Arizona Chickens

[annekaelber]

Okay, I think I'm ready to ask some questions about "the experience". My main concern is as such: as I've said, I'm one of 2 less-abled adults in the household. We try to make sure that we (individually and collectively) are not taking on more than we can handle. Our hubby works outside the home, 40 hours a week, so we try to limit what we ask him to commit to on a regular basis. Of the two wives at home, one is focused primarly on the garden: it's her forte and potentially already more than she can handle. So, while "the household" would like to keep chickens for fresh eggs (and eventually "meaties"), we need to make sure there is someone who is willing and able to commit. I'm willing, but am I able?

Ready for the questions? If you have multiple coops/runs, I would appreciate you breaking it down in all the questions, as I'm still new enough I might not catch breed divisions as separate coops and runs, etc.

1. How close to *your* house is your coop? Your run? Is this working well for you? Could you have put it closer (if possible) and been happy?

2. How big is your coop? Your run? (So I can compare to the 5x5' coop and 10'x10'(ish) run we're considering)

3. How many chickens do you have? Do you have 1 nestbox per chicken? (Seems like this could quickly get kinda crazy!)

4. How often do you clean your coop? Your run?

5. Do you collect eggs daily?

6. What is on the floor (?) of your coop?

7. What is on the ground of your run?

8. How much feed do you use (lbs/day or bags (what size) per month)?

9. If you are in Mesa or a nearby town (for me, that would be Gilbert, Chandler, Tempe, and southern parts of Scottsdale, I think), would you be interested in meeting me somewhere publicly safe to get to know me? I'm angling for an invitation to come do your chicken chores for a day and see what the work is like. *grin*

10. What one piece of advice do you wish you'd had before you started?

I think that's all the questions I have.... for now. It seems the more I read, the more questions I get.

As an aside, I imagine mention of "two wives" and "our husband" might weird some people out. We three are just.... we three. It's not related to chickens, so I'll leave it at that, but I'll be glad to answer (respectful) PMs, if you have any questions. I *am* asking to meet people, with the hope of being invited to their backyard, so I felt that I should be willing to answer some questions electronically to sooth any concerns first. *smile* As for "just keeping it to myself", I try, but I can't help talking about my amazing wife, any more than I can help talking about my wonderful husband. Hope I haven't offended anyone...

Anne.

 

[desertmarcy]

TT! :

Quote:
That sounds awesome, but I never buy more than 1 or 2 bags at a time.

If we had enough people interested, it wouldn't matter how many bags you needed. I do feed all organic, and it's expensive. There's a couple of feed stores carrying organic feed in Tucson now, but it's a better price to buy directly from the mill, even with shipping. I have a lot of birds, though, so I go through feed like ice cream in summertime

 

[squeakyballs]

1. My coop is about 40' from the house, the run comes to about 20' from the house at the closest point.

2. The coop is 6' x 7' coop, the run is maybe 20 x 15.

3. I have 5 chickens that lay eggs, 3 that are young, and 1 rooster. There is one nest box. It was originally 2 nest boxes, but I took down the partition.

4. About once every 2 months I shovel all the shavings out and add a new bag.

5. I collect eggs every day.

6. The floor of the coop has wood shavings.

7. I don't do anything special for the run. It is just dirt and mesquite tree litter. I rake it up and add it to the compost once in awhile.

8. We use about 50lbs of food a month.

9. I'm in Tucson.

10. Hrm... not sure.

 

[pimachickens]

TT! :

Quote:
*hugs*

Thanks TT! Between that and the beer, I'm feeling better now.

So I have come to the conclusion that it will be impossible to completely seal all the crevices in my coop. There is so much caulking on my coop now that it actually glistens. SERIOUSLY...it could blind you if the light hits it right. And it is far from completely sealed. When I decided to build my coop I wanted to try to build it completely out of recycled/used stuff. Everything was stuff I already had, begged from others, or purchased used from craigslist and the Habistore. And at one point in time I was actually proud of myself for this.

