Arizona Chickens

[Mikey D]

good day in San Diego today - toured the Midway (Huge aircraft carrier museum) & will return to see the rest of it tomorrow.

Then caught a comedy show.

Prolly back to the oven tomorrow evening.

Saw this while surfing...

 

[Demosthine]

So, I've been looking through the breeds and trying to find what I like. I have a few questions, though, that I can't find answers to.

- The Climate Tolerance lists Cold and Heat. About what are the ranges for those two? I mean, obviously, here in Phoenix we qualify as Hot, but being on the outskirts of town, we do get into the mid- to low-30s during winter. Is that where I need to start looking at the Cold weathers or are we talking more about temps in the negatives?

- Everything on my full list of breeds I like are listed as "Large Fowl." Does that push the coop space from 3-4 sq. ft. to 5-6 sq. ft. or something? Or is the 3-4 sq. ft. pretty standard for all breeds? A quick search didn't show any good comparison for Bantams versus Large Fowl that I could find. There's just so much information, though, I can't get through it all.

- I've seen numerous posts were people bought the breeds listed below in Arizona, but I didn't see any where there were problems. Are they generally OK here?


As of now, I'm leaning towards (1) Black Copper Marans, (2) Easter Eggers, and (1) Silver Laced Wyandottes. I chose the Marans and Wyandottes for their dual purpose and their beautiful colors. I like the idea of being able to eat Mamma once she's at the end of her life cycle. Some may find this appalling, but... And the Easter Eggers are for their egg colors, of course. All of them are listed as "friendly, easily handled, docile." Those are perfect traits for my family.

Thanks ahead of time!

 

[Novaleigh]

I have Easter Egger, Wyandotte, Silkie, Leghorn, Orpington, Polish, Brahma, D'Unccle, Ameraucana, Australorp, Welsummer, Cochin, Egyptian Fayoumi, Barred Rock, the list goes on and on!! both in standard and bantam sizes.... ALL of them have done AMAZING, even in this summer heat! The only thing I am doing is giving them free range of my near 1 acre property, multiple self refill water stations all over the property, a LOT of trees and shrubs for shading, mister systems, and flood irrigation done every 2 weeks. I have yet to lose a single one to heat. The only chickens I have lost were due to the neighborhood dog that jumped our 6 foot fence, respiratory illness (until Mikey D. introduced me to Tylan! YAY!), and ants (major infestation that I have since successfully killed off without harming a single bird). Hope this helps!

So, I've been looking through the breeds and trying to find what I like. I have a few questions, though, that I can't find answers to.

- The Climate Tolerance lists Cold and Heat. About what are the ranges for those two? I mean, obviously, here in Phoenix we qualify as Hot, but being on the outskirts of town, we do get into the mid- to low-30s during winter. Is that where I need to start looking at the Cold weathers or are we talking more about temps in the negatives?

- Everything on my full list of breeds I like are listed as "Large Fowl." Does that push the coop space from 3-4 sq. ft. to 5-6 sq. ft. or something? Or is the 3-4 sq. ft. pretty standard for all breeds? A quick search didn't show any good comparison for Bantams versus Large Fowl that I could find. There's just so much information, though, I can't get through it all.

- I've seen numerous posts were people bought the breeds listed below in Arizona, but I didn't see any where there were problems. Are they generally OK here?


As of now, I'm leaning towards (1) Black Copper Marans, (2) Easter Eggers, and (1) Silver Laced Wyandottes. I chose the Marans and Wyandottes for their dual purpose and their beautiful colors. I like the idea of being able to eat Mamma once she's at the end of her life cycle. Some may find this appalling, but... And the Easter Eggers are for their egg colors, of course. All of them are listed as "friendly, easily handled, docile." Those are perfect traits for my family.

Thanks ahead of time!

 

[Phottoman]

The only chickens I have lost were due to the neighborhood dog that jumped our 6 foot fence, respiratory illness (until Mikey D. introduced me to Tylan! YAY!), and ants (major infestation that I have since successfully killed off without harming a single bird). Hope this helps!

