Arizona Chickens

[LadyKotaDoria]

I have been doing reading on chickens not laying eggs.

Apparently, because I have been working on my chicken pen and cooping it is actually stressing my girls. I need to finish it ASAP. The coop has work, and the pen is not finished. I will not be able to finish the pen's roof until next year. I have the bird net for the cover, but can not put it up yet. Bummer. On the brighter side my HENS will have a longer life of laying eggs because of the late start. The Girls that lay, and lay no mater what are just not bugged by the little things. Lucy, a RIR, a good egger, just is that way, not stressed by anything.

My lovely late Voney and sweet late Powder are also of a calm and non-stress nature. I wish I could breed my Lucy to a sweet, calm, and non-crower cockerel. Because I am thinking of a chicken that isn't bugged by the little stuff breed to standard is not #1. I wonder if anyone has done that before, if there is already a breed developed.

First temperament, 2nd looks, 3rd eggs, it would be interesting. There are hundreds of breeds. Pet chickens would not have to be fat meaty chickens. Bantams and the very small breeds had to have been developed for eye candy, chicken fanciers. With all the people now getting hooked, there must be a market for that type of chicken.

Until the 20th Century, chickens were common in every back yard. How cares about crowing, we grow up hearing it, like the sound of Traffic for us. Now we are in the 21st Century chickens are back, but few city folks want 20 - 12-or even a couple hours of crowing. :/ Wait a minute, 20 hours? I drought very many roasters lasted long any where at any time that crowed 20 hrs. I'm just rambling ..........

I love the variety, there is so much to chose from now. . . but it would be nice.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I doubt that your working on building a coop and pen is stressful unless they have had a number of near misses with falling lumber or the like. Arizona heat, on the other hand is a big stressor. Summer here is always the time of fewest eggs, not winter as in so many parts of the country.

I've had both exhibition and hatchery lines of several breeds, and in my experience, exhibition lines tend to be much calmer. Egg production is an important part of the standard, and many breeders are very emphatic about it. Go to a show and you won't usually see much about it, except possibly in showmanship questions, but start talking to breeders and you very well might.

Exhibition lines haven't had broodiness bred out of them. Right now I have a bantam RIR raising a large number of chicks and a silkie raising 4. Guess who is the better mama? That's right, the RIR. She is a very calm, sweet bird.

Alternatively, crossbreeds are usually very good layers, brooders and mamas, along with presenting unique eyecandy. The term for their productiveness is hybrid vigor.

Bantams have been around many thousands of years; some breeds are among the landraces of various areas. Bantams cost less to raise (they eat less), yet lb for lb, produce more egg than do their larger counterparts. An extra large egg (2.25 oz) from an 8lb hen is considerably less than a medium egg (1.75 oz) from a hen that is only 1.5lb.

 

[MaddBaggins]

One of my Buff girls has taken to roosting outside the coop at night. She gets up onto the high roost in the run, just under roof and spends her night there. She's been doing that for the last few weeks.
I've been watching all the girls, she's not an outsider or low on the pecking order. I think she just likes it better.

 

[Demosthine]

I'm with Sonoran on the heat issues. My clan hasn't experienced any abnormal stressers, aside from the heat, but I am getting an average of about an egg a day from five layers. Their food supply is excellent, there is no construction, new animals or even rowdy kids in yhr yard, nor can I find any signs of disease. They have constantly had lower production as the temperature went up.

Don't stress it at all. I doubt the construction had much, if anything, to do with it. The entire time I was building my bigger coop, the flock was always under foot and curious. I did drop a few boards and everyone scattered, but my production never decreased then.

And I'd like to believe my flock is one of the more natural and wild ones on this thread. Minimal feeding, no forced bathing, no holding and petting, no trimming nails, no chicken diapers, no inside time, no misters, no special fans, no lighting. Basically, they just live in my backyard with a little food supplement once a day.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Thanks, I have been wondering if they get to much food. They get treats all the time, plus their feed. Both fermented mash and scratch, fresh or frozen greens, corn on the cob, squash, sweet potato's, and left over dog food, and my left overs include cooked rice and noodles. I have cut back on the treats, and they seems they are doing better. They love the grass I am putting down between my garden rows. I planted greens for them in my chick pen. It took about 1/2 hour to eat weeks of growing. They loved it. I am so glade I have bird netting, I would not have any garden.

 

[Demosthine]

It is too hot to be feeding scratch, especially with the rest of what you're feeding. Completely cut that out and they'll probably do even better. It is extremely high in calories, so it raises their core body temperature. That's why it's fed primarily during winter and shortly before bed. It keeps them warm without them exerting physical energy. During this heat, I would venture to guess it adds to their heat stress.

Like you, I toss anything not human-edible out the door to them. But they are constantly grazing in the yard the entire day. Aside from that, they get probably about a half- to three-quarters cup of fermented feed each and that's plenty adequate for their environment. Except my turkeys, of course. They are true eating machines, and since they'll be in the freezer by the end of the year, they can fatten up a bit more than the chickens. They get about a cup of fermented feed each, twice a day.

 

[Demosthine]

City Farm, here are some photos of the new chicken feeder. You can see in the second photo that the two large cockerels can and do eat out of there, too. But I did notice that they were not feeding nearly as much in the evening, so it's further evidence that my current amount of feed is a good amount. It worked out really well. I'm quite pleased.

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[FeatherPugs]

Looks like a super idea - I have turkeys and was wondering how to get "extra" just into them and not the rest of the girls. Guess I'm gonna do a bit of looking at my coop for positioning a turkey bar

 

[City farm]

City Farm, here are some photos of the new chicken feeder. You can see in the second photo that the two large cockerels can and do eat out of there, too. But I did notice that they were not feeding nearly as much in the evening, so it's further evidence that my current amount of feed is a good amount. It worked out really well. I'm quite pleased.

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Love your photos and how you make your coop.. Well built.. Thx.

 

[Demosthine]

Looks like a super idea - I have turkeys and was wondering how to get "extra" just into them and not the rest of the girls. Guess I'm gonna do a bit of looking at my coop for positioning a turkey bar

Thanks. Don't limit yourself to just the coop, though. Look at your run, or if you're free-ranging, your entire backyard. Another excellent place that would work at my place is having it attached to the rod-iron pool fence. They make brackets that span the width between two bars and allows a bolt to go through it, often used for hanging signs and such. It would be extremely easy to use these and attach it that way. The best part there is that you can raise or lower it depending on the age and size of your turkeys. The same idea works for chain-link fencing. Slightly different bracket, same basic idea. You can make your own brackets with whatever scrap metal you have laying around.

Love your photos and how you make your coop.. Well built.. Thx.

Thank. It continues to work very well and is sturdy as ever. The door locks for that large door in the picture, however, have started to fail. The one of them does not lock at all, while the other is getting a bit loose. I need to take them back to Home Depot the next time I go. I've just been too busy.