I never thought I'd have to caulk the danged thing! I have a door made entirely out of pallet wood! How in the world do you caulk that?! It would weigh 500 lbs by the time I'm done!

So I spent the entire day taking the inside apart, cleaning, killing, spraying, and caulking. I have eliminated every tick I can find, which must be the bulk of them, but I realize that there are probably more. At this point, I am thinking that the best approach is to try to keep them from getting to the girls. My roost is attached at the ends only, with no supports or anything in the middle. If they only come out at night, then couldn't I just eliminate the access to the roost bar? Big globs of vaseline smeared at each end? Or wrapping the ends in that 2 sided tape that people use by door thresholds for scorpions and such? Wouldn't that keep them from being able to feed on the hens, who roost in the middle of the bar?

Does anyone think this might work? It's either that or torching the entire structure and reframing with metal studs and using plexiglass for all the solid surfaces (floor, roof, and walls) thereby completely eliminating wood from the equation. The vaseline and tape would probably be easier, but I'm open to suggestions.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I have a fan in my coop but no AC. It's totally shaded and they also can stay in the shade all day if they want under lemon and pine trees, although they're free to forage in the garden. I also give them little wading pools, which they all use quite a lot when it heats up, walking and sitting in the water. I change the water out with Colleen, clean water twice a day. I just use large rubber made lids to 35 gallon containers and large dog bowls for the wading pools.

 

[Mikey D]

Quote:
REALLY glad to know about the DE. I'll step up my use, and maybe change to sand instead of shavings? What do you think?

I thought You had sand in the run? Are you thinking of putting it in the coop instead of the DLM?

 

[AZBootsie]

Quote:
*hugs*

Thanks TT! Between that and the beer, I'm feeling better now.

So I have come to the conclusion that it will be impossible to completely seal all the crevices in my coop. There is so much caulking on my coop now that it actually glistens. SERIOUSLY...it could blind you if the light hits it right. And it is far from completely sealed. When I decided to build my coop I wanted to try to build it completely out of recycled/used stuff. Everything was stuff I already had, begged from others, or purchased used from craigslist and the Habistore. And at one point in time I was actually proud of myself for this.

I never thought I'd have to caulk the danged thing! I have a door made entirely out of pallet wood! How in the world do you caulk that?! It would weigh 500 lbs by the time I'm done!

So I spent the entire day taking the inside apart, cleaning, killing, spraying, and caulking. I have eliminated every tick I can find, which must be the bulk of them, but I realize that there are probably more. At this point, I am thinking that the best approach is to try to keep them from getting to the girls. My roost is attached at the ends only, with no supports or anything in the middle. If they only come out at night, then couldn't I just eliminate the access to the roost bar? Big globs of vaseline smeared at each end? Or wrapping the ends in that 2 sided tape that people use by door thresholds for scorpions and such? Wouldn't that keep them from being able to feed on the hens, who roost in the middle of the bar?

Does anyone think this might work? It's either that or torching the entire structure and reframing with metal studs and using plexiglass for all the solid surfaces (floor, roof, and walls) thereby completely eliminating wood from the equation. The vaseline and tape would probably be easier, but I'm open to suggestions.

I think the sticky stuff is a great idea. Just check it daily to make sure it is still sticky. But I was under the impression that if you coat the roosting bars with orange guard, the ticks wont crawl on them??

My main coop is also made of recycled and salvaged stuff. I caulked some when I made it, some more before I set up the misters to protect the wood and then more today when I was checking for ticks........still have alot of crevices.