Up here in Golden Valley we have the same heat you have, but without the humidity, and both of the tractors have plenty of shade for both of my flocks. That being said, we have ants. And more ants. And even MORE ants.

There is no place on this property that DOESN'T have ants. Small one's, big one's and everything inbetween. Actually I don't think there is a place anywhere ON the property that doesn't have ants. And if there is no colony of ants on a spot, they will migrate there, forage, then leave back to their ant hills or warrens.

I was under the impression that chickens would eat ants. Is this NOT TRUE? And if they DON'T eat ants, what can I do, and what did YOU do to "successfully killed off without harming a single bird?"

Photto

 

[LMS]

MikeyD, thanks for the tips.... but even though I've never been good at math, I'm sticking to 8 max. I just don't have the room! Maybe I really will start with 3 and stick to that, so when things get out of hand I'll still have room. Besides, my neighbor has 5 chickens, a huge husband, and three kids, and she has too many eggs to deal with. We are only 3 and not huge, so I would think that 3 will give us plenty of eggs.

I'm so glad I could provide you with some amusement after a tough week! ;-) The planning is ongoing to get two protected gardens going so there'll be SOMETHING left for us to eat.

In a backyard brawl, who'd win, the chicken or the ground squirrel?

 

[pupeluv]

[COLOR=333333]Lost my first hen to the heat today.  [/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]She laid an egg at about 4:45 PM, jumped down from the nest box and died.  One of my most beautiful, pretty Icelandics from my NYD hatch.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]They've been getting cold, cold water 2-3 times a day but it got up to 111 today and it's going to hit 114 on Saturday.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Makes me sad.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]Maybe I should just forget chickens.[/COLOR]

I'm so sorry. I got a mister from Home Depot. It's just about 3 feet of bendable hose. Threaded it through chicken wire at top of coop & hooked up a water hose. It works great & only cost $14. I'll do something more permanent later but this is getting us through the summer. They also have waist high portable misters, but the girls don't like it that low. They're a little afraid of the spray I think. Once it gets really humid I think I'll add a box fan. I only have four hens though. Chicken math hasn't struck yet. Kelly

 

[pimachickens]

good day in San Diego today - toured the Midway (Huge aircraft carrier museum) & will return to see the rest of it tomorrow.

Then caught a comedy show.

Prolly back to the oven tomorrow evening.

Saw this while surfing...

It looks like it's gonna take off. Chickens..................in....................spaaaaaace!

 

[pupeluv]

That is so cool!

I've seen them on ebay but they're expensive. I think they were getting $29 plus shipping or something.

 

[pupeluv]

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

I am brand new to chickens & using the deep litter method. The only time I smell anything is from the poop in the "wading pool" which is a very large dish of water. And I only smell it when I bend over to pick it up daily for cleaning. No smells while standing or outside coop. Once it cools off and the water isn't so warm, I don't expect it to smell at all. Kelly

 

[itsredcandy]

So 10 hens can hang out happily in 32 sf of space under the coop and not have issues? I'm thinking maybe I should see if I can make the chicken space smaller -- if I can get it just right, I'm hoping to be able to have two separate garden beds: 1 on each side of the coop so that they can access one or the other but not both. That way, one can be planted for us, the other can have cover crop for the chickens to forage, and then I can switch the next season.

And is it naive to believe what I read about chickens leaving the garden alone if you never feed them from it? Like if I don't give them lettuce or carrot tops, they won't bother them in the garden? (Read that in Jessie Bloom's book about free range chicken gardens...)

When mine are locked up they have 96 sq ft of ground space plus 32 sq ft of coop for a total of 128 sq ft. They don't however use all that space at one time. They are usually under the 32 sq ft coop, even when they are free to free-range. I don't have experience with the garden. I feed mine my veggie scraps and when I attempted to grow them shade, they dug up and ate my 4 week old starts.