Washingtonians

[pettec63]

Quote:
What about eating of cackle spackle? E-coli?

Thanks Julie!

EWWW GROSS, Uh yea I'm sure that can happen, but E coli is not a parasite!

 

[JennS]

I was trying to take some pictures of our cute BLRWs nestled on a stump in a garden today when that jerk Muffet saw what I was doing and vaulted up onto my arm. I was forced to give up and made the best of it by cuddling my cute girl. She's the cuddliest chicken I've ever had. She was stabbing at my shoulder for a bit and that made me wonder why chickens show affection by using violence.

George pecks very hard. She's a very sweet girl; I'd be able to tell if she was out of sorts or just felt like being mean. Mom ran in the house the other day and said "THAT BIRD'S GOING IN THE STEW POT!" I thought the rooster might have committed some terrible crime, but it turned out to be George nipping at her calves. I told her I'd be very cross if she ever tosses my sweet girl into a cooking pot. Another amusing thing they do is scratch at my pants when I sit in the grass near them. They run over and peck at my pants, then scratch them as though they're looking for goodies. I'd just really like to know their reasoning for their silly affectionate behaviors.

By the way, JennS...you could name one of your chickens Butter since you've got that cooking name theme going.

I like me some Butter Chicken when I go to the Indian buffet each Christmas eve.

Ooooh, that's a GREAT name! We just had Indian buffet for lunch today, and we all love Butter Chicken. Hmm, just have to pick out which one the name matches.

Jerk nips me when she grabs mealworms from between my fingers. I'm not sure if she's clumsy or careless. I'm not looking forward to her nips when she's grown up! I did not realize how bad a chicken bite could be. When we were kids and spent time around my grandma's chickens, we only had to worry about roosters with giant spurs chasing us.

Jennifer

 

[pettec63]

Quote: I'm down to 2 a day. That bragging about 3 out of 3 each day bit me in the butt.

It's gonna take a lot longer to get those gifts out to neighbors. Esp. since Caunnie's eggs are embarrassingly long and skinny. Bleh. They are single yolk eggs - just long and skinny and sit funny in the carton.


You just need to put a light on them, there was someone else on here, oh I think jess,
they need aprox 14 hours of light to maintain egg production, if you put a timer light on them, to make up those hours, they should continue to lay through winter, I did it a few years ago, and I need to move my hens back to the main coop where I have power cause that's what I'm gonna do!! Problem is most of my girls are very young and just at POL so if I don't they won't probably lay till spring!

My issue is that they've dramatically dropped off egg production even WITH the lighting I have in the coop. It's a 40 watt bulb in a 35s/f coop; should be adequate! Right now it goes on at 4:30am, and sunset is 6:27pm still, so this should be fine. I was getting 7-8 eggs a day and now I'm getting 5-7. Princess and Willow haven't laid eggs in over a week; I only got 5 from Willow before she quit again. My 4 brown egg layers are still laying every day for the most part, and everyone else is around every other, to every third day

Unfortunately there is no controlling their laying completely. The added light just helps. They are going to slow down. Unless you have all production hens. Sorry. I gave up trying to control things when it comes to chickens. They just don't follow the rules very well.

I know!! Dang it!!

 

[2hot2chicken]

I contacted the King County 4-H person and will be meeting with her in a couple of weeks. She said our family could start a family program. I told her I'm not interested in leading a new group as I'm already a Cub Scout leader, a part-time Girl Scout leader, and an Autism Support Group leader - and cannot take any more on. She seemed totally fine with our doing the family program and not running a group. She said the biggest difference for us would be if we were a group, we'd be able to hold fund-raisers, but being a family program, we cannot fund-raise. Honestly, I'm OK with that... I'm overwhelmed with fund-raisers as it is, and don't want to do any more.

Have you considered doing a family program?

I don't know anything about that so idk if its even something I can do....

I was considering starting a new group for a while but I sent in the papers and heard nothing back and that was more than 6 months ago now..... Washington county and 4h seems to be almost none existant and what is there u can only join if u know the right people and I apparently do not....

Its really sad to me that there is so much drama and politics involved in kid's activities these days. I know my little cousin's high school football was the same way the last couple years. His mom wasn't able to make a "donation" to the high school or the football team but she was there for every game including every away game no matter how far away and she ran the snack bar and did everything she could to support the team and what it came down to was who had the biggest checkbook or was related to the right person. My cousin got stuck on the bench all the time especially when there were scouts around because the "important" players whos parents sucked up to the coach or school financially got to be the star players. My cousin was really good (not because he was my cousin either) and worked very hard to be that way. He breathed football and dreamed football but was always put in the positions nobody else wanted to play. And in the end he graduated and got very little of a scholarship to college because nobody got to see him shine.

