Washingtonians

[Flaming Chicken]

Hi Everyone: We are considering a move to Everette area for Being. Can anyone tell me where is the best area to buy with some land that is resonable, so we can bring our chickens and grow our flock?

Arlington, Marysville, Monroe and Snohomish are all within shouting distance. There are other rural areas to the north that should be reasonably priced. Just avoid King County to the south (where I live LOL). The taxes are a lot higher.

 

[hallerlake]

Two weeks ago, I put a dozen Spitz/Spitz/Brabanter eggs in the incubator. As of last night, I had one early quitter, and eleven developing. I'm hoping for a cockerel with a good comb to put with his pure bred great aunts. Any pretty hens will go with pure bred Uncle Otto. The next generation will be 7/8ths Spitz.

 

[hallerlake]

Broke some chicken rules today

. We had one hatchling from our broody hens this week. Since the breed is autosexing. I know that it is a boy. The hen was not taking care of him and so we put him all by his lonesome in the back room in the brooder.

I went into Keep it Simple Farm and Feed. They had new arrivals of day old chicks. Surprise!! No one sells day olds in September. So I got 2 as companions. They are hatchery chicks. I don't even know what breed they are although I suspect that they are EEs. No idea. But they are sexed chickens so hopefully they are hens and will lay eggs in the spring.

Our little boy was awfully darned surprised when they showed up. He had not seen another chick before. He seems pretty thrilled with them. I wonder what my daughter will think.

What else could you do?

 

[Hinotori]

Quote:
Do you both not have predators? No raccoons who would decimate your flock?

I don't lock my birds up other than closing the pens. We have a very open area around the structures. I saw raccoon tracks in the mud out by the trees when we first moved here, but haven't seen any tracks since. We have bigger dogs instead of just an ancient little schipperke now and they patrol the area. The german shepherd is good at killing rodents and other things I haven't been able to identify when I found them since both her and my heeler/aussie eat them. The coyotes very rarely step foot on the property up front. Only predator problems we have had have been while they free ranged from dogs and hawks. We have netting covered (I'm in love with the pond netting) chain link runs now all around so they have a decent strength barrier. I can't really blame hawks, since they are just trying to eat. I really like it best when the bald eagles are hanging around because they deter the hawks and don't bother the chickens.

 

[hallerlake]

Quote:
Do you both not have predators? No raccoons who would decimate your flock?

I don't lock my birds up other than closing the pens. We have a very open area around the structures. I saw raccoon tracks in the mud out by the trees when we first moved here, but haven't seen any tracks since. We have bigger dogs instead of just an ancient little schipperke now and they patrol the area. The german shepherd is good at killing rodents and other things I haven't been able to identify when I found them since both her and my heeler/aussie eat them. The coyotes very rarely step foot on the property up front. Only predator problems we have had have been while they free ranged from dogs and hawks. We have netting covered (I'm in love with the pond netting) chain link runs now all around so they have a decent strength barrier. I can't really blame hawks, since they are just trying to eat. I really like it best when the bald eagles are hanging around because they deter the hawks and don't bother the chickens.
I have had eagles attack my chickens. I have learned to love the crows that warn me.

 

[SadieSue]

Broke some chicken rules today

. We had one hatchling from our broody hens this week. Since the breed is autosexing. I know that it is a boy. The hen was not taking care of him and so we put him all by his lonesome in the back room in the brooder.

I went into Keep it Simple Farm and Feed. They had new arrivals of day old chicks. Surprise!! No one sells day olds in September. So I got 2 as companions. They are hatchery chicks. I don't even know what breed they are although I suspect that they are EEs. No idea. But they are sexed chickens so hopefully they are hens and will lay eggs in the spring.

Our little boy was awfully darned surprised when they showed up. He had not seen another chick before. He seems pretty thrilled with them. I wonder what my daughter will think.

Aww... baby chicks are so sweet. I'm tempted by them constantly. Have fun with the new babies!

 

[FlyRobinFly]

Robin: I'm not sure if you mean the tall ones (perennial sunflowers which I believe are "Lemon Queen" http://www.perennials.com/plants/helianthus-lemon-queen.html) or the shorties (Black Eyed Susans http://etc.usf.edu/clippix/picture/characteristic-sunflower-species.html).

I sometimes think a whole hedge of Lemon Queen would be so much fun. Let me know if you want a start. I'll be dividing these in Spring 2013.

Well, I never even knew there were perennail sunflowers!
Everything at your home was so beautiful though.

 

[RaZ]

Do you both not have predators? No raccoons who would decimate your flock?

I lost a banty to a Cooper's hawk in February but I had left a gap in the run and the chicken got out into the open yard away from cover. Then on Oester Sunday, the same hawk found the coop door and got inside where he killed a 8 week old chick. I had to rescue the hawk since he couldn't figure out how to exit.

I have had eagles attack my chickens. I have learned to love the crows that warn me.

I don't mind the hawks as they are seldom seen here in the suburbs of Detroit, so I don't begrudge the hawk getting a meal or 2 from my yard. There are a pair of eagles that nest in a county park about 20 miles south of here. I doubt that they would ever venture to this area

 

[HoneysuckleHills]

Girl, you haven't read about poop boards yet? Oh, you've got to get on the poop board train! All the cool kids are doing it!

A poop board sits underneath your roosts. You can put a lip on the edge of the board and fill it with sand or shavings. OR, you can put some kind of box, low lipped container on your poop board. My girls typically just use the coop for sleeping or laying eggs, so most of the poop in the coop is occurring during the night when they're roosting. The board contains their droppings in one place, so it's a simple matter of scooping or scraping the deposits from the board to keep the coop relatively clean. I'll bet some folks would be willing to share photos of their boards if they have any.

Here's mine. If you look at the 2x4s attached to the side walls you'll see that they are notched for roosts on two levels. Sometimes I leave the girls on the bottom level without a poop board but most of the time I have the roost on the top as shown and use a poop board with a sheet of vinyl resting on the lower wall 2x4s. I ran the lower 2x4s all the way to the front so that I can slide the poop board closer to me for cleaning. I did not attach the vinyl to the board. This way it's easy to take out and hose off or replace as needed.


I also put down a piece of vinyl on the floor and ran it up the back. It is only attached at the back. This makes it easy to lift and clean when I hose the whole coop down. (There are very small drain holes in the marine plywood base under the vinyl.)

The nest boxes are painted dark and are below the roosts so that the girls don't sleep in them. It might be hard to see but the lip in front of the nest boxes is actually about 1 inch away from the nest boxes. In other words, I left a gap big enough for me to sweep out the nest box into the main coop but not so big that eggs would roll out into the main coop. (I hope that makes sense.)




And, since I'm so chatty tonight, here's a photo of my feeder. My goal was to have it under the coop so that the girls couldn't sit on top of it. At the same time, I did not want to have to go into the run (and get my shoes dirty) just to refill the feeder. The fix was to use kitchen drawer slider thingies and attach them to a board from which the feeder hangs. Love love love my slide out feeder.

 

[HoneysuckleHills]

Well, I never even knew there were perennail sunflowers!
Everything at your home was so beautiful though.

Thank you, Robin. You are so kind.