Arizona Chickens

[Fuzzybird]

Mama Hen, I just sent you a PM with my info. I really appreciate all of the hospitality on here. Everyone definitely makes you feel welcome and at home. It's a wonderful thing.

Both of your coops are great. I especially love the first one. It reminds me of a small lemonade shop a kid might have in the old days. Back before the government got so overrestricted that they started requiring permits for such a simply thing...

I live in Wittmann. Nothing fancy but have several differant breeds and some baby silkies. Your welcome to visit.

 

[AZBootsie]

Hello All. I am brand new to the Forum and have been wanting chickens for about a month now. My wife is adamantly opposed to them, thinking they'll be the grossest, smelliest creatures on Earth. I am hoping to find someone near Peoria, Arizona that is currently raising them and has a good, fairly small setup. I would love to bring her and my girls by so that they can experience it and see they really aren't as bad as she thinks. Any takers? Any recommendations? I decided to post a new message, rather than trying to track down everyone individually. I've found a few in Mesa and Glendale, but feel like contacting them directly is sort of akin to telemarketing... Yuck. Thanks in advance! Scott

Sounds like a Mathematician in the making. I predict 6 months from now, your wife and girls will have the obsession. First time she hugs a chicken

that "gross/smelly" prejudice will be history!!

 

[Mikey D]

Quote: Yup!

I can't even smell mine from here!

(of course I'm in San Diego now...)

But I can't even smell them when I'm in my coop even!

"Hey Aabbott!"

 

[Demosthine]

You all have some eggcelent encouragement to give! Mama Hen called and and we'll be going out there Sunday in the early afternoon. It sounds wonderful and she was incredibly sweet to talk to. I'm definitely looking forward to this all.

And I hope it becomes an obsession for my wife and girls. That would be wonderful. My wife needs a good hobby to get in to and I'd love for my girls to learn more of the responsibility of the "farm life." I'm trying to get my seven year old, Jandra, into the habit of feeding our dog. In all honesty, he's my biggest concern with the whole chicken idea. He's really smart, though, so some serious time spent training and we should be ok.

Now to start looking at the breeds. I'm hoping to get some medium to dark brown eggs, and some Easter Egg colors, of course. The girls will get such a kick out of it.

 

[AZBootsie]

FuzzyBird- Hey Terri, just got your voice message. I am busy outside with chores today, but will give you a call tomorrow or the next day. Not like I need to pick up the turner anytime soon...NO MORE HATCHING FOR ME UNTIL I THIN OUT THE FLOCKS!!! 65 chooks is pretty much saturation at this point.

 

[LMS]

Anyone want to help a newbie plan the garden/chicken corner?

I didn't know where to post this, so I figured I'd start with the local gang, since you all seem to know so much, and also enjoy snickering at the newbies! ;-)

Here's the thing: My loving husband has no faith in my ability to keep anything (plant or animal) alive and pretty (despite the fact that I cook for him and he is still around) so he doesn't want the veggie garden/chicken run anywhere front and center in our yard. He wants to basically hide it in a corner behind the shed, which is fine with me since there's some shade there, except that it doesn't seem like there's going to be much room for a garden too.

Since we don't have chickens yet, I'm planning the coop/run to account for chicken math. I want to start with 3 (so 5) laying hens, and since I know I won't be able to kill/eat/give away the older ones once they stop laying, I figure I'll need room for 8. When I'm home, they could free range, but I want to account for having to keep them fenced in the run while we're away/when I go back to work. For confined chickens, I read they need 10 sf per bird. So the coop will be 5 x7 and the run would be 8 x 10, plus they'd have room under the raised coop where I'm planning to put the water/feed. Does that sound right? Too much space? If I do it this way, I have very little room left in the corner for my veggie garden (a total of 48 sf, I wanted about double that). I also need room (how much? 2 sf?) for a worm bin and a small compost pile for the bedding and whatever compostable food scraps can't be eaten by chickens and worms (is there such a thing? I was thinking citrus and banana peels mostly). I have no idea how much space I need for a compost pile, whether it can be up against the wall of the chicken coop, or if I should do a single pile or a three-bin system. Any advice there would be great.

So yeah, I'm not even a chicken mom yet, and already the birds have way more space than the garden that's supposed to feed my family. I think I'm in trouble.... Anyone here sew chicken diapers for inside the house? (I'm joking... But then again... Wouldn't that solve the space issue outside?) Oh gosh help me.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Have you ever nuzzled your nose right into the neck of one of your chickens? I do that occasionally when I check them at night before locking them up (the roost is right at head height). I think they smell awesome. Well, that does sound a bit weird now that I think about it.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Anyone want to help a newbie plan the garden/chicken corner?

