Arizona Chickens

[kevs-chickadees]

I'm no expert but I would agree with what others have said so far. We lost 1 of our slw to heat this year but they are very pretty. Our BO does well in the heat and I think lays pretty good although I have a hard time telling some of the eggs apart. Our speckled susex do pretty good but are very curious about the neighbors yard( had to clip wings). The barred rocks we have do very well and are very calm. Our shortlist for new chicks was going to be Lav orps, wheaten marans, faverolles, and maybe some cool colored ameracaunas; but that info on the faverolles might just change things up a bit.

 

[pastrymama]

my 2 cents( and this IS pastrymama, i saw that laree! what ELSE did you do while i was outside????????)

salmon faverolle- yes, very fragile, NOT heat tolerent, get very stressed, i have an almost 6 month old pullet for sale

speckled sussex- don't even get me started, won't EVER own them again!
black australorp- surprisingly, didn't lay as often as i had hoped, roo was as very rough and BIG
hatchery EE-BEST LAYER I HAVE!!!!!!!!! all through winter, all summer, very heat tolerent, just don't hold her in the summer...my 7 year old came in the house the other day and said that "Ali" barfed on her out of her bottom.

dellie-excellent layers! big girls for hatchery birds. very consistent but not as heat tolerent. i lost one to heat stroke a few weeks ago.
dark brahma-cuddle bugs! seem to handle the heat just fine. lay about 5 days a week but go broody and then it's all over. but i

them MY FAVS EVER

 

[Arizonachicken]

I noticed these white, hard, looks like salt on the neck of my Marans. I can't pull it off and none of the other birds have anything like this. Any ideas?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/98797_img_1860.jpg

PS. How do you get the image to appear and not just the link?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

O.K., I guess I'll add my two cents too! (even though I don't have much experience with the breeds you're seeking). My two BOs are the sweetest birds I have. Waldo is amazingly affectionate and insists on a little personal lovin' when I go in to do a head count and lock down at night. They are my most inconsistent layers, but they're so cute, I don't care! My family grew Langshans throughout my childhood (in northern MI). Because they were the chickens we raised since I was a toddler, they are the prototypical chicken in my mind and I'll always have a soft spot for them. I don't remember much beyond that though.

I have to say my favorite bird is my Cuckoo Marans. She is my most consistent layer and lays a large and beautiful dark egg with the orange-est yolks you could imagine. She's the best forager I have and seems the least bothered by the heat of all my chickens. I just love to see her take down mice she catches on her own! She's my top bird and a wonderfully benevolent leader.

My Black Australorp is nearly as good a forager as my CM. She's not all that friendly, but she was a great broody mom. She's also a very consistent layer, but her eggs are the smallest of all of my birds, although it's not bad. She also does as well as my CM in the heat.

My two EEs are great too. You gotta love blue and green eggs! They're decent foragers and very consistent layers of very large eggs. Both of mine are very sweet and one is a lap bird. Their performance in the heat is somewhere between the BOs and the CM and BA.

 

[pastrymama]

Quote:
maybe lice eggs? did you check around her vent and around all the fluffiness?

 

[LarryPQ]

Those are lice eggs.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Pastrymama beat me to it. That's exactly what I was going to say. Definitely check the vent and other areas. It doesn't exactly look like the lice egg clusters I've seen in pics (I've never seen them in real life), but that's what your pic made me think of first.

If you want to the pic to show up in the post, click on the Img button (located just above the smilies) and it will produce something that looks like this:

Then paste your link in between the two img brackets.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Oh no!

 

[Arizonachicken]

Oh nooooooo! That is the only area I see them. I checked all the birds out, nothing else. Are lice eggs hard? Is there anything else to check for? What do I do now?

 

[LarryPQ]

You need to do a search on the various treatments for lice. If one has them, they all do. It is that time of year, and lots of people are having issues with lice right now. The birds are hot and all lay together in the shade, making transmission easy. Wild birds are drawn to our chicken waterers, which spreads them even faster.

You can dust with poultry dust, try some of the drop-on medications, or the ingestable stuff. No matter what you do, plan on spending a bajillion hours cleaning the coop. You'll need to get all the crap outta the corners and dust in there too. If you can find a leaf blower to save time, get one.