Viva Las Vegas!

[vegaschick]

Hello and welcome to the Las Vegas thread!

Hi all! I've spent lots of time on the NV thread and learned a ton from those people regarding chickens, gardens, recipes and such. I'm kinda jealous of the community they've formed there...jealous because most of them are in Northern NV, not exactly my neck of the desert. What I'm hoping for a community here, in the South so to speak, for flock folks in and around Las Vegas, to share experiences and ideas, hatching eggs, great finds, feed stores and prices, plans and dreams, etc. We have such a extreme and specific climate that we need to work together to keep our birds cool, healthy and productive.

Also check out SunnyDawn and the NV thread at this link here (they're all great!) https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/253930/nevadans

Here is a list of all the awesome people posting on this thread so far....(I'll try to keep it updated!) so we can watch our community grow....

muckmuck (E LV)

Peep_Show (Henderson)

evonne (Overton)

AleCat22 (NLV)

Holly31 (NWLV)

whatthecuck (NWLV)

whatthecluck12 (NWLV)

LV-Bird-Lover

daegorn (Pahrump)

ke_ben (Overton)

LV Chicks (far NW)

 

[702marine]

Ladies and Gentlemen, That time has finally come!!! The Nevada NPIP program is up and running and you can now submit your applications!!! Once your application is processed, I will be dispatched to you to do your certification testing. I would highly advise everyone to check the box to have your birds tested for Avian Influenza as well. It's free and covered by a USDA grant. When filling out the form, you will see a section labeled "Primary use of flock". The majority will answer "Fancier/egg production". If you have any questions as to how to fill out the form let me know. All payments, as well as your forms, will need to be sent to the address on the form. I am not able to do this. It has to be done through the state. Once you have sent your document in, it is important that you let me know so I can follow up to make sure your application is processed ASAP. After that, it will be myself solely that will be coming to your property, as I am the only Poultry Inspector in the State. This has been a very very long time coming and I have worked my ***** off to get this program off the ground and running. I hope that many of you will take advantage of this program and I hope to see many of you soon to test your birds. This is another big milestone in the effort to normalize owning backyard chickens and to strengthen the health of the birds in our community.

You can find the form here:
https://db.tt/5YO9DXGi

Respectfully,
SGT Dennis M Stuckey II (USMC)
HVTBA, President/Founder.
A Non-Profit Veteran Service Organization
[email protected]
(702) 377-9171 Phone/Text
HVTBA.ORG

 

[JTKodama]

Hello Everybody! Happy New Year!

Jeff here from North Las Vegas (round MLK and Craig).

When I was a child growing up in suburban SoCal we had a couple of hens and a rooster. I didn’t really think too much of them. I remember stepping barefoot in poo all the time and the rooster chasing and attacking my sister a number of times.

Flash forward to a sunny afternoon last September.

Having decided I wanted to grow my own veggies I started construction on a raised bed in my backyard. After working for a little while I notice what I think is an ugly little pigeon over in the corner, hiding under some stuff.



When I broke for lunch I grabbed a couple of tortillas to feed the evidently sick pigeon who was cowering in the corner of my yard. Of course this was no pigeon, but a young chicken that had found its way into my yard. The little chicky was more than happy to eat the bits of tortilla, so long as I was a good distance away.

The chicken decided it liked our yard…. It decided to sleep in one of our trees…. We bought some feed….

All was well for a time.

Then came the hail storm….


We received a couple of doses of hail here in NLV back at the end of October. It pummeled my veggies, tearing chunks out of many of them. The slowly growing chicky happily snacked on the fragments of leaves scattered through my planter.


I can almost imagine a light bulb appeared over that chickens head (though she would have run from it)!


My plants were no longer safe!


So now we have a coup, a small run, and a very resentful, skittish chicken!





We think she (we think), came from a house several blocks from us. We occasionally hear chickens from that direction.

I am eagerly awaiting spring so I can pick up a couple of chicks or pullets to add to our now singular flock.
Here are some pics.








Any help identifying the breed would be most excellent! She is quite small but growing slowly. As far as age, she’s at least 3 ½ months old.

 

[coupedup]

The coop just got done this past weekend. I think the girlies are taking to it quite well. I still have some details to finish on the inside but overall I think it looks good.

 

[vegaschick]

So I finally got some photos of the run renovations we did this spring. Here we go.





First we had to remove the chicken wire from the top of the run. It only kept out the bigger birds like doves and pigeons and hawks. Which was good, but the wild birds and mice were chowing down on the girls feed night and day.

