California-Southern

[Phage]

Hello. Im new to southern Cali and am int in starting a small flock with heat hardy birds, maybe wellsummers or easter eggers. I could use some advice on breeds in the desert and supplies. I have a building to keep them in. And also any ideas on no kill hatcheries or people in rhe area that i could get from? Laws? Ty!

What is a "no kill" hatchery?

 

[estamets]

Hello. Im new to southern Cali and am int in starting a small flock with heat hardy birds, maybe wellsummers or easter eggers. I could use some advice on breeds in the desert and supplies. I have a building to keep them in. And also any ideas on no kill hatcheries or people in rhe area that i could get from? Laws? Ty!

I love my girls from Secret Hills Ranch in Alpine.
If you want REALLY heat hardy, consider naked necks. My Easter Egger is not as heat hardy as my Rock or Welsummer.
This is a pretty useful breed selecting tool: http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/which-breed-is-right-for-me.aspx
Laws vary by city - google your city name and "animal ordinance."

 

[Rekon]

Watch for bobcats, hawks, snakes, raccoons, and opossums as well. Build well and your chickens will live safe, happy lives. Ours free range in the day, guarded by their roosters; night is the time we worry about most. However, our yard has plenty of cover for them to hide from hawks, and a full fence around us makes the coyotes look elsewhere.

 

[LaRu]

What is a "no kill" hatchery?

its a hatchery that doesnt inhumanely dispose of boy chicks.

 

[perchie.girl]

Hello. Im new to southern Cali and am int in starting a small flock with heat hardy birds, maybe wellsummers or easter eggers. I could use some advice on breeds in the desert and supplies. I have a building to keep them in. And also any ideas on no kill hatcheries or people in rhe area that i could get from? Laws? Ty!

Hey hi My place is about thirty miles from you up Interstate 8 Just across the San Diego county line. Welcome to BYC

and from the High Desert in San Diego county.

We Have the full range of predators from Mountain lion to raccoons. With one exception Bears... We dont have Bears. But the very worst is Feral dogs or dogs allowed to roam and second is Coyotes. A bobcat will go straight up the wire after anything in the yard

Sandhill Preservation is the only hatchery that I know of that is no kill. They have heritage breeds but are kind of cumbersom to order from. They dont do online you have to fill out an order form and send in your money...

You can choose to order straight run for your chicks from any of the hatcheries.

There are a couple of breeders in San Diego most of them are on this list... And there are people that do incubation on demand.

Only the big commercial hatcheries will have chicks all summer... some of the Big Breeders that sell on line are already sold out by the end of February....

They would not be sexing any birds though.

Borrego gets hot hotter than at my place. Shade shade shade.... and wind protection. I have strong winds from the east so I have a single wall to act as a wind break. up till now I have used Tarps year round for the roof. Not enough rain to need much else.

But what ever you do for wire line it with hardware cloth. I use dog kennel panels with chainlink on five sides covered over the top with tarp and any where a chicken May get close to the wire on a perch or nest box cover that area wiht good quality hardware cloth.

you have a building right.... make sure you have good air circulation in there.... if its a tin building even more so.

In the hot outside I have areas that I allow to get wet with either the sprinkler or where I dump the waterers.... They will stand in that to cool off.

oh and I use deep water tubs about five gallons each. So when they drink in the summer they dip their wattles in to help cool off at the same time. make sure what ever kind of waterer you use to keep it in the shade....direct sun can heat up the water till its like a cup of coffee.

