Arizona Chickens

[Mikey D]

TT! :

Quote:
I actually did that to my daughter once (by mistake, of course). She was in the small coop holding chicks and I left, inadvertently locking the coop from the outside.
She had to break the lock to get out.

Haha that would be terrible!

I didn't really get kidnapped. I found a new job.. I went from 15-20 hours a week, to 40 hours a week. I spend over 2 hours commuting each day. I'm never home

Congrats on the job TT!

The commute sux though I was root'n for ya!

 

[Mikey D]

Quote:
Ummmm... Memphis...

New Mexico?

Yes. I live just across the az/nm border.

Cool. Kinda relief as I couldn't figure out where in AZ NM was.

We have a lil chunk o land in St. Johns. Are we neighbors?

 

[Mikey D]

Quote:
I actually did that to my daughter once (by mistake, of course). She was in the small coop holding chicks and I left, inadvertently locking the coop from the outside.
She had to break the lock to get out.

Just saw Mikey's post on Azure. Too late tonight but can't wait to join tomorrow.
Granddaughter is here, got to see her Silkies for the first time. Boy, those Cornish are getting HUGE! I put the ones from the second batch out with first batch, so much for my controlled study.

I couldn't stand that many chicks in the house any longer. So much nicer with just the little silkies and two of the tiniest red packing peanuts from the second batch. ( I think they might even be RIR Banties)
I have two red broilers almost keeping up with the medium sized Cornish. You should see the legs on these guys!
I set out an extra batch of feed tonight and two pounds of some pickled fish that didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. All gone in ONE hour!

I agree! the 2 Cornish I have are approaching football size! One has feathers, one is kinda still bald. The Australorps and Barred Rocks are 1/3 their size. Production Reds are about 2/3 their size.

Are we still going to swap or are we cool like it is? Either way is cool with me.

 

[Mikey D]

OK peeps - I called it quits around 10:30 tonight. Took me 20 minutes to catch up on all yer posts...

I'm sitting down with a fat bowl of sherbert and gonna post some shots of today's work:

We brought the whole shebang over to the patio for ease of assembly. Trying to let gravity help instead of hinder.
Laid it face down & went to town.

Gallo - You scared the heck out of me with those ticks! I ran caulk between the splice plates before nailing them in.

Had DD#1 & the whole fan-damaly over today to help/watch - that's grand baby #10

Grand babies # who knows and # who else knows playing on the worlds largest lego set!

Took the four of us to move it back into position.

We nailed it down to the concrete with 3/8" x 3" Shield anchors. I like them better than wedge anchors.
That's Walter tightening them down.

I couldn't figure out how to attach a vertical stud to the outside of the house where there was no stud inside.
So I drilled a piece of aluminum angle, counter sunk the holes and used stainless flat-heads to hold it.
The weird hole spacing is for the top 2 x 6 and the vertical column for the hardware cloth.

Papa and Walter screwing the silly thing in. I could only find stainless screws with slotted heads - what a pain-in-the-rump!

And this is how we left it. Hopefully going to finish the structure tomorrow, bite the bullet on the roof and maybe have peepers occupying it tomorrow!

Thanks to all'y'all for helping me with this! All of your ideas and suggestions helped me avoid so many mistakes!
Although I'm pretty sure I'm innovative enough to make some new ones!

Good night all!

***edited cause I didn't know that if you delete a photo from your uploads, it deletes it from you post!***

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Mikey D, Coop's lookin' great! I like your solution for attaching it to the house too.

Southerndesert, stick with us, we experience our points vicariously through TT! here.

TBall Chicky, I should have enough kefir grains to give you when you pick up your moringa seeds. I would have had a lot, but I gave half of it to the chickens yesterday.

They love that stuff.

Tracydr, I got my kombucha mother and starter from mclevinson. If you can't get some from her, I'll mail you some.

Tightwad, ...getting TT! to draw you a picture for visuals....

TT!, you need to move closer to civilization. How can you make us laugh if you're spending all your time driving?

