Washingtonians

[Flaming Chicken]

Today I got my first egg from my BW Marans, Brownie.

How funny, we have a Cream Legbar named Brownie. My daughter named her.

 

[lovinchickypoos]

Well this is odd. I feel like a stranger in my house today. I have 2 cleaning ladies here because I've been in too much pain to do it myself for some time now. I hate sitting here feeling useless while they work though! They probably think I'm a lazy bum

Don't be so hard on yourself!!!!!!! Enjoy it!!!! I can totally empathize with pain preventing you from doing what you want/need to do.

Well Hi all!
Hope eveyone is having a great summer although I just saw a post from firewifejess saying she was in pain??
If you are having someone clean your house, just sit back and RELAX!! Let them do their job and know that if you could have done it yourself you would right?? I'm sorry that your hurt?
Sorry folks I have missed some 4000 posts! I'm not going back to see what's happened since I've been gone!
We have had such a busy summer with 7 does kidding! It has been extremely labor intensive, but we have a nice crop of doelings, and I am drying up all but one. I have made soft goat cheese, mozeralla, ricotta and best of all ICE CREAM!

Butter Pecan and fresh strawberry!! I am going to make montery Jack, pepper jack tonight, and some molded goat's cheese!
Oh, and greek yogurt.

I have Muscovy ducklings coming out my ears, and some nice B AMs and RIR's, I have one Beltsville white hen sitting on eggs so we should have poults around the first week of Sept.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for some Muscovy's or knows some one who does just PM me.


Ok, well I should be around more often now, things are settling down.
Oh yea

to all the new peeps, I think I saw CR say something to you all and that's ditto from me too!

Saw some peeps from the Tricities! Welcome aboard neighbor!

Oh yea, haven't made any soap or lotion yet, I'm going to wait a bit, I'm freezing plenty of milk to do that later!

That sounds awesome! I would LOVE to be able to make all that. It sounds very labor intensive but enjoyable!

I know this is weird but I love it so much I have to share. Here is my deodorant recipe. I make my own. NO commercial deodorants could keep me from stinking to high heaven anymore, so I switched to this and LOVE it. Sometimes I notice I kinda smell but then, oddly enough, the smell actually dissipates and goes away! Takes 5 minutes to make a several month supply for me and the hubby

http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2010/02/homemade-all-natural-deodorant.html

If you're ever interested in finding out how I make a lot of my own stuff, or use a lot of alternative products, PM me.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will have to try this recipe. It sounds super easy and I too have odor issues!!!

 

[lovinchickypoos]

I'm happy to see that they are getting overrun with donations for the Cle Ellum/E'burg fire!!!!!!!!!! I need to keep informed on this as supplies will probably soon dissipate. Maybe the RedCross thing is the way to go.

 

[lovinchickypoos]

Feel sorry for my birdies as I've been keeping them contained in their coop/run since I've added some newbies. The silly Leghorns keep cuddling up in the run and we have to herd them into the coop. Hopefully things will calm down enough that they too return to the coop at night and then I can let them all range again.

 

[VelvettFog]

*sigh* It's been so hot lately I don't want to keep the girls in the run. I found one egg in the nest box this morning, but I've been hoping that with all these darn squatters, more of them would start laying! 4 eggs in 4 days though, woohoo! I hope they aren't laying in some remote area of the yard though, I'd never find an egg in some of the thick underbrush we have.

The heat wave has certainly had an impact on my hens egg production. It's way down. (17 out of 40 yesterday)

 

[KMHunter]

Quote: Yeah, I got 1 out of five the day before yesterday, and 4 yesterday. I am expecting a drop with this heat we will have the next couple of days. Nothing like what you have had, but my girls aren't used to that kind of heat.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote: Yeah, I got 1 out of five the day before yesterday, and 4 yesterday. I am expecting a drop with this heat we will have the next couple of days. Nothing like what you have had, but my girls aren't used to that kind of heat.

Yeah I'm glad to hear that the heat could be what's hindering them from all laying up a storm. With 2 of them already started, I half expected them all to start within a few days of each other! They are, however, all squatting when I walk by, so that's gotta be a good thing. The ones who are younger aren't doing that. And you're right, the heat isn't too terrible here, but it's certainly not what my "wet-side" birds are used to! They're miserable and even though I don't want to let them out because I want to train them where to lay their eggs properly, I can't in good conscience keep them confined to the run on the hottest day of the year on the hottest side of my house. Dave...remember how hot it is over there? At it was only in the 70s when you were building!! Imagine 20+ degrees more heat!!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
What a bummer about your egg production though! How's the egg selling going? Are customers upset?

 

[Chubby Chicken]

WOOHOO!!!! Congrats, how fun!! I still get excited just going to check several times each day for new eggs

We have other chickens that lay, but she is special because we hatched her, and she is our nicest LF.

 

[VelvettFog]

Yeah I'm glad to hear that the heat could be what's hindering them from all laying up a storm. With 2 of them already started, I half expected them all to start within a few days of each other! They are, however, all squatting when I walk by, so that's gotta be a good thing. The ones who are younger aren't doing that. And you're right, the heat isn't too terrible here, but it's certainly not what my "wet-side" birds are used to! They're miserable and even though I don't want to let them out because I want to train them where to lay their eggs properly, I can't in good conscience keep them confined to the run on the hottest day of the year on the hottest side of my house. Dave...remember how hot it is over there? At it was only in the 70s when you were building!! Imagine 20+ degrees more heat!!

What a bummer about your egg production though! How's the egg selling going? Are customers upset?

Hey Jess

One thing you should consider is adding some type of shade to the run. Maybe hang a tarp or something on the sunny side of the run (west?). I do remember how warm it was in the afternoon, but it was really the sun beating down on me and not really the 'heat'. If there was shade on that side it would have made a big difference.

My birds don't have any tree anywhere close enough to provide shade. They spend almost all their time in the shadows cast by the coops themselves. We've had nearly three weeks in a row of 95+ degrees - with another week of the same on the way.

Most of our customers are friends or cow-orkers ..erm... co-workers. If we're currently out of inventory, we simply tell them, "I'll get you your two dozen on Monday" or whenever. They are just about all fine with that. They understand that the heat reduces the production.

Three days in a row now I've gotten a really small egg. Something I"d expect from a pullet just starting to lay, only I don't have any pullets who are at POL. I don't know if the heat is the cause, or if this is a broody hen who's starting to lay again.