Washingtonians

[itsren]

The part that really pissess me off is that just before we moved in (but after it was our property) the guys that had been renting the shop (old friends of the late Jimmy Collier) saw that I had found hundreds of pictures and personal stuff from Jimmy's life. You know the kind of pics that are so old that they are only in black and white or brown and white, where the babies look really scary there was a ton of those. I had set them aside so that I could put a few into frames and keep them here in memorie of Jimmy and his wife and then the rest I was going to put together in an album and send them to the last remaining relitive that was alive at that point (as there was only one). Well one of the guys felt that he did not want me to have them and he BURNED all of it

! We also found a few pics of cars that Jimmy had built and raced at the Evergreen speedway so many years ago, and Jimmy was in a few of them, along with at least 15 trophies that he had won there.

That's terrible! How awful.

 

[itsren]

I am sorry that it didn't work out with the placement of one of the pups, but I am very glad you can look at it in such a positive way! That takes a really strong and special person.

x2

 

[UrbanEnthusiast]

UE- Glad for a good report this morning on your hen.

I am almost certain now that whatever rodent is living under the coop is also stealing eggs when the hens aren't around. We've already gotten 6 eggs today before 11am, and I've gone to check 3 times. I'm keeping the gals locked in the coop and run for a few days to see if that's the problem. We did a major family easter egg yard search yesterday and didn't find anything, which leads me to believe my theory even more. I am going to try and discourage the rodent under the coop from going to the chicken run for food by adding hardware cloth under the coop, hopefully this week sometime, and closing up the lid of the nest boxes on the sides that are open due to me raising/tilting the lid. Hopefully that will solve this problem. I may even shove some poison under the coop and add cement blocks all the way around it so the chickens can't get to the poison but the rodent can.

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words. And we're dealing with the same issue right now, re: rodents stealing eggs. Only problem is ours lay all over the yard so there's really nothing we can do. Hopefully when we get the final coop/palace built, the nest boxes will be more appealing than the yard. Then all we have to worry about is keeping squirrels out of the coop during the day.

Good luck.

 

[Chickielady]

While doing a hand stand on the other hand??

 

[Chickielady]

I think there's a bunch of recalled peanut butter that could be used to do a few in.

Yikes, we have the good stuff...Adams, which was one not on the list....

 

[Chickielady]

Fainting at the idea of buying good hay for erosion control? Me too.
The road widening project between Martin Way and Steilecoom Road used alfalfa; it's coming up in all the cracks and in the planting strips, and my fingers itch every time we drive by: I'd love to have it to feed to the chickens!

Why in the world are they not using straw ??
They really do enjoy spending our money !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[itsren]

Have a great day everyone. I've got a lot to do today. The big project... a brooder to work on.

Yesterday we had our driveway sealed. It's nice and pretty and black again. Makes me want to get the front yard greened up. I've been watering the back yard this past week and it has greened up pretty well. The chickens love it. They're eating a lot of grass, 'cuz most their poo is grass now. Eeeew.

TMI? LOL!

We got our oldest's MSP scores. We're pretty proud of the kiddo. He scored high in the "Advanced" level of Math and Writing. He got 100% in the Advance Writing section the second year in a row. When he aced his writing pre-test last year, his teacher told us that was "never done". I don't know if that is true or not, but we're pretty proud of him. I told my husband I'm going to have to be careful and not come to expect him to get high marks in the Advanced level. We're so used to him achieving high marks, and it seems to come pretty easy to him, so I know we'll have to keep our expectations in check. There may come a day it might not be quite so easy for him. Some days that boy leaves me wondering how I should parent him - there are days he begs me to play math games online, and I have to tell him to go outside and play. I'm never sure if that is the right thing to do. I know many parents who would love it if their kid wanted to play math games, and I'm having to tell my kid that he can't.

I haven't candled any eggs lately, but nothing stinks, so I'm hoping that means we're good. At this point, I just don't want to touch them. I don't need the clutz in me to come out and accidentally drop an egg.

I can't believe in less than a week we may have new chicks to watch.

I hope so, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high since this is my first time going through this, and I'm not sure if I did everything right.

 

[Chickielady]

Well I just skimmed through the last 150 posts and I hope I did not miss anything.

