Arizona Chickens

[Demosthine]

We had been in our house for about three years before we got chickens. Never heard crickets in that time. I decided it would be fun to watch the chicks chase crickets around so I brought a few home from the pet store. It was pretty fun watching the chicks chase the crickets around, but now I hear crickets around the house and I now pay $65 every two months for pest control services.

In my opinion I was better off feeding them meal worms for their treats.

That's a shame! I love the sound of the crickets and such. The only ones that get on my nerves ocassionally are the cicadas, but we don't have too many of those around here. I remember picking the sheddings off the trees as a kid. We would carefully pile them up to see how big we could get it, and then we'd jump on the pile to crush 'em all! It was even better when we could catch one of them alive. They were fun to play with.

 

[ChicksOfHazzard]

We had been in our house for about three years before we got chickens. Never heard crickets in that time. I decided it would be fun to watch the chicks chase crickets around so I brought a few home from the pet store. It was pretty fun watching the chicks chase the crickets around, but now I hear crickets around the house and I now pay $65 every two months for pest control services.

In my opinion I was better off feeding them meal worms for their treats.

The crickets drive me nuts too! We've had them in the house before. When the neighbors two doors down bought their house (which was a foreclosure and had sat unoccupied for almost two years), they had an exterminator come and it seemed to drive all the crickets towards us. So we had an exterminator spray a couple times and we use those sonic things all around the house which seem to work great at keeping them out (we'll occasionally find dead crickets right next to them). Give those a try, right near all the doors they seem to be most effective. We use a couple kinds, but this is one we have: http://compare.ebay.com/like/290856533185?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

 

[GreatWhiteAfro]

The crickets drive me nuts too! We've had them in the house before. When the neighbors two doors down bought their house (which was a foreclosure and had sat unoccupied for almost two years), they had an exterminator come and it seemed to drive all the crickets towards us. So we had an exterminator spray a couple times and we use those sonic things all around the house which seem to work great at keeping them out (we'll occasionally find dead crickets right next to them). Give those a try, right near all the doors they seem to be most effective. We use a couple kinds, but this is one we have: http://compare.ebay.com/like/290856533185?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

We use the same one near the front and back door. I don't remember paying that much for them though! They do work well although I have had a few crickets in the house not as many as when we weren't using them. I wish it worked better on scorpions......

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

We had been in our house for about three years before we got chickens. Never heard crickets in that time. I decided it would be fun to watch the chicks chase crickets around so I brought a few home from the pet store. It was pretty fun watching the chicks chase the crickets around, but now I hear crickets around the house and I now pay $65 every two months for pest control services.

In my opinion I was better off feeding them meal worms for their treats.

Haha, Yea I think I would have stuck with meal worms too...they can't get away as quickly.

Last year we moved into a new-to-us home that had been vacant for over a year so the crickets and scorpions (who eat crickets) were everywhere, inside and out! Crickets are nice to listen to in the evening..but not when they are IN your bedroom. We didn't want to use a chemical pest control so we vacuumed the crickets up throughout the day then released them outside. Killed the scorpions. Then we found 4 kittens last July (now have 3 adult cats) and my 8 new chickens. I have only seen a few crickets inside, mostly already dead from the cats playing them to death. One scorpion, (found him just as he snuck in the dog door) and killed him immediately. Have seen NO crickets or scorpions in the chicken run (where we had lots of them last year). So I think my "live pest control" (cats & chicks) is working pretty well.

 

[City farm]

Crud I just tried to cut/ paste a photo from my cel phone with no avail..
I will try another method

 

[desertmarcy]

Does anyone want to share a shipment of turkeys? Perhaps from Porter Turkeys? Minimum shipment is 15 and I only want two to four. I was thinking the "Breeder's Choice" box at $9.00 per poult. It is 15 of any of the following: Bronze, Narragansett, White Holland, Black, Slate, Bourbon Red or Royal Palm.

Message me if interested. From what I can tell, it's not too late for a Thanksgiving Turkey if we act quick.

I've got turkey poults for sale here. Royal Palm, Slate, and Lavender. If you are still looking.

 

[desertmarcy]

All the birds I got from DesertMarcy are from the Reese line the HRIR below is from Duane urach (sp) the other two are ameruconas (sp) I belive they are from Duane as well

Duane Urch. and Ameraucana

Glad your RIRs are doing well!

 

[tsuninight]

So I thought it was kind of toasty today and the poor chickens were panting like crazy and looking pretty pathetic. So me, being me, was suckered. So I bring out a cat carrier and wonder how long it's going to take me to get them into the the thing. As it turns out about 5 seconds. One of the chickens saw me bring it out and open the door. She was in it within about 10 seconds of it landing on the ground. The others were herded in about 5 more seconds. IT seems they remember when they were a little (so like a month ago for the two bigger ones), and got to stay in the nice climate controlled house. I realize they're getting a little big for the plastic cat carrier, and we decide to put them in a slightly bigger cloth one. It's still a little squishy, but they didn't seem to mind and were peeping happily.

