Arizona Chickens

[Arizonachicken]

My new babies are here. They are 2 days old. My two 9 day old ones look so huge next to them.

2 Silver laced Wyandottes and 1 Barred Rock. My little BR does not like to be photographed!

 

[azpenguin]

You sure inspired me!
I have started hanging out at Home Depot and Lowes lumber department and have now have an incredible collection of lumber. My coops is going to be designed around what lumber I have.
Plan on using screws and make several small coops for breeding pens. This should make them portable enough for when I move this summer. The screws will be affordable since I'm saving so much money on lumber.


As far as screws - I tend to get mine at the Ace Hardware at 29th and Alvernon. They have a bin in the back where you can buy 'em by the pound (usually around $1.50 a pound), as well as nails and poultry staples (99 cents a pound, and we did our main coop on a pound and a half, so there's a lot). It's waaaaaaaaay cheaper than getting them at Home Depot. I just use wood screws and don't worry about whether they're galvanized, because they'll be painted over anyway.Your nearby Ace, wherever it is, may or may not have the same thing (the one closest to me doesn't.)

Be warned - the hunt for coop lumber can become an obsession!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I honestly have no idea what kind of wood it is. It sure is beautiful though! And really dense wood! That is the really cool thing about getting lumber from discount section of lumber, you get some really good stuff at super cheap!

Quote: It does look like redwood, which does very well outdoors. It also becomes much lighter weight as it dries out, which in my opinion is a good thing--seeing as I occasionally need to move or re-settle most of my coops

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
post a photo and I will give you an opinion

 

[azmotogirl]

Thanks! I will have to give them a call and see if they have any! ..oh wow... Just put in google search for Superstition Feed and what happened with the co-owner (Tim Stevenson) came up. WOW! I am a cat lover to the core, I can't believe he brutally attacked the cat with a shovel! The police report says he did it at the feed store! My stomach has officially become violently ill. Any other places that might sell EEs?

I just picked up a few chicks from Mesa Feed Barn yesterday. They just got a new batch of chicks in and they were all very active and healthy looking when I was there.

 

[Mikey D]

You KNOW you are going to build one--a most awesome stainless steel welded cabinet incubator with a lexan door so you can watch how they are doing, and all sorts of innovative features. It will lower your cost per chick to about $500

Oh yeah, that's the rational I'll use!

 

[Mikey D]

We started our chicken coop yesterday. We only had a small list of items to build it. A saw, an electric drill, lumber, a measuring tape, a marker pen, concrete 4x4 footers, and screws. Thankfully I married a math man who figured all measurements and design! I sure as hell couldn't do it. I would've ended up redneckin' it.

This is what it looked like at the beginning of the day (all lumber from Home Depot scrap box, totaling around 75.00, though we have WAY more then enough lumber!)


My handsome husband and youngest child, my son, building the floor! This was a perfect family project!


This is what it looked like at days end (my poor hunny had to leave for work right after I took this pic, night shifter at Intel). We still have the walls, windows, roof, fill in the flooring, list goes on... but we are getting there! My husband is 6'2 tall, so this is one tall coop! This is our very first building project, and we had no idea what we were doing. We just winged it (that is why I give all credit to my very smart husband! LOL). This coop is made with lots of love

Way cool!

 

[Memphisjourney2seramas]

I just picked up a few chicks from Mesa Feed Barn yesterday. They just got a new batch of chicks in and they were all very active and healthy looking when I was there.

What kind did you get?

 

[azmotogirl]

We picked up 2 EE's and one BR...... they also had RIR and I think one other variety. We are replacing a few we had culled. Had to cull (give away to someone to process) one because she had begun to lay soft shelled eggs and nothing we could do helped. We also had to re-home one because she was a bit to "vocal" for our neighborhood. Since our other EE's have slowed down so much we decided to get a few more to get our green egg production back up to normal. (out of 3 adult EE's we have only had 2 green eggs in 7 days!)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

 

[Arizonachicken]

I've been wondering...everyone who hatches out all those chicks...what do you do with them all? Do y'all sell them, or keep them. I'm afraid to start down the hatching road, I might end up with more chickens than I have room for! Just wondering...