Washingtonians

[lovinchickypoos]

Ugh, I think someone was listening when I said that we could afford to build the coop and get nice birds. Our dog is spending the night in the ER tonight.

She has been examined by a neurologist, and the diagnosis is vestibular disease (nasty-bad vertigo), most likely from a stroke or brain tumor. Hooray. If it's a stroke, she'll be our second greyhound to have one. If it's a brain tumor, that would at least be new. (We lost our first two greyhounds to bone cancer at ages 6 and 11.) She turns 13 this month, so she's reached a ripe old age for a large dog. She's already showing signs of improvement, and we are hoping that by tomorrow she will be ready to come home. We'll have to make an appointment at her regular vet for a follow up and some blood work to see of she needs to go on medication to prevent blood clots or anything else. (She's already on meds for seizures and incontinence!) With all that, she will probably be right around our average price tag for a greyhound emergency: $1,000.

Time to start pinching pennies. *sigh*

Jennifer

Last I read there was some improvement. How is she now? I feel for ya and hope things go well.

The only problem with that theory is that yellow jackets don't leave their stinger when they sting. Only honey bees, or those types of bees do. Yellow jackets, hornets and wasps are nasty mean buggers that bite AND sting and keep coming after you. I really don't like them and do my best to rid our place of the nests that seem to get started every year.

Wasps suck!!! We've been fighting them last year and into this year. We ge the paper wasps that build nests that hang. They had an enormous colony up underneath the shop's steel roof overhang. That was a terrible place to have to spray!!!

Ah, well that is interesting to hear that MyPetChicken is simply a shipper for Meyer. I've been posting around BYC trying to get good info on experiences with integrating Hamburgs into a mixed flock. That is the breed I have my heart set on to complete our city flock (all female), but I worry they'd get bullied too much. If I do decide to go with Hamburgs, I can't decide if I want to wait until spring to get them from Baxter Barn in Fall City (he has a lot more varieties than the hatcheries) or just order from a hatchery as soon as we build our new coop, and Meyer/MPC seems perfect because of the three-chick minimum, which is exactly how many I need. But if Meyer is not a good hatchery, maybe some of my fellow Washingtonians would be interested to split a shipment from another hatchery sometime this fall? This is all just talk for now, of course. I am on my BF's chicken schedule as I need his help to build a bigger coop first and he keeps our flock at his house.

When I was looking into placing an order I entered my zip code, due to the distance, I would have a 7 chick min.

Oh Oh Oh and while I was at Wilco guess what I got???? There was a lady there selling horse feed and she had these nice hats to give people who bought feed. Well Somehow I ended walking off with a nice PINK one on my head. Did I leave my old dirty hat in exchange. ???

you may never know

And NO I didn't buy any feed. Got no horses any more so don't need it!!!!

Oh my!!! Someone could possibly paste your avatar and this picture together and they could figure out what you look like!!!!

Hello Washington BYC folks

I was wondering if anyone here has Quail?????????? I have been offered 5 hens. Thing is I dont know much about quail so Im gonna dig through BYC for information to learn more about them and see if I am smart enough to take them on They are all laying eggs and I know I like quail eggs. So Im considering it. If not I might have 5 quail if someone wants them LOL Just wondering if anyone has them oe has any expierance with them ??

Thanks

Why yes I do....but they are wild ones who reproduce quite well around here!!!! I love their silly sounds but I worry what buggies they might try sharing with my chickens (the kind that live on them not the ones they eat)!!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Can y'all read this? CR is this what you were looking for? I can't find my label though I usually save them until I'm through with a bag of feed. Weird. But this is the online label of ingredients and it looks good to me! I would hesitate buying anything else for now since my girls love it and it's soy/corn free.
http://www.scratchandpeck.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Poultry-Labels-8-29-1110.jpg

 

[RainyDayChicken]

Does anybody use grit for their laying hens or grown roosters. I find a chart that said the different sizes for the different age of your chickens. If you do use it I find a cheaper way than grit from the feed store,go to the fish area of wal-mart, Petsmart or any store that sell fish as pets. I buy the rocks for fish tanks they are the right sizes and way cheaper.

