Arizona Chickens

[Fuzzybird]

Sonoran Silkiies what I was asking is that when you want a chicken to breed with a Paint is it best to make sure the Black comes from Black parents and the White comes from White parents? I know that is possible a chicken could carry paint in the black or white chicken but to start off is a pure back ground best?
As for Cotton she is a young hen. Her first laying season. I don't believe she is over 1 year old yet. I do have a picture of her head altho it is not very good. The dark spot on her head has several black tiny feathers.

Now the next picture is Daisy and I do think this is a girl. Do you? She is the one that was showing the spots you said you thought may be blue. Again awful picture. Daisy is 4 months old.

This next one is a black and not sure what the sex is. I lean toward girl. I have been told cockerel but still not convinced. Since she is Cotton's chick I hope it is a hen for be good for breeding to my Paint [I hope] Cockerel Poppycock. This one is also 4 months old.


I had hoped to get a head shot of Poppy but he would not stand for it! All the pictures were just to blurry. I will try again soon. His attitude is what I go by the most. He is very pushy and bold.
Thanks so much for answering my questions!

 

[momgoose]

Oops don't know how to delete a post.

 

[pimachickens]

I prefer pellets for my full grown full sized chickens, crumbles for pullets or bantys or smaller chickens. I put the 'dust' left over in the feed in with their 'treats', kind of dusting their lettuce, tomatos, cabbage, etc. with it so it doesn't all go to waste. I also put it in my bird feeder or finch feeders for the native birds. Your chickens will clean up any feed that they knock to the ground usually. Another way you can keep them from throwing feed out of their feeders is to make a treadle feeder. The eating space is larger and deeper than commercial plastic feeders and doesn't allow them to 'throw' the feed out of it as much or to scratch it out like commercial pan or hole feeders.
Let your chickens tell you what they want. If they are choosing the larger chunks of crumbles, they will probably like pellets better.

It's amazing the size of stuff chickens can get down their throats! One of my hens pecked an earbud (I was listening to my MP3 player while working in their pen) right out of my ear and took off with it. Of course she hit the end of the wire but by then she had it halfway down her throat! To retrieve it, I had to clamp her under my arm, pry her beak open and carefully ease it back out of her throat. She had earbud and two inches of wire down there! Needless to say, I no longer take anything smaller than a ping pong ball in the pen with me! LOL!
Terri

It never would have occured to me that that could happen. I will never again go in wearing headphones. Glad you got it back out!

 

[Fuzzybird]

MomGoose, I am also a Terri! Thanks for the great idea of putting the left over powder in the wild bird feeder! Never thought of that!

 

[pimachickens]

The tupperware is full of wheat grass/fodder/sprouts- NOW youv'e opened a whole new bag of worms! I found out about fodder feeding while researching how to feed my horses for cheaper (hay sometimes over $20/bale) and feeding them fresher/better feed.I found this site called Keeping a Family Cow (KFC) with a thread on fodder feed growing at home. So now my garden tub area in the master is converted to a fodder growing station. Now I've cut my hay bills in half and I love feeding everyone fresh, green grass (horses, dogs, cats, and now chickens) that is far superior in nutritional value than any grain by itself. It was actually the KFC site that inspired me to get chickens. Right now I'm sprouting wheat and sunflower seeds for the chickens- they love it!
Jenni

Thanks for the link to that. Although I stayed up WAY later than I should have reading through the fodder thread! Like I need one more project right now!

I do think I'm going to give it a try, though. I just have to see if I can get seed in smaller batches. 50lbs will last me a decade with only 4 hens and 3 rabbits. Hmmm...maybe I need a cow.

 

[pastrymama]

ducklings have shipped

can't wait until thursday. it'll be like christmas in june! can't wait to see what is in there! will it be harlequins, magpies, appleyards, hookbills? who knows? they are all loverly!!!!!!!!