Look up Brundys feed its in Seely for supplies. If I were more fit I would be buying my hay there along with the other supplies I need.

http://tomshayfarm.com/

Nice Nice man grows his own hay right there on a couple of sections of land... If you have livestock that need hay hes a good choice. I have a horse and when i fed her off Toms Sale hay she stayed butter fat.... really a good weight not too fat not too thin.

deb

 

[hosspak]

From the Crazy H-Bar Ranch and Hatchery;
The breeding project is well underway and we have a large surplus of separated eggs that won't fit into the incubator. So, since I don't want to get ANOTHER incubator (at this point) I'm looking for people who would be interested in these extra eggs to hatch... They are $3 a dozen for now, once I see what the fertility rate is and what colors I get from this project the prices may go up. All I want in return from the buyer is what the hatch rate was and what color patterns they get from the eggs. All eggs are numbered for the breeding groups. Thanks in advance for your help in my project.

Some pictures of the parents;

 

[Sylvester017]

Hello. Im new to southern Cali and am int in starting a small flock with heat hardy birds, maybe wellsummers or easter eggers. I could use some advice on breeds in the desert and supplies. I have a building to keep them in. And also any ideas on no kill hatcheries or people in rhe area that i could get from? Laws? Ty!

Laws vary from city to city, from city to county, etc. You'll have to do your homework to find out the ordinances for your residence. The number of chickens you're allowed, how many feet away from neighboring buildings/houses the coop will be, whether roos are allowed or not, etc. Rather than going to the city and publicizing your intent to have chickens, talk to your neighbors to get a feel for their input about poultry and what they know about the ordinances, licensing, etc. Some rural communities don't have a bunch of restrictions and others don't allow poultry of any kind at all. And remember that no matter what the law says you can have, if a neighbor complains the law doesn't matter. Roos are not allowed in our neighborhood but we hear someone has one in their yard but none of us complain. It really depends a whole lot on your neighbors than what the law allows.

Someone suggested Ameraucanas or Easter Eggers but if you will be in a very hot climate I would not suggest these heavily fluffed birds. Our Blue Wheaten Ameraucana is a total joy but in the summer during 100+ temperatures she suffers. We have to make sure the popup canopy is set for shade and that the Orbit Mister is going all day under the canopy especially for her. Once we had to bring her into the house because she was wheezing so badly. The two Silkies toodle around foraging in the heat but the poor Ameraucana will sit under the water mister panting badly. A Texas BYCer said he notices his dual purpose large fowl drop over dead in Texas 112+ weather while his lighterweight breeds handle the heat better. All chickens will suffer in the heat but the Mediterranean class birds seem the most suited to hot weather -- they're usually lighterweight than dual purpose heavy breeds. Med class are Andalusians, Catalanas, Empordanesa/Penedesenca, Leghorns, Minorcas, White Face Black Spanish, Sicilian Buttercups, etc). You may also find lighterweight breeds like Hamburg, Spitzhauben, Campine, Fayoumi are particularly hardy and predator savvy (they are intelligent independent breeds that are more skittish but that's what makes them alert for free-range or open yard/pen foraging).

Although Silkies are a popular and somewhat hardy breed they must be watched closely during heatwaves, heavy rain, or while brooding. Their feathers don't oil up the way other feathered birds do so rain soaks to their skin. They need to be taken out of their broody nests a couple/three times a day to make sure they eat/drink/dust-bathe and get exercise before they run back to their imaginary brooding nests. One needs to be home during the day to check on these broodies that will brood annoyingly at the drop of a hat! They are not the easiest breed to have because of special care requirements and unless you are willing to devote your time and care to them I would not suggest them for a desert environment. Nor would I integrate them with assertive large fowl like Legs, RIR, BR, NHR, Orps, 'Lorps, Marans, etc.

If you are in a desert community you will most likely need to have netting over your free-range pens because you no doubt will have a lot of Red-tailed or Cooper's Hawks circling the sky.

My DD & SIL live in the suburbs with their backyard facing a wildlife preserve and on night-vision camera have caught deer, coyote, squirrel, skunk, rats, raccoon, possum, stray dogs, bobcat, rattlesnake, neighborhood pet cats, and once a mountain lion (cougar/puma) and a bear! They've opted not to keep chickens even though they have iron fencing around their property.

