Washingtonians

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote: If there is moisture in the lawn clippings it will cause the grain to go moldy which can cause aspergillosis. Some people do collect lawn clippings as hay, but hopefully it is very dry.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Thanks, everyone, for the advice! My son is down for his nap, so I'm going to get off my butt and go work on the yard. As soon as I'm done pulling the weeds that are going to seed in the back yard, I can get back to ripping up vinca in the front yard. It would help if I could do more than 2-3 hours at a time. *sigh* But posting here is helping to get me motivated.

Jennifer

Where near Seattle are you located? If you want to come see the setup we have any time you are welcome! I love company and serve good coffee

I'm in Covington.

 

[FirewifeJess]

OK I'm off to clean out one of our armoirs upstairs. DH is going to find a way to get it downstairs and out into the chicken run for me later! So much work, so little time.

 

[NP Farmers]

I met a fellow back yard chicken person last week on thursday i believe he lives in ballard and has built a nice coop he told me he was on this site but I am not sure what his profile name is on here he lives next to a photographer. If you are in this forum please send me some pictures of your coop and maybe pictures of your electric wire setup so I could look what I need to set one up

 

[FlyRobinFly]

Oh my gosh - they are SO cute! As soon as my schedule is my own again, we will connect.

Definitely!

The chicks are getting big fast (they turn six weeks this Wednesday/Thursday) and it's time to start moving some of them out. If anyone here is interested in some nice Catdance Silkies, let me know. I didn't think I'd manage to hatch 11 of them on the first go.

 

[FlyRobinFly]

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 agree, the meat from those birds looked so nice and healthy! I might be interested in trying out a few meaties, and exchanging labor for help with processing.

 

[JNB]

I thought it was suppose to be cooler today. Yikes... its hot out there.. or maybe Im just all soaked up with the Sun and heat......

So hubby is taking some time off end of September and has promised me that if I hold off on buying a new coop till then he will help me build a new coop and revamp the origanal one we have..We are going to be moving and building both coops to a area we plan to fence the whole area. Each coop will house 10 to 15 chickens with extra room for "geust" heehee Chicken Math and still have 20 foot runs attached but will be within the fenced area. This way they chickens and soon rabbits will have an added barrier of protection and I can let them out to free range with a little less worry. Plus Im gonna add a new garden area in here too.. Im excited. So Im gathering ideas I have been looking at coop designs here and other sites. But I was thinking why not ask my fellow Washingtonians SO

If you could build, add or redesign something in a coop. What would you add or change??? You know the stuff that after you had your chickens in there you thought Hmmm I should have done this. Or something that you have seen that works really well

 

[FlyRobinFly]

I live in Normandy Park and need to get some grower feed I want to keep it organic and get it locally there is a feed store in burien but they are not sure what brand they carry it is just a bulk bag and so I am hoping I could get some feed back on where you feel people are the most helpfull and a great local comapany.

Thank you

Seattle Farm Co-op carries several organic feeds: Scratch and Peck, In Season Farms, Conway and also Half Moon which is not organic. If you want Scratch and Peck, it is sold at Reber Ranch in Kent, West Seattle Nursery, and there is also a pickup point in West Seattle. Those are the closest to you, I believe.

 

[LakeBird]

Though some eat foxgloves like it's candy...

mine eat the leaves off the wisteria - think that is a sign to prune it out of reach...

 

[LakeBird]

If the paper is shredded, it will compost quickly. In our city, we're not allowed to recycle any shredded paper. So I always dump my shredded paper into the compost bin. It seems like it only takes a few weeks before it is completely unrecognizable. And, I'm composting regular paper - not newspaper. Shredded newspaper will compost faster.

If you are worried about the ink... most newspapers use a soy-based ink. Our Cub Scout Pack visited a local newspaper print shop (that prints all major newspapers that get delivered to the West Coast). That was one thing they stressed to us was that all the ink was soy-based and compostable.

I was reading a thread about what to put in nesting boxes. We shred all our personal paperwork so I'm planning on using it in the nesting boxes.