Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

I hope that you all are out this gorgeous morning!! It is so beautiful right now..
A neighbor is going to pop on over for morning tea. We will be talking chicken & gardening..
I think I will need to put together a free clinic; chickens & gardening 101... If I don't knw it
the Internet will... At this point we have half of our chicks gone.. Some newbies, some that have grown
up with them...
Do not forget to PM us for your new babies...

     
      Pure breeds, White crested blue & black polish
      Light brahma, silver laced standard polish. Assorted polish

    Please pass around this information.. We will have baby chicks for sale
    around the 10TH of April.. They will be $3.00-$7.00per chick..  
    Our rooster is a partridge silkie.. His name is kent. His flock is mixed.
    Claire, Millie Fleur d'Uccle bantam
    Karen, buff silkie bantam
    Felicia,  lavender  Ameraucanas .. Easter egger bantam
    Chloe, golden sebright bantam
    Molly, blue Andalusian
    Sofia, australorp
    Jenny, golden sex link 
    Faith, Easter egger
    Mrs. Robinson, partridge  Cochin 
    Can't wait to see the new babies.. 
   
   
=

 

[Arizonachicken]

Hi everyone! One of my Wheaten Ameraucanas is broody. My kids gave her some plastic Easter eggs, and to my surprise my husband told them to take the eggs away. I asked him why, and he said that he wanted her to hatch out eggs and that sitting on plastic eggs wasn't "natural". I started laughing so hard I almost went into labor. (Remember, this is Mr. "I don't want anything to do with YOUR chickens") I guess I'll start collecting eggs for her.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

One other question..
Sonoran ... About how long does it take them little awful buggers to do that? There must be tons of them
to suck that much blood.. Do you think they go after 1 or the whole flock..

It can happen very rapidly with young birds/chicks; takes longer with older and larger birds. Sometimes they go after select individuals and sometimes the whole flock, but you need to treat the whole flock so that they don;t hop off a treated bird and onto one that is not.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
You know, with Tansy being the only bird in the flock with lice, I am inclined to think that there were additional underlying problems that contributed to her demise. I think that sometimes other problems can interfere with or otherwise reduce activities like grooming and dust bathing, making them less able to fight off parasites like lice. Once weakened, it might take much blood loss to cause death than in a healthy bird. It seems very telling that no other birds were found with lice (at least not yet

). Fuzzybird, I'm sorry about Tansy, she was a cutie.
I think that some birds are more "tasty" to the bugs, just like some people are tastier. But I also agree that multiple things can interact and take a bad situation and rapidly steer it down an ever worsening spiral..

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

"Doing the Deed" is a mind set for the most part. Your not stunted, it is self defense. Some people are stunted that way, they do not have an on switch. I know a just retired farmer (mid-wast/SSW) at dinner with a community table. He said he loved watching them and hearing happy sounds. I did ask questions. He said he hated slaughtering day, wasn't going to miss that. He never named them, they were food, sadly I can't remember everything.

 

[Fuzzybird]

Quote: Oh thank you sooo much! It will help me very much with my Sand Paintings to see all the colors in pixal form.

 

[countrygirl74]

Are you fermenting their feed for them? From reading the Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds thread, it seemed that was the single best way to keep the smell of their poop down. And if that smell says down, the coop won't need to be cleaned as much. Not saying they still won't stink to a certain extent, but perhaps nowhere near as badly? I also read that adding garlic to their diet neutralizes the ammonia content, thus reducing the smell, although that has been a truly debatable argument among the threads. Take that one with a grain of salt.

I've been feeding my clan fermented feed since very early on and I can say their coop and poop really doesn't smell at all. The only time I get the smell is when I water the yard or I spray down the litter in the coop to minimize dust when I do a thorough turning. It isn't an ammonia smell, just a poop smell. I'm working on the deep litter method in there, so I have to turn it myself about once a month to make sure I get down deep. I just don't want to be breathing in all of that.


I don't understand the emotional aspect of getting so attached to them. I guess, personally, I've always viewed them as providers of food first and foremost. I absolutely love watching them in the yard and having them come running when you even approach the back door, but I'll have no problem "doing the deed" when the time comes. I guess I'm emotionally stunted that way. My wife has become so attached to a few that I'm not allowed to send them to Camp Freezer, so she's on your side here!

I use the deep litter method too but I did get an ammonia smell from my ducks when it got really wet for a while with all the snow melting. I just sprayed LAB all over it and haven't had the ammonia smell since.

 

[GreatWhiteAfro]

Where can I get cattle panels to make a hoop coop? I'm in Casa Grande, we have a Pet Club, would they carry it? Or do I need to make a road trip?

 

[City farm]

I do want to state that our flock has never had mites.. I am only curious as to how they seem to go after
1 hen?? Puzzling... The only issues we have had is their toe nail.. Must of got caught in the mesh I put
over the grass area along side the house... As soon as it comes up it is gone.. I got the idea from Gallo..
Thanks gallo... I miss your photos!!!

 

[MagicChicken]

Where can I get cattle panels to make a hoop coop? I'm in Casa Grande, we have a Pet Club, would they carry it? Or do I need to make a road trip?

There's a guy in Stanfield who has a running ad on Craigslist, and the cheapest prices around. $33 for a cattle panel. (Cheapest I've found in Tucson is $39.) Stanfield is too far for me to drive for them but it's not that far from Casa Grande:

http://tucson.craigslist.org/grq/3673837612.html