 

[desertmarcy]

Quote:
I don't know how less-abled you are or what you physical limitations are, but keeping a SMALL number of chickens is pretty easy, IMHO. And the wisest thing you are doing is making sure you are not taking on more than you can handle. I have done that, and I can tell you it can lead to a lot of stress, which in turn can make you sick. The nice thing is, if you decide it is not for you, you can eat the birds and be done with it. They are farm animals, after all, even though a lot of people love them as pets.
1. My coop is quite far from the house, not sure distance, maybe a couple of hundred feet? I get lots of exercise walking my yard, I'm on acreage. Flies can be a problem with any birds/animals, so I like it more distant. Plus the roosters crowing are farther away (but closer to the neighbor's

)
2. I just built a huge new chicken house with 9 separate pens for different breeds. The whole thing is 50' X 40'. I would not recommend this if you just want a few eggs!
3. I kinda went crazy buying hatching eggs this winter and now have approx. 60 chickens not counting the 30 or so roosters waiting to be slaughtered.
You do not need one nestbox per chicken, they will share. More like one nestbox per 3-4 birds. My old layer flock, which I no longer have, had 30 hens with 7 nest boxes and they were fine! They tended to all want to lay in just a few boxes, even though they were all on the same level. So I'd go out and one box might have 7 eggs in it, and another 1 or 2, and another none.
4. Depends on how many chickens and how you manage it. You can do a deep litter method and just keeping adding on top of what's there. I've found in our dry climate, you can get away with much less cleaning out than in a climate where it rains all the time. And I don't use coops, they all live in runs with a portion of it under a roof. The more fresh air, the better.
5. I collect eggs several times a day when it 100 degrees or more out, but a least once a day otherwise.
6. I don't really have a coop per se
7. Mine is just dirt. Sometimes I add wood shavings or straw. I tried sawdust, because I was getting it free, and it compacted too much. I also sometimes add mulch from my chipper/shredder (yard cleanup stuff).
8. Hah, I got through 50 lbs every day or two, but then I'm feeding a lot of growing chickens and turkeys as well
9. I am in Tucson
10. Guess I've been fortunate, I've never had any major problems. I bought several chicken books before I started and read. Can't think right now of anything in particular that would have helped. If I had known about the chicken nipple waters sooner, that may have helped. I've installed those in my new poultry house and so far it is working out great. In our hot climate, a mister helps for cooling.

Anne, I love hearing about alternate lifestyle. Please feel free to PM me and tell me more.

 

[desertmarcy]

Quote:
*hugs*

Thanks TT! Between that and the beer, I'm feeling better now.

So I have come to the conclusion that it will be impossible to completely seal all the crevices in my coop. There is so much caulking on my coop now that it actually glistens. SERIOUSLY...it could blind you if the light hits it right. And it is far from completely sealed. When I decided to build my coop I wanted to try to build it completely out of recycled/used stuff. Everything was stuff I already had, begged from others, or purchased used from craigslist and the Habistore. And at one point in time I was actually proud of myself for this.

I never thought I'd have to caulk the danged thing! I have a door made entirely out of pallet wood! How in the world do you caulk that?! It would weigh 500 lbs by the time I'm done!

So I spent the entire day taking the inside apart, cleaning, killing, spraying, and caulking. I have eliminated every tick I can find, which must be the bulk of them, but I realize that there are probably more. At this point, I am thinking that the best approach is to try to keep them from getting to the girls. My roost is attached at the ends only, with no supports or anything in the middle. If they only come out at night, then couldn't I just eliminate the access to the roost bar? Big globs of vaseline smeared at each end? Or wrapping the ends in that 2 sided tape that people use by door thresholds for scorpions and such? Wouldn't that keep them from being able to feed on the hens, who roost in the middle of the bar?

Does anyone think this might work? It's either that or torching the entire structure and reframing with metal studs and using plexiglass for all the solid surfaces (floor, roof, and walls) thereby completely eliminating wood from the equation. The vaseline and tape would probably be easier, but I'm open to suggestions.

Get some guineas, I've heard they are great tick control.

 

[Mikey D]

Quote:
I have a fan in my coop but no AC. It's totally shaded and they also can stay in the shade all day if they want under lemon and pine trees, although they're free to forage in the garden. I also give them little wading pools, which they all use quite a lot when it heats up, walking and sitting in the water. I change the water out with Colleen, clean water twice a day. I just use large rubber made lids to 35 gallon containers and large dog bowls for the wading pools.

and it was quite entertaining watching the chickens in the "wading pools"

If I can ever finish this Honey Dew list & set up our chicken adventure...

.....I'm gitt'n wade'n pools!