Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

You brought up a good point. I need a medic kit for my chickens. What goes into one?
Kris

when we had our two sick babies we would use a straw to give them
H20.. That way they would not drowned in the water or get upper respitory from it
going down the wrong way..
.. We captured water in the straw with our thumb on one end, then put it up to their beak..
I like the medic kit for out chick's as well... Thanks for the info!!

 

[Demosthine]

ALSO, Just wondering, who decides what is an enclousure and what is a coop?

In the City Code, it defines "ENCLOSURE: Any fencing, corral, or barrier of sufficient strength and height to prevent an animal from
escaping its primary confines." There is no definition of a "coop," though. Merriam-Webster defines it as "a cage or small enclosure (as for poultry); a small building for housing poultry." I would focus on the "small building" part in that definition. Based on that, a tractor should be a perfectly viable option. Section 8-6-21(G) says an "enclosure" must be at least 40' from another person's permanent residence, which would be their physical house. Remember, it's not the property line that matters.

I don't know about yours, but in my area, the houses are approximately 30-40' from the back of the house to the property line and have a minimum required distance of 10' between the side of the house and property line. So you should be completely fine for the house behind you. That would leave 30' from each side neighbors house. With a 100' wide yard, you should have a good 40' in the middle that is completely legal.

Don't let them push you around. Fight it, as is your legal right. Think of it another way. Say you buy a new Chevrolet Camaro in the new Synergy Green color. Your neighbor hates that color and thinks it's a blight on the neighborhood. That doesn't give them the right to call DMV or the Police and tell them you have to get rid of it. Their "feelings" don't matter as long as you are within the City Code.

 

[Mahonri]

Looks like y'all are having fun. I'm down to 20 chickens.. Sold most of them. I won't be doing a hatch next year, rather, I'll be ordering specific breeds from McMurray.. Hope to have them by January for Feb so that they'll be laying by summer.

If I can get by with my two roos... a BW Ameraucana and the Icelandic, I may hatch a few of my own. I noticed that the Icelandic roo was getting it done with one of the Icelandic hens this morning, So I could have fertile eggs by Nov.- Dec.
I'm hoping the weather stays like this and if it does, I'm planting the winter garden next Saturday... We'll see what the 10 day is next Friday.

 

[desertmarcy]

Rock squirrels prey on wild turkeys! Who'd have thunk it? Thanks for the article link, Gallo. It was clearly drawn from research in higher elevations/latitudes. Not many oak trees or wild turkeys in my scorched-earth-desert neighborhood, but we sure have a bunch of rock squirrels. They've arrived in large numbers over the last couple of years. Little buggers do a number on my vegetable garden. I still like them. But I'm going to have to keep a much closer eye on them now. Especially on that lactating female who keeps looking through my sliding glass door like she wants to move in. Hmmm... maybe she sees my cockatiels as lunch... that is a disturbing thought!

You won't like the "little" (not so little) buggers when they start excavating under your house/garage/porch/what have you. They can dig so much dirt out from under a concrete pad in one day the concrete will crack. I know since it happened to me. I kept trying to force the dirt back into the hole. Impossible to get it all back in there.They or it would dig it back out. A section of the concrete pad cracked because of this. I finally ended up digging a 8"-10" deep by 4" wide (hard to dig any narrower) trench all the way around the concrete pad and filling it with more concrete. That finally stopped the digging. They, and all rodents I think based on experience, leave a scent behind so even if you get rid of that one, more come in to the same place and will dig it out again. This happens in my yard over and over again with pocket mice. I trap the culprits, dig up and fill in the tunnels, but more come in and dig in the same spot. I hate rodents! I had no idea that rock squirrels would prey on birds.

 

[Mikey D]

Good morning folks,

yes another swoop today - no time with all the projects - fast get on - get off whilst the Control Tower cooks up some bacon egg & cheese sammiches for breakfast.

So what color egg would a silkie/cochin cross lay?