I also decided to try my hand at fodder. I heard it was good for cat digestion (Barley that is) and my chickens like green things... and since my yard is more or less a big dirt pile I figured it might just be good for them in general. I got a fodder kit and some barley seed from eBay. Woohoo it's day 2 and I have little sproutlings. I decide to give the chickens who are passed out in my living room some of the barley seeds as a treat (sproutlings), and good lord it's like chicken crack. They were literally eating the seeds out of my hand, and then made a giant mess with the bedding we put in it making sure they got every last sproutling out of the bedding. It was actually pretty amusing. When I took them back outside and let them go they made an even bigger mess, just to make sure they'd gotten everything (now that they could kick the bedding "out" of the carrier.

So I'm reasonably sure they probably would have been fine (around 1PM) just staying outside, and I got suckered by panting chickens... but how hot is too hot? They have shade all day right near the coop, but I don't actually know if that's enough. We were considering putting the coup back on wheels (we made a base for it so we could wheel it around as necessary), and putting it in the garage (which is a lot cooler) during the day and then letting them out for a couple hours in the evening via cat carrier. Is this really necessary or can they usually handle the hottest AZ has to offer without turning into extra crispy? They get free run of the yard during the day. Which means they travel the perimeter fence line in the morning when they're let out, chew on my succulents, and then hang out near the water softener or coop the rest of the day... I haven't quite figured out why the water softener is fascinating to them. I don't have misters, they do have water and food all day. It was about 108 earlier today, but I know here shortly it's going to be closer to a 120.

 

[Billiam]

So I thought it was kind of toasty today and the poor chickens were panting like crazy and looking pretty pathetic. So me, being me, was suckered. So I bring out a cat carrier and wonder how long it's going to take me to get them into the the thing. As it turns out about 5 seconds. One of the chickens saw me bring it out and open the door. She was in it within about 10 seconds of it landing on the ground. The others were herded in about 5 more seconds. IT seems they remember when they were a little (so like a month ago for the two bigger ones), and got to stay in the nice climate controlled house. I realize they're getting a little big for the plastic cat carrier, and we decide to put them in a slightly bigger cloth one. It's still a little squishy, but they didn't seem to mind and were peeping happily.

I also decided to try my hand at fodder. I heard it was good for cat digestion (Barley that is) and my chickens like green things... and since my yard is more or less a big dirt pile I figured it might just be good for them in general. I got a fodder kit and some barley seed from eBay. Woohoo it's day 2 and I have little sproutlings. I decide to give the chickens who are passed out in my living room some of the barley seeds as a treat (sproutlings), and good lord it's like chicken crack. They were literally eating the seeds out of my hand, and then made a giant mess with the bedding we put in it making sure they got every last sproutling out of the bedding. It was actually pretty amusing. When I took them back outside and let them go they made an even bigger mess, just to make sure they'd gotten everything (now that they could kick the bedding "out" of the carrier.

So I'm reasonably sure they probably would have been fine (around 1PM) just staying outside, and I got suckered by panting chickens... but how hot is too hot? They have shade all day right near the coop, but I don't actually know if that's enough. We were considering putting the coup back on wheels (we made a base for it so we could wheel it around as necessary), and putting it in the garage (which is a lot cooler) during the day and then letting them out for a couple hours in the evening via cat carrier. Is this really necessary or can they usually handle the hottest AZ has to offer without turning into extra crispy? They get free run of the yard during the day. Which means they travel the perimeter fence line in the morning when they're let out, chew on my succulents, and then hang out near the water softener or coop the rest of the day... I haven't quite figured out why the water softener is fascinating to them. I don't have misters, they do have water and food all day. It was about 108 earlier today, but I know here shortly it's going to be closer to a 120.

I've been turning the mister system I installed for them everyday around 1PM for the last two weeks. Today, I put some chucks of ice in their water and I'll probably do that for as long as it's above 100°. I will also start freezing water in gallon milk jugs to let them sit on. They have plenty of shade too under a big grapefruit tree. I know my BAs could handle the heat no problem without all this, but I egg production never slowed down last year using this same method.
Good Luck!

 

[countrygirl74]

That's a shame! I love the sound of the crickets and such. The only ones that get on my nerves ocassionally are the cicadas, but we don't have too many of those around here. I remember picking the sheddings off the trees as a kid. We would carefully pile them up to see how big we could get it, and then we'd jump on the pile to crush 'em all! It was even better when we could catch one of them alive. They were fun to play with.

X2 on the cicadas! It was even more fun to scare people with the live ones or set the shells on people's shirts - LOL - those legs would stick to anything!