Arizona Chickens

[aviddamy]

Mine were the $5 ones from Walmart. They work great but draw more so for me, I have less when I don't use anything than when I use them. My backyard is small so I can't keep the traps far from my home.

 

[cyborg]

I recently had to dig up the septic system on the new house. After re-burying the excavation (at least partially reburied!) I sprinkled a couple handfuls of black oil sunflower seeds I had bought as chicken treats. They are now starting to bloom!

 

[pipemum]

Oh yeah, I definitely use the chicken poop in the compost! My veggies thank me. And so do the bunnies.

cyborg, love the sunflowers!

 

[pipemum]

aviddamy, my two buffs look like yours. I don't know what color the earlobes are on mine, haven't looked that closely at them. One of my buffs is really big and fluffy, and the other is leaner and not quite as fluffy. Mine are feed store chicks, I wasn't planning on keeping them for long--I just wanted to occupy a determined broody. Neither of the two have great temperaments. In fact, all 4 chicks that broody raised together (the other two are australorps) are flighty and sketchy. I'm not a fan of any of the 4...and that's 1/2 my flock right there!

 

[BenC in QC]

Holy Moly! Long thread, lol. Just wanted to jump in and say I'm in Queen Creek, have a pretty good small scale breeding program, if anyone ever needs any help with anything, questions about breeding/incubating, how to work on your car or weld some steel together, feel free to hit me up.

 

[City farm]

Hi There!

I am up in New River,  and out in the desert.  We have raised chickens here for over 5 years.  This is a good time for chicks, as the weather is changing, and they can acclimate.  At the moment, we have two moms with babies (Buff Orphington moms), 28 Rhode Island Red chicks, 6 leghorn chicks, a couple Americaunas and two barred rock chicks.  We also have 14 laying hens and 2 roosters, four turkey chicks and one year old turkey hen.

What I do is watch when the temps get around 100 - make sure they have plenty of water, a shady place, and if it gets too hot, I do spray a fine spray of cool water over them once or twice during the day.  We only lost chickens one year (2 years ago), when the temps jumped something like 20 degrees in one day, to around 115, and I wasn't on top of the temp change. 

Good luck~~~

 

[desertmarcy]

@DesertChic you were interested in my Ameraucana chicks. I have 6 blue and 2 black extra. They just hatched 4/27. And @FeatherPugs I only got 2 pullets from the black sexlinked cross (Ameraucana X Rhode Island Red) hatch from yesterday: one has just a few leg and foot feathers, the other has clean legs and feet. PM me if interested in any of these.

 

[City farm]

* Lost 1 of my Salmon Faverolles last night. :-/ Now I'm bird dogging them even more.

I have always wanted a Salmon Feverolles..

 

[City farm]

Sorry about your loss.

I wanted to mention that my fly problem seems to be a bit more under control.  Getting RID of the flybags has helped, a new batch of fly predator has helped, and NOT CLEANING 2x a week has also helped!  I haven't raked in over 2 weeks!!   Instead of raking everything up, I'm spreading a couple handfuls of straw in the chicken yard where the flies were congregating.  The layering seems to help.  I wouldn't call it anything close to deep litter going on, but I suppose the chickens have more to kick around that helps to hide and cover the droppings.  I think the windier weather is also helping, and I can't take credit for that! 

We love our fly predator has done a wonderful job!! Half of the fly's then last year this time... Now to get rid of those mosquito's!!
Remember last year when most of our bird's got fowl pox? We lost one to both dry & wet.. It was so sad to see her suffer..
@Sill gave ipus some lemon grass, it is taking off nicely.. I did cut up the dead part and tossed it into the nesting box's.

 

[City farm]

...

Confirmed suspension. .

Splash Wheaten Amerucana
we have a pair for sale $40.00

In the above photo are the egg color..
My computer is acting up..