Washingtonians

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Oh yeah, I know! I absolutely love my EEs! I have 4: Martha and Laya are 21 weeks today and the little girls Thelma and Louise are 11.5 weeks. They are coupled; Martha and Laya look like little hawks and the Thelma and Louise look Wheaten in coloring, but more white. I would love more light colored birds in the flock early spring.

 

[itsren]

So, here's my husband's take on Rhodie's squawking up a storm... he said, if we were about to have something that big coming out of our rear end each day, we'd be squawking up a storm about it, too!

BTW... I bought a cute little egg basket for $8 - no tax. And I only had to go to Wyoming to find one that cheap, too!

I've wanted one for quite a while. We thought Rhodie's timing was perfect - I got to put her first egg in that egg basket for a picture.

Rhodie laid her egg in the coop - just not on the nest box side. I don't mind terribly - but I'm now thinking those nest boxes may be wasted space. In a way, I wish they weren't there - to give the birds more room. Unless, of course, I can convince the girls to use the egg boxes.

 

[FirewifeJess]

So, here's my husband's take on Rhodie's squawking up a storm... he said, if we were about to have something that big coming out of our rear end each day, we'd be squawking up a storm about it, too!

BTW... I bought a cute little egg basket for $8 - no tax. And I only had to go to Wyoming to find one that cheap, too!

I've wanted one for quite a while. We thought Rhodie's timing was perfect - I got to put her first egg in that egg basket for a picture.

Rhodie laid her egg in the coop - just not on the nest box side. I don't mind terribly - but I'm now thinking those nest boxes may be wasted space. In a way, I wish they weren't there - to give the birds more room. Unless, of course, I can convince the girls to use the egg boxes.

Mine aren't using the nest boxes either. I ended up putting a basket inside the rabbit hutch and that's the only one they use. Of course, they are having to improvise because more of them want to use that particular nest and it's taken sometimes, so they're starting to make little nests in the straw container. I need to get this figured out soon though, I don't want them laying randomly!

 

[Teva]

I just spent a while in the run with the girls. Ethel is laying an egg. 5 others were vying for the nest box! They won't lay in the coop nest boxes at all. I bought another basket and filled it with straw and a dummy egg and the girls were rooting around in there too. Also, my compressed straw is in a rubbermaid bin and the girls were making a nest on the top of that thing while I was in there, LOL! Guess if they don't like their choices they find a better option! I think I'm going to figure out how to remove the inside partition of the rabbit hutch and put 2 nest boxes in there, then do one or two more milk crates (deeper and offer more security than a shallow basket) in the run. I hope we have more than 3 eggs today, seems like we will!

Maybe try putting white wood chips in the empty nest boxes instead of straw? My birds love it. I also put 5 plastic easter eggs in one nest box, and two plastic eggs in the others. That way they thought the one with 5 was "prime real estate" and they all started laying in it. (NOW I can't get them to lay anywhere else! LOL)

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote: But why switch? My current layers are doing great on the straw. I will, however, put some more wooden eggs in the yet unused nest boxes to encourage them. Good idea!

 

[mikeyb]

Quote: That's the spirit, get out there and have some fun/catch some fish if you must/all the work will wait I assure you, the fish won't.

 

[mikeyb]

Quote: I have no rooster so my eggs will not hatch.

 

[Sudsy Chick]

Quote:
I totally agree - my hens are louder than the roosters.

The loudest (that I had to get rid of because they were so loud) were my Australorp and Black Copper Marans.

My Jersey Giant is also quite loud; as are two of my EEs.

The quietest are my Brabanters. They walk around peeping and honking pleasantly - not yelling at me like the ones above do.

BTW - I got my Brabanters from Hallerlake who hangs out on this thread. They are ADORABLE!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Yes, it's my Marans who are loudest right now. And my Australorp just started yelling today too! Dude what's with them!? LOL

 

[VelvettFog]

Shoot, it didn't even occur to me to ask this question. I have 75% a 50# bag of leftover medicated feed that I bought for the peachicks, and WAS going to give it straight on to the layers, since I ran out of layer and don't have enough cash for a new bag until the 1st. I figured I have plenty of oyster shells and egg shells to supplement the calcium portion. But it didn't occur to me that the medicated part would get through to the egg. **duh**

durn it.

It wont