Sorry to all the people that have lost birds lately

. It really seems that these last few weeks or so have been really heavy with preditors. As you know I my self have been looseing quite a few girls and yes they alway tend to take my favorites first (kids say I am not aloud to call any my favorite untill the run I am building is finnished). Just the other day my SIL and I watched a hawk come and try to take one of my chicks, but her mom chased the hawk away and baby was hiding very well. Then Saterday I went out in the morning and one of my male turkeys was on the roof of the coop, he never goes up there unless there has been a coyote running around. So we did a head count and everyone is accounted for! Thank goodness.

As far as my flock for next year, I have decided that one breed I want is......Salmon Faverolles

I would really like to have myself about 3-4 hens and have to have myself a "Fudge" Roo!
If any one knows where I can get some hatching eggs that would be great. I know some one on here raises Faves, but I don't know how far away they are.

One other thing, I figured I would put this on here before I put it on Craigslist.
I have a clock for sale, but not just any clock this was built by a man named Jimmy Collier (this is the reason why my farm is called Collier Clocks Farm). He was an amazing man that built everything from clocks to race cars from scratch. If you do a Google search and read about him you will fall in love with him.
I have so much info on this man I could go on for ever, He is the reason that Evergreen speedway is what it is today. It used to be a dirt horse track, but Jmmy wanted a place to race his Model T and so he went to the Snohomish city councle and convinced them to turn it into a paved race track.
I would like to sell this clock to someone who will appriciate it in every way. If you want any info on the clock let me know. If not no biggy I just wanted to share it's beauty with ya'll before it goes.

WOW !!!! Wonder if the city would buy it to put in a park or open area ???????????

 

[DeesHens]

Salma is eating much better this morning!

Her energy level is a bit higher, too. She's not eating on her own but she is more enthusiastic about being fed. She even pecked some out of our hands somewhat vigorously. Her comb and wattles look more red and less pathetic. In another hour or so when it warms up, I'm going to put her outside with the flock in the dog crate. Unfortunately the blue mutt can sense that Salma's weak and is keen to terrorize her, so she's staying in the dog crate until she fully recovers. I swear I will not hesitate to rehome the blue mutt if it becomes a long-term issue, despite the fact that she's our best layer both in terms of quantity and big, dark, delicious yolks. Anyway, for now I'm just glad Salma is improving.

Her poop is pretty runny, but I imagine that's normal when she's getting an entirely new diet? It's a blend of plain whole milk yogurt, her own egg scrambled, dried mealworms, and sugar. We may try the B-12 thing if we can find something cheap enough.

Her eye looks OK. It's got a thin layer of bloody goop over it, but I keep squirting saline in there. She does open it sometimes. I don't know if she can see out of it or if she ever will again, but at this point I don't think it's going to heal shut, so that's good.

I really think it all started with the sugar water. My wonderful boyfriend's idea, of course. She just didn't have enough energy to eat and that really perked her up enough to do so.

I'm not celebrating yet because I know she could get worse again, but for now, I'm a pretty happy crazy chicken lady.

Correction: she's leaving the eye open MOST of the time, and I just sprinkled some mealworms on top of the dish of yogurt mixture we left in her crate and she pecked them all right out!!!

So happy for you and Salma!

It is in the air. Betsy Barr Rock is eating her dry feed this morning more aggressively than since her big shock & illness.

Plus she is talking to me again. Her voice sounds a bit smaller, but hey... it is so cool after her being mostly silent for all these weeks.
I believe she is on the upswing. Her poo is a little better which to me is a good sign. Maybe the krill oil helped cleanse her crop??? I dunno.
Yes, I do totally agree these diet changes do affect their poo. I am still giving Betsy a little electrolytes, vit. & min. supplement in her water. Just at much lower dose.
Keeping my fingers crossed for Salma & Betsy.
~Dee~

 

[itsren]

Quote:
Gosh! You should suggest that. That would be beautiful in a public space. Or, are there any new shopping centers going in? You could pitch the sale of it to them, too. Those kind of things look great in some of the new builds - seems like "old" is "new" again. Newer shopping centers are beautiful, but they bring in a retro aspect to them that give them a quaint feel.