Arizona Chickens - Page 2661

HI ALL-  I am still looking for a small serama hen ( locally)  please let me know if you can help!!!  Thanks!   

Don't plant buffalo gourds.. They stink, and nothing eats them, (including my donkey)...

I am not to worried about the good snakes. Rather have them around to keep the rattlers away. The chicks are pretty much in a snake proof pen. Do you think mother Cotton would alow some rotting snake to hurt her babies! You should hear her growl!

Quote:

Originally Posted by viejo loco 

Don't plant buffalo gourds.. They stink, and nothing eats them, (including my donkey)...

 Isn't that the truth! 

really, no one wants silkie babies?????????? i seriously need to get this brooder cleared out. i am keeping a few, but not all. it is just getting too warm up there in that brooder. so come and get your fluffsalot! the eggies came from mary robbins here on byc, i know she has some excellent bloodlines in her breeding pens. i am selling these almost 9 week old babies for just $10 because i need to clear out that brooder! i have white, buff, black and blue. this price is only on byc and the vpa.

also the salmon faverolle and easter eggers are just a year old, $15. byc and vpa price. pastrymama needs a happy fireman. i even sold a basque hen pullet yesterday

oh, and the hatchlings due tomorrow already have a home

SEED BOX!!!!!!! it will be delivered to the tucson area sometime in may. if you want it, come and get it now and bring it back to me before the in-laws arrive in may. tucson folks have been waiting patiently for it to come home. sorry, no deliveries. i drive a surburban and gas is $4 a gallon. you must come get it and bring it back, OR sit on my floor and take what you want

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gallo del Cielo 

Quote:

Originally Posted by pimachickens 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sonoran Silkies 

OOPS--I thought I'd put in the link 

 

 http://communitychickens.blogspot.com/2011/07/living-roof-coops.html

Sonoran Silkies, that is a fantastic idea!  I think I'm going to copy that (because I don't have enough projects in progress already!).  Purslane gets my vote for what to plant.  It is low, dense, thrives in our climate, and the chickens love it.  Thanks for the great idea.

 

 

I love the idea of living roofs!  When I was very young my grandmother showed me a picture of a house she lived in as a child that had a sod roof and I've been fascinated ever since.  With a weird coincidence, TT! emailed me last week to bounce some ideas around for a living roof coop.   I think it'd be especially hard in our climate, but I think it could be done if the coop got shade in the hottest parts of the day, say from 11am to 4pm.  I agree that plant selection would be very important.  I like the idea of purslane!  I think that the biggest problem might be keeping chickens off the roof.  The coop by Liz Jenkins in the link is BYC member Franklinchickens and from one of her last posts she said they were removing the living roof and replacing it with cedar shingles because they couldn't keep the chickens off.  I've always admired that coop, especially the window she has from her home office that looks directly into her coop.  

 

I have something somewhat similar on top of a tortoise burrow.  I made it last fall and planted it with cuttings from very drought tolerant succulents and cacti I could gather from around the yard.  It suffered from lack of watering over the winter, but it's hanging in there.  It's made with a single layer of concrete blocks with a plywood cap, a layer of plastic, rocks around the edge and about 8" of soil on top.  It's in the shade of a mesquite tree and faces east so it's fairly protected and only gets morning sun.  We'll see how it fares in the summer heat.  I had to work wire in around it to keep the chickens out.  They just love the succulents.  Not exactly a living roof coop, but a shorter, more compact facsimile. 

 

 

 

I would think you would want plants that don't interest chickens--as I assume the goal is to keep their housing more insulated, as well as more attractive.  My worry about cactus is whether they would be injured by the needles (think infections and bumble foot) before they realized that he roof is NOT a good place to land.  Also wouldn't want jumping cactus to turn into "dropping" cactus--just waiting for me to go up to the coop to drop on my foot.  I do have some excessively drought tolerant agaves (I dug one up and tossed it in a small clay pot with just the dirt that was covering its roots.  Didn't water it for at least two years.  It is STILL growing, and it getting pretty large, now.

The turtle's mound is lovely!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fuzzybird 

Did anyone notice my Silky chick picture? I was hoping some Silky expert could tell me what color this chick will be? Cotton never hatched this color before and it is a purebred Silky.  Cotton is white and Roo is Tumbleweed the Partridge. She had two chicks like this.

Partridge

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puffycheeks 

HI ALL-  I am still looking for a small serama hen ( locally)  please let me know if you can help!!!  Thanks!   

 contact nurse shelly-  she is in gilbert and has chicks.  I dont know if anyone has hens. I can get one to you but it wont be before june 24th-ish.

Sorry, I just had to share this...

and this...it's my "Fuzzybutt" picture!  

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arizonachicken 

Sorry, I just had to share this...

 

and this...it's my "Fuzzybutt" picture!  

That is so precious!     I love how they climb on mama and the fuzzy but picture is classic.  She's a beautiful hen too!