Both Fuzzy (aforementioned cross) and Freaky (App Spitz) started squatting! Someone layed a small white egg. The App Spitz was supposed to be my only known white egg layer. However someone (Thought it was Freaky) has been laying HUGE white eggs in very random locations. - like right in the middle of the yard. Lazy Clucker!

Hope all is well with all ya'll - I've gotta get back to work - sorry for the lack of pictures, my camera is now defunct (someone forced the SD card in upside down and forced the battery door shut)

Have a cluck'n one!

Mikey

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Rock squirrels prey on wild turkeys! Who'd have thunk it? Thanks for the article link, Gallo. It was clearly drawn from research in higher elevations/latitudes. Not many oak trees or wild turkeys in my scorched-earth-desert neighborhood, but we sure have a bunch of rock squirrels. They've arrived in large numbers over the last couple of years. Little buggers do a number on my vegetable garden. I still like them. But I'm going to have to keep a much closer eye on them now. Especially on that lactating female who keeps looking through my sliding glass door like she wants to move in. Hmmm... maybe she sees my cockatiels as lunch... that is a disturbing thought!

I do like them and I think they're cute, but I don't want one anywhere near my house. The amount of damage they do to culturally historic sites is also discouraging. E.g. I learned that at Tonto National Monument their burrowing is destabilizing parts of the cliff dwellings. It really does seem that their numbers have exploded over the last few years. It used to be that I'd rarely see them, now they seem to be everywhere.

The image of the lactating squirrel up against the glass door made me laugh. Perhaps she's dreaming of a cockatiel cocktail?

You won't like the "little" (not so little) buggers when they start excavating under your house/garage/porch/what have you. They can dig so much dirt out from under a concrete pad in one day the concrete will crack. I know since it happened to me. I kept trying to force the dirt back into the hole. Impossible to get it all back in there.They or it would dig it back out. A section of the concrete pad cracked because of this. I finally ended up digging a 8"-10" deep by 4" wide (hard to dig any narrower) trench all the way around the concrete pad and filling it with more concrete. That finally stopped the digging. They, and all rodents I think based on experience, leave a scent behind so even if you get rid of that one, more come in to the same place and will dig it out again. This happens in my yard over and over again with pocket mice. I trap the culprits, dig up and fill in the tunnels, but more come in and dig in the same spot. I hate rodents! I had no idea that rock squirrels would prey on birds.

I feel for your frustration over the damage they can cause. I saw damage they can do to structures at my neighbor's house (directly across the street). She had three storage sheds in her back yard and the squirrels started by excavating out the slabs below them to the point they were cracking and collapsing. The amount of soil they brought out was pretty surprising for such small creatures. It became a very serious problem when they started burrowing under the slab of her house. They damaged that too and she ended up moving away and contractors had to repair it before she could sell the house. I don't know what they did to fix it, but I'm sure it wasn't cheap. Unfortunately, that group of squirrels seems to be a constant source for squirrels emigrating to neighboring yards. Now the house two doors down has a MASSIVE colony forming in the front yard. The previous owners had jack-hammered their old driveway into large chunks and used it to make a hill in their front yard (covered with dirt). The mish-mash of huge chunks of concrete has made a perfect substrate for a burrow network and now there are multiple entrances with apparently multiple female broods living inside. We've been lucky so far. Earlier this summer we had one come in and hide in the tortoise burrows. It did some major re-arranging of the soil, but then ultimately left due to harassment by the dog and cat. I wondered at the time if it was after the tortoise eggs.

 

[desertmarcy]

I do like them and I think they're cute, but I don't want one anywhere near my house. The amount of damage they do to culturally historic sites is also discouraging. E.g. I learned that at Tonto National Monument their burrowing is destabilizing parts of the cliff dwellings. It really does seem that their numbers have exploded over the last few years. It used to be that I'd rarely see them, now they seem to be everywhere.

The image of the lactating squirrel up against the glass door made me laugh. Perhaps she's dreaming of a cockatiel cocktail?