Beckyhsinglsc, I locked myself in the coop once. I shut the door and when the wire that pulls open the lock from the inside pulled right off I had a brief but terrible panic attack. It took less than a minute to free myself but I no longer shut the door behind me.

heatheraz, welcome to BYC and our AZ thread.

 

[ca]

Quote:
That would be a decent option if Casa Grande doesn't work. CA, how close is that for you?

tracy
i just found their website. they have their own mix of poultry feeds and they listed that they will also make you whatever kind of mix you want! they have quite a few locations in northern az, but it looks like the mill is in chino. i don't know what is in their "olsens brand" of poultry feed, but it may be worth finding out. darn, i was just up there last weekend. although, my friend that lives in cottonwood, i could ask her to go in there and take a pic of their feed tag and send it to me. that's where they shop, but she buys purina.

I went to Olsons about a month ago to ask about mixing feed. The person I talked to at the store gave me the deer in the headlights look. They don't even have an Olson's brand layer feed anymore. I bought a bag of their "Home Grown" Layer feed (that's the name of it, it's from the Country Acres Feed Company in Brentwood MO).
Here the contents:
Crude Protein (Min) 16.00%
Lysine (Min) 0.75%
Methionine (Min) 0.25%
Crude Fat (Min) 2.5%
Crude Fiber (Max) 5.5%
Calcium (Min) 3%
Calcium (Max) 4%
Phosphorus (Min) 0.5%
Salt (Min) 0.1%
Salt (Max) 0.6%

 

[pastrymama]

Quote:
tracy
i just found their website. they have their own mix of poultry feeds and they listed that they will also make you whatever kind of mix you want! they have quite a few locations in northern az, but it looks like the mill is in chino. i don't know what is in their "olsens brand" of poultry feed, but it may be worth finding out. darn, i was just up there last weekend. although, my friend that lives in cottonwood, i could ask her to go in there and take a pic of their feed tag and send it to me. that's where they shop, but she buys purina.

I went to Olsons about a month ago to ask about mixing feed. The person I talked to at the store gave me the deer in the headlights look. They don't even have an Olson's brand layer feed anymore. I bought a bag of their "Home Grown" Layer feed (that's the name of it, it's from the Country Acres Feed Company in Brentwood MO).
Here the contents:
Crude Protein (Min) 16.00%
Lysine (Min) 0.75%
Methionine (Min) 0.25%
Crude Fat (Min) 2.5%
Crude Fiber (Max) 5.5%
Calcium (Min) 3%
Calcium (Max) 4%
Phosphorus (Min) 0.5%
Salt (Min) 0.1%
Salt (Max) 0.6%

ca, that is just insane. it is on their website that they make this stuff and they will custom make you what you want!
do you know what else is in that feed? you know, the fine print? i have been reading so many feed tags the last two days or so and am finding some really crazy ingredients that i never paid attention to before like BISULFITES, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SULFUR. i won't buy anything with these things in them because they cause me to get horrendous migraines, i am not feeding it to my chickens. i don't know how much would be passed into the eggs, but why even bother. and surprisingly, these ingredients are listed in the better brands that Sonoran Silkies suggested. they may be great feeds, but just won't work for me. i suppose i will trek back to manna pro until i can come up with a better solution.

 

[southerndesert]

OK we have 9 healthy chicks eating, drinking and pooping, but there are still 3 eggs that seem rather quiet....

Fingers are crossed for them, but it is starting to get iffy....

Have had them decide to come out a day or two late before so not giving up all hope yet.

 

[pastrymama]

so i woke up this morning to the sound of SNAP!!! squeak! squeak! squeak! squeak! totally freaked out, i thought one of those silly buttercups got out of the run and onto the patio and snapped herself in a mousetrap. or could have been the little ameraucanas, they are just as sly, they just have everyone fooled with those poofy cheeks. go outside and do a headcount because i can't find the trap but hear the squeaking, everyone is accounted for. just another mouse. i will have to wait another hour for the fireman to come home and retrieve it before the beagle does.

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

I just wrote to Manna Pro and told them of our predicament. Will see what they say and maybe get some more feed stores around here to carry Manna Pro Egg Maker Crumbles and Pellets.