I didn't know where to post this, so I figured I'd start with the local gang, since you all seem to know so much, and also enjoy snickering at the newbies! ;-)

Here's the thing: My loving husband has no faith in my ability to keep anything (plant or animal) alive and pretty (despite the fact that I cook for him and he is still around) so he doesn't want the veggie garden/chicken run anywhere front and center in our yard. He wants to basically hide it in a corner behind the shed, which is fine with me since there's some shade there, except that it doesn't seem like there's going to be much room for a garden too.

Since we don't have chickens yet, I'm planning the coop/run to account for chicken math. I want to start with 3 (so 5) laying hens, and since I know I won't be able to kill/eat/give away the older ones once they stop laying, I figure I'll need room for 8. When I'm home, they could free range, but I want to account for having to keep them fenced in the run while we're away/when I go back to work. For confined chickens, I read they need 10 sf per bird. So the coop will be 5 x7 and the run would be 8 x 10, plus they'd have room under the raised coop where I'm planning to put the water/feed. Does that sound right? Too much space? If I do it this way, I have very little room left in the corner for my veggie garden (a total of 48 sf, I wanted about double that). I also need room (how much? 2 sf?) for a worm bin and a small compost pile for the bedding and whatever compostable food scraps can't be eaten by chickens and worms (is there such a thing? I was thinking citrus and banana peels mostly). I have no idea how much space I need for a compost pile, whether it can be up against the wall of the chicken coop, or if I should do a single pile or a three-bin system. Any advice there would be great.

So yeah, I'm not even a chicken mom yet, and already the birds have way more space than the garden that's supposed to feed my family. I think I'm in trouble.... Anyone here sew chicken diapers for inside the house? (I'm joking... But then again... Wouldn't that solve the space issue outside?) Oh gosh help me.

Oh, you're going to fit in well here.

Your plan sounds very reasonable to me. In fact, it's very much in line with my original line of reasoning. I ended up with eight birds much faster than I thought though. Your space sounds good--definitely not too big. I'd highly recommend a compost bin. If you're going to start gardening, you'll need one. Our soil is terrible for growing things, but can be made quite productive with the regular addition of compost. A single bin is good to start with and won't take up too much space either. You can see a pic of my three bins below. Chicken diapers...hehe...snicker ...snicker....

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

You all have some eggcelent encouragement to give! Mama Hen called and and we'll be going out there Sunday in the early afternoon. It sounds wonderful and she was incredibly sweet to talk to. I'm definitely looking forward to this all.

And I hope it becomes an obsession for my wife and girls. That would be wonderful. My wife needs a good hobby to get in to and I'd love for my girls to learn more of the responsibility of the "farm life." I'm trying to get my seven year old, Jandra, into the habit of feeding our dog. In all honesty, he's my biggest concern with the whole chicken idea. He's really smart, though, so some serious time spent training and we should be ok.

Now to start looking at the breeds. I'm hoping to get some medium to dark brown eggs, and some Easter Egg colors, of course. The girls will get such a kick out of it.

Looking forward to your family's visit here. I enjoyed our conversation.

As I mentioned, I grew up next to my grandmothers dairy farm in North Haven, NY. I grew up with 30 White Plymouth Rocks at our house. We moved to AZ in '71 and when us kids left home, my dad got chickens again. I got to brood them at my house until they were old enough to live at his house. Was fun for my kids. And we only lived a couple miles from them so we got plenty opportunity to see the chicks grow. After my kiddos left the home, hubby asked if I would like chickens again. That was my birthday gift almost 2 years ago August. It has been so much fun and your wife will love to watch their antics (chicken tv) All mine have different personalities. She will see that there is no smell as Mikey D says all the way from San Diego! LOL The girls are pretty quiet. I have a few that "sing" before and after they lay.

You will get obsessed. OCD-Obsessive Chicken Disorder for sure, as we all are. Chickens are like potato chips, you can't just have one. Chicken math will strike!!

 

[itsredcandy]

You all have some eggcelent encouragement to give! Mama Hen called and and we'll be going out there Sunday in the early afternoon. It sounds wonderful and she was incredibly sweet to talk to. I'm definitely looking forward to this all.

And I hope it becomes an obsession for my wife and girls. That would be wonderful. My wife needs a good hobby to get in to and I'd love for my girls to learn more of the responsibility of the "farm life." I'm trying to get my seven year old, Jandra, into the habit of feeding our dog. In all honesty, he's my biggest concern with the whole chicken idea. He's really smart, though, so some serious time spent training and we should be ok.

Now to start looking at the breeds. I'm hoping to get some medium to dark brown eggs, and some Easter Egg colors, of course. The girls will get such a kick out of it.

Welcome Demosthine. My chickens are the least smelliest of my 12 pets (10 chickens, 1 dog, 1 cat). The dog far out does the chickens in the scent area. Dog poop scooping stinks to high heven. Cat boxes reek but I can't smell anything when I smell the chickens or crawl in their coop. If I had to do it again (breed wise) I would only get one of each breed. Then I could have more variety.

Yes friends, lets not mention chicken math yet. We'll fill in that bit once he's got his first chicks.