Arizona Chickens

[LMS]

Oooh... Thanks for the heads-up on the roofing... I was planning to use scraps of corrugated metal, and never gave insulation a thought! And I like the idea of having open corners with paneled sides -- I was thinking it would be the opposite, but since the coop will be up against the west wall of our yard (or possibly in the corner now that my husband has decided he doesn't want the chickens in full view of the yard) that will allow for better air flow. Does that make it easier to spot/prevent mites and ticks too? (I think I read somewhere that they hide in the corners.... So if the corners are open there are fewer hiding places.... no? I'm one of those city-raised folks who knows very little about animals, too, but I'm learning!)

I had no idea there were so many Tucsonans on here!

 

[itsredcandy]

Hey Gallo,

Today/Tonight is another story with the little ones. Apparently Mama wants nothing to do with them anymore. If one went near her she would peck at them. Poor things. Tonight they were crying to be with her and she just snubbed her beak at them. Mama and the others just went into the coop for the night. The four peeped as loud as they could for her but she didn't call back. They jumped on me for a while and then headed sadly to their brooder/nursery.
I guess Gretchen was just giving them a taste of what it is like to be in the "big house".

This is the Lil Chick Inn (brooder) when it was occupied by the previous tenants (now my 18 and 19 week old.)

Awe, how sad. Guess Gretchen was ready to be back to the single life with her sisters.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hey Gallo,

Today/Tonight is another story with the little ones. Apparently Mama wants nothing to do with them anymore. If one went near her she would peck at them. Poor things. Tonight they were crying to be with her and she just snubbed her beak at them. Mama and the others just went into the coop for the night. The four peeped as loud as they could for her but she didn't call back. They jumped on me for a while and then headed sadly to their brooder/nursery.
I guess Gretchen was just giving them a taste of what it is like to be in the "big house".

This is the Lil Chick Inn (brooder) when it was occupied by the previous tenants (now my 18 and 19 week old.)

Awww....There's just something so sad about the babies crying for mama. It makes you wonder what was going through Gretchen's mind as she heard them peep.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Oooh... Thanks for the heads-up on the roofing... I was planning to use scraps of corrugated metal, and never gave insulation a thought! And I like the idea of having open corners with paneled sides -- I was thinking it would be the opposite, but since the coop will be up against the west wall of our yard (or possibly in the corner now that my husband has decided he doesn't want the chickens in full view of the yard) that will allow for better air flow. Does that make it easier to spot/prevent mites and ticks too? (I think I read somewhere that they hide in the corners.... So if the corners are open there are fewer hiding places.... no? I'm one of those city-raised folks who knows very little about animals, too, but I'm learning!)

I had no idea there were so many Tucsonans on here!

I don't know if that configuration would help with mites (I haven't yet had mites), but probably wouldn't influence ticks one way or another. Cracks and crevices around the roosts are more important there. You can head off a lot of problems by caulking voids in and between boards as you construct. FWIW, ticks are relatively rare (although I've gotten them every summer now).

 

[Drjennidvm]

Awww....There's just something so sad about the babies crying for mama.  It makes you wonder what was going through Gretchen's mind as she heard them peep.   

Tough love, I guess

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Lol. Just happened to see it and start writing first, lol! I have wondered whether to use it over or under the roof. In my case I have it on top of thin wooden roofs. One place I was wondering is that on my skylight roof (guess where it gets its name, lol) gets really hot with the light coming in. I've thought of lining the inside (or maybe the top surface?) with the reflectix. If I do that, would you recommend putting it under the skylight or on top? In either case I will probably have to glue it as the skylight is sort of dome shaped.

I think I'd try putting it underneath, right up against the lens of the skylight. I think the greenhouse effect that would be created between the insulation and the transparent cover of the skylight would be minimal. I'd use small loops of the Reflectix foil tape (sticky side out) to hold it in place in the center and flat strips along the edges. That tape is as awesome as the insulation, it really holds it well.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Nature red in tooth and claw.

 

[itsredcandy]

This week 5 of my girls turned 25 weeks old. All but one are laying. One is regularly laying double yolkers that are 64-65 grams. The other 3 layers are laying 45 gram eggs. My Australorp turned 23 weeks old and has been caught twice today doing an egg song on the edge of the coop but no egg. He 22 week old brooder sisters are hanging with her in the coop. They've been doing the scoping out process for a few weeks. Hopefully we'll get 2 white eggs and another brown egg added to out daily batch. Taco is the one that is 25 weeks old and not laying. She shows no interest of the coop except for roost time. I think she may hold out longer than the rest of the girls. Catatori (EE), is over a year old and has been nesting. She's laying daily (6 per week) but after any of the girls lay an eggs she like to go in an keep the eggs warm. Last night she just stood up and stood in the nest while my husband collected the 3 eggs from under her (1 of which was hers). He left the golf ball for her to sit on and she did

. I don't get the whole broody thing but am thinking if she's wanting to go broody, she's just not ready. She's laying every day, she only sits on the eggs or balls through out the day but not all day. She's easily scared of the nest.


Question: Can you tuck quail eggs under a broody chicken?

Question: How many quail should you start with to be self sustaining for meat birds for a family of 2 adults and 2 children eating quail meat rather than chicken 3 x per week.

Question: Does anyone here raise quail for meat? Do you have online photos of your setup?

Just curious how feasible switching to quail as our main dinner protein would be. Space, cost, food, ect.

 

[Fuzzybird]

Sonoran Silkies, If Poppycock turns out not to be a cock would you have a paint rooster I could buy? I ask the same to Aurorarose?

 

[aznewmom]

Yeah, I never heard of them either until I started raising chickens in AZ. They are limited to warm climates as their northward expansion is stopped by prolonged freezing temperatures. They're weird looking ticks that typically only feed on birds. They are usually associated with the nests or roosts of wild birds. They come out of hiding right at dusk as the sun is setting and then crawl onto the chickens and feed for the first hour or so after sunset. After feeding, they drop off and crawl back into their hiding place until they need to feed again. Very much like little vampires. DE will eventually kill them, but the problem is that you generally can't get it into the spots where they hide and it takes a very long time to act. They can transfer to humans, but it is rare. The tiny larvae will drop all over you in response to heat and CO2 and they are itchy. They can make your birds very ill as they carry all sorts of pathogens that are transferrable to chickens. You may not know you have poultry ticks unless you actually go looking for them. Not a single tick was ever visible until I went out at just the right time to see them and when I started taking apart my roosts. Little did I know there were hundreds, if not thousands of them in my coop. I think you are much more likely to have a problem with them if your coop is situated under a tree where wild birds roost (but I wouldn't let that stop me from building a coop under a tree!). I made a tick-page some time ago right after my first outbreak. It's just the first draft and incomplete, but it has lots of the high-lights about poultry tick natural history and control. Oh, I should mention that they are very common in Tucson, but they seem to be less so up in Phoenix.

Thanks! Love the information you shared. I went out last night w/a flashlight. ha!
Others are right, I got a bit itchy just reading all your information.
So, I take it that you spoke with Carl Olsen over at the U?
I was a grad-school in that department and know Carl. He really knows his stuff.
Good old "Bug-Man"!!
Again, thanks for sharing.......