Arizona Chickens

[Christoffking]

I'm always going to herald the benefits of the Naked Neck Turken. My NN hens lay upwards of 200+ eggs per year, lay different colored eggs, and come in a variety of color with the friendliest of temperaments. My NN roosters are wonderfully gentlemanly, take amazing care of their girls, are very human friendly and taste amazing. They're also extremely heat tolerant, very cold tolerant, and exceptionally hardy and healthy. Here are some of my favorites from my flock:

Thanks for the post, I actually never seen these breeds before but I like there vulture like appearance lol, just got to convince the wife...

 

[cavemanrich]

@DesertChic
I am considering getting a NN. (hen only) Is sun burn a concern for them?

I know that pigs can get sunburned on their exposed skin, so they do need shade. How does the chicken exposed skin react?

 

[BlueBaby]

I been reading thru several pages, it seems like the RIR are pretty good in this climate as well as friendly and less noisy then other chickens. Is there another breed of chicken that would be MORE friendlier then the RIR?

Off topic ish, which breed of duck does well in southern Az?

I have never tried to raise ducks, but I do have some Australorps in 3 colors that I am breeding.

 

[Banaynaychicken]

TodAAAAY is the DAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!


I'm heading out in an hour to disassemble a goat pen and and use all of the materials to make a CHICKEN PALACEEEEEE

The amazing @Agarrard donated a butt-ton ot supplies to me, including a perch branch, 4 egg box 5-gallon bucket lids that serve as an entrance to the bucket AND a perch, chicken diapers, one duo purposing and a harness, it even matches my purple leash!! as well as a shirt and lots of feed and feeders/waterers and of course two BEAUITFUL birds! A buff laced polish hen, who's name is Honk (OH MY GOD YOU GUYS SHE IS GORGEOUS) and a bantam sultan named Little, who is quite the feisty little hen when it comes to birds other than Honk. But she is just a DOLL., so sweet and her little pullet sqwauk makes me wanna squeal.

Cant wait to go see them today. The three boys are ecstatic to mee them, they were all puffing themselves up and preening for the pretty girls.


AS for building, ill be working ALL day to get it ready for all my pretty birds by tonight!! My basic plan is to use the goat house as the indoor section of the coop, and the fencing (Baseball fencing style) for the run. It will be pretty large, as i've got plenty of birds that I plan on adopting in the future for showwww.

There are...whatd my dad say? Like 9 pannels think?

anyway those pannels will be used as walls AND run covers. and theb the goat house will be INSIDE fof it, accept it is lifte so i'll need a ramp into it and to line the underside perimeter with bricks so noone can get under it. Makes catching everyone difficult and that's where predators hide!

I should draw my plan out..... hm.

 

[deserteggs22]

Thanks. I have my hand-written "chicken scratch" notes and drawings that I always save when building stuff like this but not electronic prints or anything. I always wanted to get a drafting or CAD program so I can have a permanent record and even tweak it along the way. Anyway, I always start with the end product of what I want conceptually, like with the multi-coop I wanted four 6'x6' pens with a 4' wide hallway to access the pens and store stuff, so the building interior dimensions had to be 10X24. And then I decided on a 1:10 sloped roof since we don't have any snow load here and I wanted to keep the peak under 10'. I also learned after building the first coop that a 1' overhang is really nice to have because it keeps the rain away from the building and runs so that was something I wanted too. Once you know the big picture of what you want in the end it's just a matter of planning each piece on paper before getting any material, that way if something doesn't gel you can figure it out before you buy the first board. Also you can make a bill of material for each piece and get the cost off the Homeless Depot site so you'll have an accurate estimate of what the whole project will cost. Surprisingly the two coops/runs I built turned out to be a lot less expensive than what I originally guessed. Once everything goes together ok on paper you just buy the material for the first section - complete, then move on to the second section and on and on till done. Like with the breeding pens I'm starting this weekend, I'll get the 2X8's and plywood for the base and put that together, and then get the 2X4's for the walls and erect them, etc. My wife says I should get all the material at once so I don't have to run to the store for each phase but I have a pretty shallow brain so I can't think much beyond each individual phase. But yeah, when you break it down into sections it's a lot less stressful and easier to manage.

