Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[AletaG]

Is there going to be a poultry swap in Washington anytime soon?

Well, anyone in the Port Townsend to Poulsbo area with a lonely 3 day old banty chick like mine (

Hello ninetreesmom, and thanks again for your hatching space!) Unfortunately, only 1 of 9 hatched. Definitely some trouble with the parent stock. The rescues are pretty old, and one girls eggs are always porous, no matter what I feed her so far, and the other was having blood on the eggs from her vent on 4 of 5, the one that hatched was the one where I'd finally figured out how to get her rehydrated... learning curve... anyway, so I'm looking for a cell mate, er companion appx same age if possible. ninetreesmom graciously agreed to try to hatch 4 more, but well, the odds aren't good and that's 3 weeks out, so? Anyone? Poor clueless thing is in a 1gal fish bowl on my counter top at the moment, since the 30 gallon brooder seemed, well, to make things worse. Pretty sure a companion would help!

 

[Ogress]

help - my broodies are hatching egg. One hatched on day 18 and 3 more today (19). I suspect one was not ready, I think mom stepped on the egg because it was half peeled but the membrane was entirely intact. Mom shoved the egg out from under her and there it sat. the membrane totally dried out, and I thought the poor chick had died, but when I picked it up, it started peeing like mad. I put it back under mom, but she rolled it back out, this time tearing a couple holes in the membrane. I put it back under mom again but she got mad and pecked at it harshly. I removed it and peeled back the dried membrane and the chick pushed itself out, and all seemed OK. It was quite lively - not what I was expecting. I put it under mom, and she seemed fine with it. Checked 5 hours later and the yolk sac along with some blood vessles are hanging out, and a lot of yolk and a little blood are leaking. It sticks to everything and the poor chick tries to run around dragging it behind her. I removed her from the broody. Olivia is holding her now and she seems quite content. to sleep in cupped hands. I'm not sure what to do with the chick. Do I tie off the sack? as it dries, it sticks to the paper towels we currently are using under her and then she can't move.

 

[Ogress]

tied it off with dental floss, cut off dangly leaky parts. chick is doing fine, eating, drinking, preening. sleeps on a snuggle safe disk (2 in Rubbermaid tub), under a rumpled cloth diaper. runs to any hands reaching in.

chick looks great now, the remaining sack is dried up snug against her abdomen. She is between me and the keyboard eating and drinking now and just made her first poop - rather large.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Nothing like getting rid of the worst of an infection to make you sleep in for a couple of hours (which I'm sure I needed, after the last couple of weeks) but when I sleep too long I have weird dreams; I was dreaming that I had discovered that Cheery had hatched a dozen chicks instead of six, and one of the Porcelain pullets was getting out of the pen and flying all over the yard like a humming bird until a raven caught her.

The Hired Hand stopped by yesterday afternoon so that all the chickens have feeders topped up and waterers full. The young Hamburgs will need more food and water today but my husband is home and it's so much easier now that they're out of the bathroom that he's fine with the job. All I need is to wangle the time to get to Del's and buy enough feed that we can survive the honeymoon. The bride and groom are going to a SF con in Las Vegas that starts on the 9th, and the Hired Hand and her husband are visiting his father in Chicago and attending ChiCon, so I will be without strong backs until starting on the 16th or so, when EVERYBODY is coming back into town in a rush: my son is visiting, and then his sister and her husband are getting back, and then the Hired Hand, and finally my apprentice is arriving here after driving from Atlanta (which she's done before, longer and longer parts of the drive every year starting at 16, yow).

The only downside (besides weird dreams) to sleeping in is that my ribs are barking at me for laying down so long.

 

[RainMom]

Quote: I remember that hen! She was so pretty! I'm so sorry- that stinks!

We've got a 8 foot chain link fence all the way around the back, but we have had BOTH of our wonderful cats eaten by coyotes this summer . I've never been a giant cat lover, but these 2 melted my heart they were so well behaved, such god mousers, and such buddies. The coyotes were seen with 3 pups, and when they are teaching pups to kill, they form a pack mentality, so we know what happened to our cats. I've seen them TWICE in 2 weeks, running our fence line, sniffing the air. Next they will be digging under it. There's no way I can put perimeter wire under an acre of chain-link fence. I called Fish and Game-it's 100% legal to shoot coyotes, so long as it's a "legal-to-shoot" area. hummmmm.

 

[RainMom]

Hi all. I am completely new to this forum. We're moving to Maple Valley next week and instead of packing, I'm researching coops and chicken breeds. I don't have much to add right now, mostly just wanted to register, pop in, and say hi.

I'm hoping to have a coop ready for chicks next spring 2014. Right now I'm leaning towards Buff Orpingtons.

So, hi!

Hey- if you want chickens, I can fix you up so you can have layers as soon as you move in, and also give you some babies my broody is raising. Sent ya a private e-mail. I'm in Maple Valley

 

[RainMom]

It's a very old Swiss breed. They were bred to forage in the Alps.

Hey Haller- I have one of your birds- that I got from KMoran, out of the 3 that were not well, this one lived. Still not sure if it's hen or cockerel. He/she is one of my favorites- open the pen and it jumps on my arm like a parrot

I haven't been on here in ages!

BTW- did you ever get more brabranters or appenzallers from the other person in the Midwest (?) for genetic diversity?

 

[ElleLovesDucks]

Hey there. So it's started raining quite regularly and my pullets aren't scratching under shelter like I had expected. Should I worry about them getting wet?

 

[hallerlake]

Quote: I'm still waiting on Brabanter eggs. I've been waiting since February.

 

[Boneheadeb]

Elle, that's odd that your chickens are not seeking shelter if it is available to them. Mine are always scratching or hanging together under their stilted coop whenever it rains. I would guess it is not harmful for them to get wet, I just thought they didn't much like to get wet. Perhaps you got true PNW birds...