Do research on breeds of chickens and read a lot of people's reviews on the different breeds. The research will give you a better idea of which breeds will suit your particular requirements and try to keep the temperaments, assertiveness, combativeness, size of the birds on equal basis in the flock. Mixing gentles with assertives or heavy fowl with bantams is a possible disaster waiting to happen. Just because bantam and LF chickens are raised together from chicks does not mean they won't hurt each other as adults. One BYCer had a Silkie foster momma hatch/raise LF chicks. One of those LF chicks grownup eventually killed the foster Silkie momma.

GL to you and hope other BYCers can help you out more!

 

[perchie.girl]

@LaRu

The EEs I had were fine in 110 degree heat. Shade is important but they foraged most of the day out in the sun. During the hottest part of the day they came in to the shady areas sometimes roosting for a siesta on their roosts.

Welsummers are good in the heat but not as good as my smaller birds. I had those as well... BIG birds I had no idea how big they got.

Hard feathered birds or ones without a lot of fluff are good too. I did have some cochins and they did fine in the heat. again siestas during the hottest part of the day

One thing I noticed was during the hottest part of the year egg production would slow down... I was fine with that.

You got to remember in the desert the humidity is very low sometimes in the low teens. So 90 degree heat without humidity is pretty comfortable.

Though 110 degrees sends me in for my siesta as well. Do work in the morning or early evening on those days.... Set it up so the birds NEVER run out of water... I use float valves on big water tubs.... They will drink a lot. I personally am not a fan of the nipple waterers for the desert.

Yep the birds will walk in their water.... If you can put out a low container of water just for that I had toyed with the idea of doing a hard sided play pool for kids and filling it with blow sand then keeping that wet with some sortof drip irrigation... Natural air conditioning. Evaporation chills the sand down...

I know a fellow that keeps geese and ducks in Death Valley... we are talking 140 degree days there. He puts out old carpet and keeps that damp and shaded that way they dont burn their feet on the way too and from their water tub.

So there are always ways to adapt... You will get over whelmed with info... read digest and apply that which fits your situation. Not all will apply.

deb

 

[asteria01]

Hi, I live in Los Angeles looking to keep a couple of bantam varieties as pets. I have a few questions that i was hoping fellow socal people could answer! where the heck do you find bantams in socal?? Im interested in the fluffier varieties such as the orpingtons and wyandottes, but would the heat get to them in the summer? I like easter eggers too, but i think they should be fine?

 

[Sylvester017]

@LaRu

The EEs I had were fine in 110 degree heat. Shade is important but they foraged most of the day out in the sun. During the hottest part of the day they came in to the shady areas sometimes roosting for a siesta on their roosts.

You got to remember in the desert the humidity is very low sometimes in the low teens. So 90 degree heat without humidity is pretty comfortable.

Yep the birds will walk in their water.... If you can put out a low container of water just for that I had toyed with the idea of doing a hard sided play pool for kids and filling it with blow sand then keeping that wet with some sortof drip irrigation... Natural air conditioning. Evaporation chills the sand down...
I know a fellow that keeps geese and ducks in Death Valley... we are talking 140 degree days there. He puts out old carpet and keeps that damp and shaded that way they dont burn their feet on the way too and from their water tub.

So there are always ways to adapt... You will get over whelmed with info... read digest and apply that which fits your situation. Not all will apply.

Hi perchiegirl - I never had EEs but assume my Ameraucana is a close relative. My friend's EEs were all shades of eggs and a slight bit larger than my APA Ameraucana so there are some differences. My poor girl just doesn't do well in heatwaves and we get VERY humid in July/Aug/Sep -- and it scared us when she started to pant and wheeze from the heat so we brought her into the house and she recovered quickly. Now if it's raining she is having a blast running around in the puddles and digging up the worms and grubs no matter how cold it is! We're getting another Orbit Mister for summer as backup cooling should our current one ever fail ! None of our breeds ever liked the humidity/heat but our Ameraucana was the first breed we ever saw distressed by it.