 

[In2Ice]

ok... I exchanged the unopened bag of crumbles today for a bag of pellets. I hope the girls like the change. Getting tired of the sparrows eating all the food. I hung screen strips down to keep them out of the coop but 2 of my 4 chickens are scared to go through the strips of screening

I am slowly dropping a couple strips a day in front of the coop door to get them used to it. I guess if they are hungry enough they will go in right?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

ducklings have shipped

can't wait until thursday. it'll be like christmas in june! can't wait to see what is in there! will it be harlequins, magpies, appleyards, hookbills? who knows? they are all loverly!!!!!!!!

There was a (true) story a few years back on another list about a lady who ordered a number of animals, and did not tell her husband.

So he answers the door one day and the mailman is there with a large box of chicks. "Oh, ok. Honey, did you order chicks?" Next day a truck pulls up and a farmer gets out and brings a big box of just weaned rabbits to the door. Once again, DH is home and answers. This time he is a bit more perplexed. Next day another truck hauling a trailer pulls up, and the driver gets out and brings a few goats on leads to the door. This keeps going on all week, with more and more diverse and larger animals, an a more and more unhappy husband. Finally the horses are delivered. Next day the doorbell rings; when DH opens it and looks out, he immediately slams the door in the driver's face.



The driver was lost and looking for directions; his truck had a large sign advertising the circus.

 

[GoldBarRanch]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/posts/add/threadId/31227/toquote/9108387
Thanks for saying what I've been thinking! I have been lurking for a couple months and this forum seems like a tough nut (or egg) to crack.
I'm from up north by Prescott and am new to chickens. I have an 8 yr old daughter that is sharing this wonderful chicken experience with me (my hubby is indifferent, but very supportive of my animal obsessions). We have 3 16 wk old pullets (2 barred rocks and a blue andalusian) and 2 7 wk old gold sexlink pullets. I had no idea what wonderful and fun pets chickens were!!! Ours live in a converted horse stall with a newly constructed outside run for the daytime. We live surrounded by BLM land, so predators are a huge concern, and I'm not brave enough to free range the girls yet. Please, accept me into the "club" and I'll keep doing my chicken math homework!

. Jenni

Glad you decided to chat with us. Hope you share your pictures too. This is a great place to learn and share.look forward to your upcoming posts here

 

[GoldBarRanch]

Bootsie the fireman was nice enough to not scramble up the eggs you brought and they are in the bator right now. now how to get them to hatch before memphis leaves????? oh, make her stay longer!!!!!

funny story that could have had a bad ending. saturday morning i woke up around 6:45 and had a text on my phone from my neighbor that said one of my ducks was on the roof of his workshop. the workshop looks just like a replica of his house and is right next to my chicken/duck yard, but the entire run is covered in netting and the gate is closed. i freak out

run outside and start counting, hoping he saw a huge pigeon instead. no, i am missing a girl duck. called him and he said he went in to get his phone to text me, came back out and the duck was gone. he figured she came back in my yard. i frantically search the giant yard, no duck. he went out front to look for her. i hear loud voices over the other fireman's wall(the one NOT SO HAPPY with my flock that i must keep noise to a minimum) i stood up on a bench and peer over the 7foot wall and ask if they have seen a duck, why yes they have! omg! i ask if she is alive(they have 2 huge english mastiffs) and she is alive and ok and in the fireman's wife's arms. duck decided to find an unfenced pool and go for an early morning swim, she sat on their mat at the arcadia door when she was done and the mastiffs saw her, one came out and the 2 were nose to nose, duck started flapping and running across the grass, lucky for her that dog has terrible hip dysplasia and can't really move. the other mastiff and the weiner dog were still trying to get out the doggie door. as fireman's wife was handing duck to me over the wall while i was apolgizing for the rudeness of my duck, she said, i didn't know you even had ducks! i told her they were quackless ducks. her fireman said, honey, they have 4. i started to giggle because my holderread's duckling order is supposed to ship today or tomorrow, and those are NOT quackless. oops.

So glad nobody was harmed.. silly duckie .. looks like you need to get a pool