We installed the cattle panels, put the chicken wire on the open ends and put bird netting over top to keep the pesky wild birds out!

We needed to lessen the heat load caused by a white metal shed in the hot Vegas morning - miday sun. Happily, it was shaded in the afternoon by some peg boards we repurposed and placed on the top of the run along the coop.





We hung a lattice work trellis on the side of the shed to create shadow and planted 2 wine grape vines. My dad wisely installed a cage around the new grapes vines or my chickens would've gobbled them up as soon as possible. We had to close the chickens in the garden area while we worked for everyones safety and sanity. I even placed a board blocking them from accessing the run through the landing they use to go to roost. Love the pop doors we have installed everywhere.

We also planted 2 wine grape vines and a pomegranate tree along the back side of the run. They also got a protective frame. The frames will come down in a couple of years when everything is a bit established and all the vegetation is out of reach. You can see how bad they want at it in the next photo. You can also see one of the waterers we made with buckets and chicken nipples. It's so easy to put 2L bottles filled 3/4 with water and frozen in them to cool down the water in the summer. I can fit 2-3 bottles in if it's really bad.





I like to get their food up off the ground and out of all the poo so my dad made this cool trough style feeder. Placing it up higher discourages them from standing on the sides and also the dowel he used along the top is loose enough to spin so they don't roost on that to eat.

I also used cinderblocks and plywood to make a type of feeding platform. They love this because they can access the space underneath for shade or to get out of the wind/rain. I like it because it makes a great space to access the new feeders and the oyster shell I keep in the very weathered manufactured bird feeder I got free from a moving neighbor.




This space (shown above) behind (along the back of) the white metal shed is what we call the "Coopa". It's very useful for seperating a few hens from the group for safety or whatever. I like to put broodies in pet cages in this space and shut the door so they can access water/food without being in general population. The door is basically a frame with chicken wire attached. It is shaded on top by a screen recycled from a picture window and a sheet placed between (the screen and the chicken wire on top) for added shade with good airflow. We can access the stacked nests from the back. The feed catcher is made of a steam bathe canner that had a hole in the bottom. Recycle, recycle, recycle!!!




Eloise (or is it Hortense) the Wheaten Marans is kindly showing how to properly use the new feeders.




I included this picture for one reason only....there is a small wild bird on the cattle panel in the upper right hand corner...access denied, mission accomplished!!! Yay!

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

 

[juneytunes]

Seems all I have to do is post a question! All but one was in the coop ready and waiting for me at dusk today - Woo Hoo!

 

[deserthomestead]

I'm really nervous about the heat too - Saturday's forecast says 117 degrees here in Sandy Valley. I switched from a 1 gallon nipple waterer to a 5 gallon gravity-fed waterer so that I can drop a milk jug full of ice inside.
I'm sweltering in the house even with the swamp cooler on, so I'm pretty worried about the poor girls

 

[Sin City Chicks]

My 5yo daughter has earned the title of "The Chicken Whisperer" lol the chickens all follow her around and never run from her (they are generally friendly). Yesterday she went in the backyard and asked if she could let the chickens out, I said sure and to let me know when she wanted help putting them back in the coop... I expected her to get bored fast. She was out there for an hour and finally came in claiming she got all the chickens back in the coop and only one was being stubborn, by herself

Great pics! Is the second one a RIR? Out of curiosity, how old is she and do you know how much she weighs? I'm working on trying to figure out if my RIR girl is banty or not. Still new to all of this, lol.

Sin City Chicks

 

[JetR]

I hadn't checked for eggs in a couple days, but thought, what the heck... and I checked today. I was very excited to see I didn't have to wait any longer for eggs! I think, based on the sizes, that they are both laying.

It's been a while since my last post. The girls are getting along fabulously and there is no more pecking or bullying to be worried about. I can also have the dogs and the girls out in the yard (supervised, of course) at the same time without having to constantly watch or yell at the dogs. Finding what they like as treats has been chsllenging, but we're making progress.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 

[Hirenses]

Thank you everyone for the great ideas about beating the heat I didn't know you could search the fourms, good to know! I started using the frozen water jugs and frozen watermelon right away. Also I found this great idea on YouTube and the chickens are not panting now, which is great! They were all standing on the bricks before I opened the door to take the pic. The water cools the bricks and the bricks cool the chickens I plan on getting a fan in there too soon.