I feel for your frustration over the damage they can cause. I saw damage they can do to structures at my neighbor's house (directly across the street). She had three storage sheds in her back yard and the squirrels started by excavating out the slabs below them to the point they were cracking and collapsing. The amount of soil they brought out was pretty surprising for such small creatures. It became a very serious problem when they started burrowing under the slab of her house. They damaged that too and she ended up moving away and contractors had to repair it before she could sell the house. I don't know what they did to fix it, but I'm sure it wasn't cheap. Unfortunately, that group of squirrels seems to be a constant source for squirrels emigrating to neighboring yards. Now the house two doors down has a MASSIVE colony forming in the front yard. The previous owners had jack-hammered their old driveway into large chunks and used it to make a hill in their front yard (covered with dirt). The mish-mash of huge chunks of concrete has made a perfect substrate for a burrow network and now there are multiple entrances with apparently multiple female broods living inside. We've been lucky so far. Earlier this summer we had one come in and hide in the tortoise burrows. It did some major re-arranging of the soil, but then ultimately left due to harassment by the dog and cat. I wondered at the time if it was after the tortoise eggs.

Man-o-man: talk about building a squirrel habitat! Yes, that would be just perfect for them. I would be setting traps constantly. Maybe they can "rent" a dachshund?

 

[notinoz2007]

I won't be doing a hatch next year, rather, I'll be ordering specific breeds from McMurray..

 

[Fuzzybird]

Our farm cats do a good job keeping the rodents down.

 

[MagicChicken]

I do like them and I think they're cute, but I don't want one anywhere near my house. The amount of damage they do to culturally historic sites is also discouraging. E.g. I learned that at Tonto National Monument their burrowing is destabilizing parts of the cliff dwellings. It really does seem that their numbers have exploded over the last few years. It used to be that I'd rarely see them, now they seem to be everywhere.

The image of the lactating squirrel up against the glass door made me laugh. Perhaps she's dreaming of a cockatiel cocktail?



I feel for your frustration over the damage they can cause. I saw damage they can do to structures at my neighbor's house (directly across the street). She had three storage sheds in her back yard and the squirrels started by excavating out the slabs below them to the point they were cracking and collapsing. The amount of soil they brought out was pretty surprising for such small creatures. It became a very serious problem when they started burrowing under the slab of her house. They damaged that too and she ended up moving away and contractors had to repair it before she could sell the house. I don't know what they did to fix it, but I'm sure it wasn't cheap. Unfortunately, that group of squirrels seems to be a constant source for squirrels emigrating to neighboring yards. Now the house two doors down has a MASSIVE colony forming in the front yard. The previous owners had jack-hammered their old driveway into large chunks and used it to make a hill in their front yard (covered with dirt). The mish-mash of huge chunks of concrete has made a perfect substrate for a burrow network and now there are multiple entrances with apparently multiple female broods living inside. We've been lucky so far. Earlier this summer we had one come in and hide in the tortoise burrows. It did some major re-arranging of the soil, but then ultimately left due to harassment by the dog and cat. I wondered at the time if it was after the tortoise eggs.

My coop/run has a dirt floor. Maybe the rock squirrels will leave it alone. My house is a double-wide so there's no slab for them to burrow under. Not sure where they are living. I see them run into my yard for the garden, quail block, and pond water.

We do have a massive round-tailed ground squirrel colony whose inhabitants remodel my gravel driveway every year. I've learned to accept inconvenient holes and rings of excavated dirt as part of what a driveway "should" look like. They're amusing to watch, especially this time of year when the young ones are out.

Speaking of ground squirrels, I need to build some more pens and a larger run and the best location for the run happens to be right on top of a round-tailed ground squirrel colony. I was thinking the adult chickens might eat the ground squirrels and then it wouldn't be an issue any more, but I'm not sure it is really a good idea. Does anyone have any experience with ground squirrel colonies and chickens?