Arizona Chickens

[Mikey D]

Quote:
Thanks, it just sounds a little too easy and fairly inexpensive for some good protein for the chickens.

Do you keep yours indoors or strictly outside, even in the summer?

I've kept them outside on the back porch all summer. They like the heat (with shade). I'm planning to move them to the garage for the winter so they don't freeze.
They have a distinctive smell that I don't like to have in the house but they would do better there in the winter. I think they slow down a lot in the cold.

I'm with you on the smell thing. I understand they like the heat but I too don't want the smell in the house. Walter is willing to keep them in his room which is hotter (on purpose) than the rest of the house anyway. As long as I can't smell them when I walk by his door - all is good.

 

[tball chicky]

Quote:
Just curious, is there a reason to order from ebay? I thought you could pick them up at a pet food store. Are they worse quality or just a lot cheaper?

I think they were way cheaper. The place we usually go to (Wild Side Pets) has them for $3 per hundred. We got 1000 for $12.50.

Now I just have to find bran. Tammy raised them in her science class and sifted the raisens out of raisen bran for them.

Most any local Co-op, health food store, or "natural" store will have it. It's pretty inexpensive @ my Co-op. When I first started mine up, I went to the $1 store & got a couple tubs of oatmeal & a box of baby wheat cereal... total of $3 + tax. I have since added wheat bran.

 

[tball chicky]

Quote:
I've kept them outside on the back porch all summer. They like the heat (with shade). I'm planning to move them to the garage for the winter so they don't freeze.
They have a distinctive smell that I don't like to have in the house but they would do better there in the winter. I think they slow down a lot in the cold.

I'm with you on the smell thing. I understand they like the heat but I too don't want the smell in the house. Walter is willing to keep them in his room which is hotter (on purpose) than the rest of the house anyway. As long as I can't smell them when I walk by his door - all is good.

I personally don't think the smell is too bad if they have plenty ventilation & you keep the scraps at the right level.

I kept mine in the shed this summer & they went wild! Plan on keeping them in the shop for the winter because it's warmer than the shed...and they'd likely freeze in the shed on the one, of two possible, cold nights we get here in the lovely desert.

 

[tightwad]

Quote:
Azure has it in bulk that I may order next month. $2.50 for 5 lbs, $15.75 for 50 lbs.

Ok all you mealworm people, how much bran do you go through?

 

[tightwad]

Quote:
Thanks, it just sounds a little too easy and fairly inexpensive for some good protein for the chickens.

Do you keep yours indoors or strictly outside, even in the summer?

I've kept them outside on the back porch all summer. They like the heat (with shade). I'm planning to move them to the garage for the winter so they don't freeze.
They have a distinctive smell that I don't like to have in the house but they would do better there in the winter. I think they slow down a lot in the cold.

Good to know.

Outside most of the year then in the shed on the colder days.

 

[tball chicky]

Quote:
Azure has it in bulk that I may order next month. $2.50 for 5 lbs, $15.75 for 50 lbs.

Ok all you mealworm people, how much bran do you go through?

Um...I don't measure and I use the bran for other stuff...so if I had to guess I'd say maybe 5# a year. Just a guess...

 

[pimachickens]

Quote:
Azure has it in bulk that I may order next month. $2.50 for 5 lbs, $15.75 for 50 lbs.

Ok all you mealworm people, how much bran do you go through?

Um...I don't measure and I use the bran for other stuff...so if I had to guess I'd say maybe 5# a year. Just a guess...

Yeah, I think 5 lbs is probably about what I bought, although I don't remember for sure

. It filled a 10 gallon tank to a depth of about 3-4 inches.

 

[tball chicky]

OK...Frigabator update: Sorry in advance for the phone quality pics...

Pic as I was standing there wondering "WTH did I get myself into?":

Pic without eggs...

Pics with eggs:

I have gotten it to where I can maintain a pretty steady 99.0 - 99.8 INSIDE the egg. Now, the temps are still swinging in the incubator but inside the EGG they're pretty stable. I am reluctant to mess with the temps anymore since the egg is stable - any thoughts? I also took the water dish out because the humidity was super high - let's say in the 70% - 80% range. It's stays right around 45%-50% without it & I add the dish back in if it drops to 40% then take it back out when it reaches 60% (about an hour or so).

The brown egg (Golden Comet I think) is developing nicely, as well as at least one of the Seramas that I put in originally. I cannot tell for the life of me what is going on inside those mint-blue eggs. The other 4 Seramas that I added a week after the first set, are all developing nicely.

If you have any thoughts on how I can change this up to make it better (or heck just to change it) let me know...

Gotta get to work on this hatcher...8 more days...

Oh...and I got my confirmation in the form of "that incubator is actually pretty cool, you did a good job"

I knew hubby would come around...he asks me about them every night

 

[turkeybreeder]

i have lavenders ameraucanas
but its a project so the person that
gets them needs to have room for
the 16 birds and that can have roosters
that is a total of 16 and it includes roosters
would have to purchase all

 

[Curt]

Got a question I'm sure you fine folks here can help me with. I'm still fairly new at raising chickens so I'm not sure the best way to go about this. I've got 10 hens and I'd like to rotate out a few and bring in a few new ones. I'd really like to add blue egg layers to the mix but I don't know the best place to get them. I'm not into breeding and don't have an incubator and can't have a rooster so just looking for the best way to acquire some blue egg layers. So far I've purchased all my chicks from feed stores including 3 so called Ameraucanas but they're all giving me brown eggs. I knew they weren't true Ameraucanas but I was hoping for some colored eggs when I got them. Any suggestions?