Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

well this seems to be a subject i can participate in and give some input. #1 i've farmed for years and the last time was for wine and welsh's grape juice. the birds destroy those harvests, we used to use nettings but they fail miserably... until this man invented a "hawk" that flies erratically and you can put just about anywhere.. we built our own since it was so easy and actually worked better than the ones you buy (you can paint them in the design of local bird of preys) however here is one that is sold essentially the ones we built were a very tall rod pent at about a 30 degree angle with a line holding the bird and the bird was designed with wings to fly randomly like it is patrolling and checking prey out. these worked wonderfully. something else, if you are having issues with caterpillars (watch for butterflies coming to land eggs in your crops. i've found two ways of dealing with them, simply removing the eggs daily by hand. or. build a paper wasp nest.. they eat loads of the ******** and will control your garden faster than you can imagine. ive also churned butter & made my own cottage cheese and cheddar if anyone has questions about those but i need to get to work now.

Great thank you for this..

 

[MaddBaggins]

I

question:

i've not had chickens in years and am getting ready to do so soon, i designed a feeder that is constantly full. ... should i have? it sounds from this thread that you guys mostly have a set amount of food per day?

I leave mine full all the time. No issues. Wild bird can't get to it though.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Snails and slugs will eat seedlings.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Yes our great grandma, and beyond had chickens as well.. I have to agree with you that her family must have that brain-eating parasites..
While I have to say chickens are our friends, our family eats chicken.. With that said I feel it is important to learn a how to process.
Now that I have been talking about this with clients & friends, just about everyone, including my own family, has proccessed chickens.
I hear the store of "yeah my grandparents would just go out to the farm & garden for dinner". That seems so self sufficient. Part of
our family were from Europe.. I have seen what the real chickens looks like in that part of the world.. They have hardly any meat on
them... I hear that they taste completely different then chickens raise in a small cage with weird treated food & almost GMO type chickens..
Yes, we eat that kind of chicken so you get the idea..
If anyone wants our Kent Jr. He is a silkie P.M. Us
Both my grandmothers raised chickens, too, but they never had housechickens. My great grandmother had the bantam pair that lived in the house. They roosted atop her kitchen cupboard. None of her other chickens were allowed inside. I know that her flock were white leghorns, but am not sure what breed the bantam pair was. She just called them banties; this was long before my time. My aunt was the one who used to tell me about them--going to visit her grandmother when she was a young girl. My aunt passed away last summer. This Friday she would have been 100.

 

[pollo disco]

Finally, My sexlinks are laying. So far, 2 eggs daily but in different times. They took to the nest boxes easily and are giving good rich brown eggs. Already worked up a dozen and gave it to my neighbor who helps all the time when I go out of town. Feed is disappearing accordingly as well. Bummer. I am having to get a cheaper feed at wally world but have used different ways to offset the protien and nutrient intake. I am using freeze dried mealworms, leftovers in the freezer and adding greens found out and about in the desert. Everything is going well and the summer isn't so bad down here. upper 90s lately. But alot of rain and it makes cleaning the run kinda messy. Oh well.

 

[MagicChicken]

My chickens have constant access to food in their treadle feeders, which eliminates the problem of wild birds eating the food. It allows me to leave town occasionally with very little required of my chicken sitter. Birds sure can be a big problem when providing free access to food here in AZ.

Gallo, what do you do about ants in the feeders? I had to hang my feeders to keep the ants out of them. Not sure which is worse - having all the feed contaminated by ants, or having doves and sparrows get a whole bunch of it. If I could figure out how to keep the ants out I'd switch to treadle feeders in a heartbeat.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote: Snails and slugs will eat seedlings.

Kev has a good point here. He's referring to cutworms (moth larvae). They're actually caterpillars that burrow into the soil during the day to avoid predators and come out at night and eat vegetation. They seem to especially like seedlings. Because of their habits, you may never know you have them and they are incredibly common--especially if you're a big user of compost.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Gallo, what do you do about ants in the feeders? I had to hang my feeders to keep the ants out of them. Not sure which is worse - having all the feed contaminated by ants, or having doves and sparrows get a whole bunch of it. If I could figure out how to keep the ants out I'd switch to treadle feeders in a heartbeat.

I've been placing a ring of DE around the feeders. It works until the chickens disrupt it or it rains. I'd say it's only about 90% effective, mostly because I'm not that vigilant at monitoring it. If I didn't have the darn leaf cutter ants, I'd be fine.

 

[pipemum]

Leaf cutter ants are my nemesis. I've DE'd their nest so many times, but they must have a HUGE colony. They just move the entrance/exit somewhere else. I won't use pesticide because it affects too many other wildlife that I want around, but I'm so, so, so very tempted. They've striped much of my yard this year, some vegetation to the point where I'm not sure they'll recover. Frustrating!

The regular little red ants are also everywhere! DE seems a tiny bit more effective on them.

 

[MandyFitch]

Hi Arizonans!


I'm working on building my run after a visit with Sharon at the Scottsdale Feed Store told me how simple it would be. If you haven't met her, look her up. She's wonderful!

I would very much like to get young pullets sometime in the next few weeks. Here's my thoughts, please feel free to correct any misconceptions.

I would like to get four to six week old pullets. I'm hoping that's young enough to make friends but old enough that they can make it out to the coop within a week or two. I don't really want to go out and buy all the brooder stuff if I can help it.

I'm thinking 4 girls. My coop is 4x4x6 with four roosting boxes. My pen, which will be attached, is 4x4x8. I used the smallest gage hardware cloth to cover it and my hands are killing me from all the stapling!

I would like a variety of girls - I REALLY want a Black Copper Marans for those gorgeous brown eggs. I'd love a couple of Amercaunas for the Blue/Greens and then something prolific, pretty and friendly with light brown or cream eggs. Can anyone advise me where to go to get all those birds, at approximately the same age, in the next few weeks?

I really do appreciate your advice and the support of BYC. What a wonderful community you have here!

Mandy