE solution for natural worming. It doesn't work.

At this point, I wouldn't trust the health of my flock to a alterninative treatment for worming. I now use Epirnex to worm my flock. I am planning on alternating the Eprinex with Ivermectin. With the Ivermectin you have to toss the eggs for 2 weeks after treatment. But I am a rather frugal person, and I simply feed the eggs back to the flock during the withdrawl period.

The Eprinex is very easy to use, you simply put a half a cc of Eprinex on the lower part of the neck or upper back area.I use a srynge to measure the dosage. The Eprinex also will kill mites and lice on the birds also. You can buy both Epinex and Ivermectin at nearly any feed store.

Since I have treated flock, I haven't had any deaths that can be linked to worms. Just letting the worms do their thing in the bird, can cause peremant damage to a bird. I would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to worming my flock.

 

[lisaheath1]

My five chicks are spending days outside and loving it. And I bring them back inside at night. They are four weeks old today. At what age do they stay in the coop all night? In their little run I have a low perch, food and water. I notice they try to dust bath in the dirt, so should I put a dust bath area in there? I have an old cat litter pan from ages ago that I just never got rid of, sitting in the garage collecting dust and odds and ends. Would this make a good dust bath, or is this unnecessary?

I purchased some grit so I have it, but the package says they are too young for that yet.

I have a terrible time remembering anything, so I have made myself a good list of things to do and things to get for the chicks.

Their run is small but nice. It is the area that will be under the raised coop. Tomorrow I took a day off and I will work on the raised coop part. It is going to be very cute and awesome, lol. My daughter and I had fun making the ramp with cute little steps/runners for them. Then I may post pics and ask for some advice on ventilation and predetor proofing it. I got a lot of good ideas from this site and watching youtube videos. What would we ever do without internet, lol.

 

[justbugged]

Hello all,

I've been lurking for a few months and finally joined BYC. I am in the process of clearing the ground to build my coop and pen. If all goes well, I will have it built by fall and buy chicks in the spring. I bought plans for a 10X4 pen with 4X4 raised coop inside (I will make some changes for our climate), and would like to keep 3 good layers plus a silkie and a Polish for fun.

My question for other PNWers is, what sort of substrate do you use in your pens? I have seen sand, dirt and bark mulch in your pictures. My pen will be in the lee of our house and the soil drains pretty well, but it rarely dries out for 9 months out of the year. We live in that wonderful "Convergence Zone" the weather guys talk about. I don't want my pen floor to become chicken poop soup.

Any other things I need to consider for my coop that are peculiar to the PNW? I went on the recent Seattle Tilth coop tour and got to talk to a few people about their coops, but I wasn't able to see as many as I'd liked to have, since I had my toddler with me. I will be using hardware cloth (a friend who used chicken wire just had her chickens all killed by dogs) and building a sturdy structure. My coop has to be in my front yard thanks to our local ordinances, so it'll have to look nice. I have seen lots of references to "chicken math" and I hope I can avoid it, as we don't have the space for a giant chicken coop. I also have most of my .25 acre lot landscaped with ornamentals and edibles, so I will be careful about when and where the girls will get to roam.

I would appreciate any advice you can give me! It's nice to meet all of you.

Jennifer

I have found that pea gravel is the best material for a run. We also use sand. The sand tends to track out of the run more than the pea gravel. The next time we buy material for the run, I am planning to go with all pea gravel. The poo tends to wash into the gravel during the rains. I do know from experience that wood shavings get really nasty and stinky in a run. I think that was the worst thing we have tried to use. In the coop I use what I think is wheat straw. There are many types of straw, but some are not as effective as the fluffy wheat straw. I mix the straw with DE and stall dry, and I rarely have mess around with it. Buy drying out the poop fairly quickly the smell is very manageable.

 

[RainyDayChicken]

My five chicks are spending days outside and loving it. And I bring them back inside at night. They are four weeks old today. At what age do they stay in the coop all night? In their little run I have a low perch, food and water. I notice they try to dust bath in the dirt, so should I put a dust bath area in there? I have an old cat litter pan from ages ago that I just never got rid of, sitting in the garage collecting dust and odds and ends. Would this make a good dust bath, or is this unnecessary?

I purchased some grit so I have it, but the package says they are too young for that yet.

I have a terrible time remembering anything, so I have made myself a good list of things to do and things to get for the chicks.

Their run is small but nice. It is the area that will be under the raised coop. Tomorrow I took a day off and I will work on the raised coop part. It is going to be very cute and awesome, lol. My daughter and I had fun making the ramp with cute little steps/runners for them. Then I may post pics and ask for some advice on ventilation and predetor proofing it. I got a lot of good ideas from this site and watching youtube videos. What would we ever do without internet, lol.

Hi
i give my chicks grit at three days old they have to have it. i put it in a feeder in my coop and in a bowl in my brooder they eat what they need as they need it. I also go to lowe's and buy a bag of sand to mix w/ it. It makes the grit last longer and gives them what they need.

 

[justbugged]

My five chicks are spending days outside and loving it. And I bring them back inside at night. They are four weeks old today. At what age do they stay in the coop all night? In their little run I have a low perch, food and water. I notice they try to dust bath in the dirt, so should I put a dust bath area in there? I have an old cat litter pan from ages ago that I just never got rid of, sitting in the garage collecting dust and odds and ends. Would this make a good dust bath, or is this unnecessary?

I purchased some grit so I have it, but the package says they are too young for that yet.

I have a terrible time remembering anything, so I have made myself a good list of things to do and things to get for the chicks.

Their run is small but nice. It is the area that will be under the raised coop. Tomorrow I took a day off and I will work on the raised coop part. It is going to be very cute and awesome, lol. My daughter and I had fun making the ramp with cute little steps/runners for them. Then I may post pics and ask for some advice on ventilation and predator proofing it. I got a lot of good ideas from this site and watching you tube videos. What would we ever do without Internet, lol.

When the chicks are fully feathered out, is when you can move them into the coop. I would plan giving them another 2 to 4 weeks.I have offer grit to day old chicks.

I wouldn't put a lot in the brooder at one time, but a little bit isn't going to hurt the chicks.


The litter pan will work very well for a dust bath. You don't really need to give the bird a dust as long as they have access to bare ground. But even then some people like to give the birds an extra dust bath area. Some will add things like Sevin into the dust bath. The Sevin controls mites and lice.