 

[itsren]

So now I have the creepy crawlies and don't want to go to sleep. We found another one of those spiders in the dining room tonight. We followed the directions the lab gives - caught it alive, put it in a baggy and froze it - unsmashed. Let me tell you, my nerves were getting pretty unraveled knowing I *could* be handling a live hobo spider. Now I can't stop itching even though I'm extremely tired.

 

[lovinchickypoos]

THANKS SO MUCH TO SHYLA FOR THE ADORABLE SILKIE COCKERAL SHE GAVE US!! We love him. He's being integrated into my flock and at first everyone just kinda walked around him, almost like they were afraid of him! I did find today that he has been hanging by himself, poor dude! He is still trying to get used to the ramp.
We also picked up 3 white silkie nuggets from ChickSlick. Soooo darn cute!! Pics to come!
Man, I will be happy when my whole flock is integrated and in the main coop all together. It is STRESSFUL integrating different age groups!

 

[itsren]

Does anybody use grit for their laying hens or grown roosters. I find a chart that said the different sizes for the different age of your chickens. If you do use it I find a cheaper way than grit from the feed store,go to the fish area of wal-mart, Petsmart or any store that sell fish as pets. I buy the rocks for fish tanks they are the right sizes and way cheaper.

I have a big bag of grit that was pretty cheap at the farm supply store in Auburn... much cheaper than fish tank rocks from Walmart would be. I think it was called cherry stone - but I'm not positive, and it is too dark to go look.

 

[FirewifeJess]

So now I have the creepy crawlies and don't want to go to sleep. We found another one of those spiders in the dining room tonight. We followed the directions the lab gives - caught it alive, put it in a baggy and froze it - unsmashed. Let me tell you, my nerves were getting pretty unraveled knowing I *could* be handling a live hobo spider. Now I can't stop itching even though I'm extremely tired.

Blech!! Sorry it was in the house!! I am finding them all over the yard, but haven't seen one in the house in a while. There was one with a web on the chain link fence and I held up Lucy to eat it. She did a great job! Tore the sucker apart and I was so thankful it was gone! I believe we've had less spiders in the house this year because the chickens like to stick close to the house and walk the perimeter eating whatever bugs they find!

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:
Our grit is also terribly cheap at Coastal Farm in Auburn. I don't have a clue what it's called either, but way cheaper than any other kind of rocks I've found.

ETA: but I buy everything in bulk, including grit; 50lbs lasts FOREVER, and we started on this bag when they were 4 weeks old. Almost 20 weeks later and we haven't made a dent in it.

 

[itsren]

How do you all afford the water to have a garden? Do you have your own well?
The cost of water where I live is ridiculous. If I was to water the lawn and garden everyday, my water bill would be over $60/month. So when the dry comes, my shrubs get some water, the grass (otherwise known as weeds) turns brown and goes dormant which inturn mean I don't cut grass which saves me buku $$.
With that said, I am leaning towards a garden next year, but I will have to see when the time comes.

We have city water. I grow my edibles in raised beds or pots and they get watered. The lawn - not so much. I grow brown grass. The neighbor's grow green grass. Oh well. It is just grass, and I figure grass comes in *shades* of color. I don't water my shrubs either. I know. We're lame. We grow weeds, too.

 

[lovinchickypoos]

How do you all afford the water to have a garden? Do you have your own well?
The cost of water where I live is ridiculous. If I was to water the lawn and garden everyday, my water bill would be over $60/month. So when the dry comes, my shrubs get some water, the grass (otherwise known as weeds) turns brown and goes dormant which inturn mean I don't cut grass which saves me buku $$.
With that said, I am leaning towards a garden next year, but I will have to see when the time comes.

Irrigation costs us $350/yr and we do have a well that I usually use to water my plants since I have to use a hose until we revamp our irrigation sprinkler system. The irrigation is set on an automated sprinkler system that waters our lawn.