I have started feeling like 4h at leased in my area has been the same way. I have left multiple messages for the extension office here in my county and sent a couple e-mails and got nowhere but 2 phone calls back and 1 email telling e-mail me the groups were full for the year already (in feb) and to start my own group if we wanted to join 4h...... Its so sad, especially because I am the one who has to deal with my DD and luckily she is young enough still I can omit information and just not tell her things involving the politics about it for now.

That is a part of why I have had my DD show in open youth classes instead of pushing harder to get her in 4h. There are other reasons to but those are personal and while I don't mind going into them personally I don't think they are matters of public discussion.

I have been dealing with some things myself and just don't have the time to run a group. I am trying not to let my DD into whats been going on with me for her well being. And I do not want her to suffer because of whats been going on either. I am also not in "the loop" nor do I have the $ anymore to drive hours away from my home now to get to shows and apparently have not been received very well either. So I don't really know where to go from here. I am sorry if I offended anyone or anyone thought I took advantage of them but I have not and I wish u would confront me about it outright instead of getting upset or defensive on here. Words or lack there of can be taken in different ways than they were meant and twisted around to mean different things. Person to person is so much better.

 

[TerrorBird]

Quote:
Of course -- it was a light over dose

I can see your mind wasn't dimmed by the experience

If it had, we could just give him a battery of tests. That would shine light on on the problem.
Brilliant idea! Most illuminating.

 

[Hinotori]

Sooo, the elk had left around 9pm. Apparently they came back because I just let Captain Suicide out to potty and she saw them and took off after them, totally ignoring me. I'm out there trying to nicely call her and whistling and she's "LA LA LA I CANT HERE YOU! I SEE ELK!"

They tried to go toward the fence and she cut them off and then they ran out toward the back of the property. I heard lots of splashing so they went into the pond. Stupid dog is lucky to be alive and I'm soooo angry with her. Told her to go to bed.

 

[TerrorBird]

Quote:
I don't think you should worry too much. They don't all peck like they're a woodpecker going for grubs.

Even if they do nip kind of hard, they shouldn't do it that often. I thought about it more in the shower, and I'd like to think that their logic is "I'm exactly this fond of you" when they affectionately peck legs. Some of my girls just fly up to my shoulder when they want to express affection. Each bird is different.

 

[TerrorBird]

Sooo, the elk had left around 9pm. Apparently they came back because I just let Captain Suicide out to potty and she saw them and took off after them, totally ignoring me. I'm out there trying to nicely call her and whistling and she's "LA LA LA I CANT HERE YOU! I SEE ELK!"

They tried to go toward the fence and she cut them off and then they ran out toward the back of the property. I heard lots of splashing so they went into the pond. Stupid dog is lucky to be alive and I'm soooo angry with her. Told her to go to bed.

Dogs use the I-can't-hear-you tactic WAY too often.

 

[Hinotori]

I just knew I was going to have to go wake DH, get the guns and go shoot a few elk and drag a dead dog back. As it was I was outside half naked and barefoot with a flashlight running yelling at her. 38 degrees with dew is enough to freeze my feet numb, but at least I won't sprain an ankle barefoot in the dark.

 

[Rainwolf]

Found my first white egg today! Those White Leghorns sure ended up with funny combs! It seems like overnight they went from small, normal combs to funny, floppy ones! Those girls better get used to getting them oiled this winter. Anyone prefer anything other than petroleum jelly for large combs?

Aren't their combs hilarious?  I just love my white leghorn.  She has so much personality.

RainWolf here has two white leghorns, one named 'Rightie' and one named "Leftie", because their combs flop in opposite directions

That is adorable how RainWolf named her leghorns. ~Dee~ 

They are identical in every way except the combs... so when we finally realized 1 went left the other right they gained individual status and names
atm poor righty and lefty are molting up a storm... it looks like one of them exploded in the yard and the other in the coop.
Its officially winter now since most of my large hens are in molt and not laying eggs My bantams are still producing at this time though.

That is what I found in a nest box this morning. Wonder if my 2 babies are gearing up to lay?! Woohoo!

I found one like that, but with a thicker membrane (is that what they call it?) just the other day. That was the last egg I've gotten this week and that was Tuesday night.:/

That is a shell less egg.
Most common to happen in first year layers or just after a molt... it is kind of the fart egg in reverse... instead of tiny thick shelled egg it is large shell less egg
You can eat them if it was laid in clean nest. But if it is dirty at all I just cook it up and serve it to the birds.
another possible reason for shell less eggs if you get them more often is lack of calcium. Which also causes thin shelled eggs.