Also if you want some ideas on the basic structures, you could do what I did and get a book on building sheds/outdoor storage which'll have the framework illustrated so you can see how it all goes together. There's also a really nice video series called iCreatables (https://www.youtube.com/user/icreatablestv) that has all the details you'll need to build whatever you want be it a barn, gable roof, or sloped roof building. Personally I'm not much for working off of plans that I got somewhere else because they're rarely what I have in mind, but I'm all for reviewing them and then designing what I want based on the plan's concepts. Also you can easily modify or add to your own plans, like in my case I ended up adding brooding pens (4X6) at the ends of the hallways - I have to enter the brooding pens to walk into the regular pens on the ends but that's not an issue for me and it gives me more space to keep the chicks separated until their old enough to go into the flock.

Anyway, if you ever have any questions that I might be able to help with just send me a pm or ask here and I'll be glad to tell ya what I know. I'm certainly no expert but I can at least tell you what's worked or hasn't worked for me. 

Sounds good! I'll check out that link right noe and watch some of the videos. Thank you so much!

 

[DesertChic]

@DesertChic
I am considering getting a NN. (hen only) Is sun burn a concern for them?

I know that pigs can get sunburned on their exposed skin, so they do need shade. How does the chicken exposed skin react?

I've never had one get sunburn, but here in AZ shade is essential for all breeds, especially when it starts to warm up. What you WILL notice (especially in roosters) is that the skin turns redder the older the bird gets, presumably from so many hours of sun exposure. Here's a photo of my oldest NN rooster, Heisenberg:



You can see how far down on his chest the skin is red, and he also has red skin on his thighs where the feathers are thinner. Compare that to a young cockerel chick that hasn't had as much as exposure:


When young, their skin is very thin and pink, but it thickens as they grow older and will develop more red, especially on the males. Most of the females will only show red around the faces except when they're emotionally aroused, but if you've ever had another breed of fully feathered chicken in severe molt, you will see the same kind of reddening on their skin when emotional.

Here's the carcass of a cockerel I butchered at about 22 weeks. You can see where his feathers were thinner and his skin more exposed. He spent quite a bit of time in the sun rather than in the shade.


The reddening is more akin to a sunTAN than a sunBURN. Even completely featherless/scaleless chickens develop the pigmentation to varying degrees:

 

[nicollee]

The reddening is more akin to a sunTAN than a sunBURN. Even completely featherless/scaleless chickens develop the pigmentation to varying degrees:

OMG what the heck is that..... What breed of chicken has NO feathers like this....
I'm not sure how I feel about this......

 

[DesertChic]

OMG what the heck is that..... What breed of chicken has NO feathers like this....
I'm not sure how I feel about this......

They're Naked Neck Turkens that also carry the scaleless gene. You know those little scales on chickens' legs? These birds don't have that, and they typically don't grow any feathers at all at any time of their life. I've encountered a few people here on the BYC who breed them....and make them little outfits for them to wear to help them guard against the cold. Too much work for me, but they would make processing quicker and easier. In nature I'm not sure these birds would survive on their own in most climates, but with human intervention and determination anything is possible.

 

[theback40]

homeless depot, lol!

your coop/s look great! while the chicks are still in the brooder, Hubby n i will b building a "hoop coop". we took a look at the HD ones, then the price tags... yep. def building our own!!!!

doesn't need to be the space shuttle,, doesn't need to cost as much, either!!!!!

 

[nicollee]

They're Naked Neck Turkens that also carry the scaleless gene. You know those little scales on chickens' legs? These birds don't have that, and they typically don't grow any feathers at all at any time of their life. I've encountered a few people here on the BYC who breed them....and make them little outfits for them to wear to help them guard against the cold. Too much work for me, but they would make processing quicker and easier. In nature I'm not sure these birds would survive on their own in most climates, but with human intervention and determination anything is possible.

Wow!
Thank-you
I still find it VERY strange.