Arizona Chickens

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi all, I haven't been keeping up with my threads lately, been too busy. I wanted to let you all know that there will be a story aired on Arizona Illustrated about my heritage turkeys

They came out and interviewed me on 8/26, spent 3 hours outside in the heat and humidity while they interviewed me and took tons of video. Of course it will all be distilled down to a mere 4 minutes or so, but that is still exciting! By the time they were done, I was ready to melt. Not sure exactly when it will air, probably towards the end of October, on their Wednesday show which focuses on Nature and the Environment. The shows can also be viewed on line as they are all archived there. I will post when I know the exact date!

Other news keeping me busy: working on a website for my farm, finally! I've got to take lots of new photos for that. Of course you all know how cooperative chickens are when you have a camera in your hand

And I will have an ad coming out in the new Edible Baja Arizona magazine in the Sept. 7th edition. I don't think that magazine is being distributed in Phoenix since it is focusing on local and quality foods in Southern Arizona, but it is being distributed widely around Tucson and cities south of Tucson. Pretty nice little magazine. The first edition came out in June. Lots of nice articles by well known authors like Barbara Kingsolver and Andrew Weil and color photos. It is free and being paid for through the advertising. I had to finally decide on a farm name and get a website for this; been thinking about it for a long time and this ad was the final incentive to get it done.

So I am officially Feathered Reptiles Farm. Yes you know birds are just feathered reptiles and since I kept snakes for over 30 years, that seemed like a fitting name for me! My website is still in the works but I will have it up before the Edible mag. comes out Sept. 7.

That is fantastic news Marcia! I can wait to see the both stories, keep us updated. Congratulations, you really earned this.

 

[City farm]

BEAUTIFUL morning everyone,

I hope to catch up on the last few days thread later today.. Headed out soon..
WELCOME if I missed anyone..
Wondering if anyone that is coming Sunday, if I could purchase a protective saddle from you?
My 2 friends have decided to keep their roosters, so at this point it will be just me..
Carpool anyone..? P.M. Me..

 

[cbnovick]

That is fantastic news Marcia! I can wait to see the both stories, keep us updated. Congratulations, you really earned this.

X 2

 

[cbnovick]

Wow, that is such exciting news for you! Congratulations! I've been trying to come up with a name for our "ranch" that fits us. Nothing as big or fancy as you, just something to stick on egg cartons and my homemade jams and such. Plus the wine if I can make enough of it.

The new juicing process came out absolutely great and my wife was a huge help with the last two batches. I can hardly wait for everything to be ripe in the next few weeks.

Very cool too on our wine adventure....having moved from Sonoma county 2 years ago where grapes and wine are a 'religion' lol, I can appreciate what an art Vintners aspire to!! I grew delish table grapes on our acreage...no wine grapes...really enjoyed a scenic trip to the 'boutique' wineries etc. on weekends for tastings etc. I remember growing up in Oklahoma, my uncle used to make apple wine...kind of funky...and strong. LOL

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Congratulations Lady Kota !!!! Thank you for posting pics. I was going to pm you and ask how your lock down was going. I feel that marans tend to get stuck in their eggs....after assisting a few part of the way I place the egg in warm moist paper towel. It seems to help but some, just don't ever pip. It's sad.
I've never seen a lemon cuckoo chick right after hatch, do you have any of those pics???

Demo, Im so ready for winter too!!!!! I want to walk around the yard during the day without burning. I'm so pail hehe. You girls well be pleased in the winter and award your patience, Im sure!

Thank you, I have about 8 more going in for lock down Sept 3rd. I had 6 that did not hatch, one tried. I am sure they are not going to. 6 are fully developed, 2 cracked the egg but died. I will tahe your suggestion, when lockdown I will stay with them, thanks again.

 

[Demosthine]

Very cool too on our wine adventure....having moved from Sonoma county 2 years ago where grapes and wine are a 'religion' lol, I can appreciate what an art Vintners aspire to!! I grew delish table grapes on our acreage...no wine grapes...really enjoyed a scenic trip to the 'boutique' wineries etc. on weekends for tastings etc. I remember growing up in Oklahoma, my uncle used to make apple wine...kind of funky...and strong. LOL

I was checking the S.G. last night on both batches and after only three days, they had reached the point where you transfer from the primary fermented to the secondary. I went back to the book to double check the instructions and realized I forgot to put the white grape juice concentrate in the Prickly Pear wine. Oops! So I really need to stop on the way home to do that and I hope it doesn't mess things up. I syphoned the blackberry wine over to secondary. It's amazing how much of a color difference there is! It was a really, really dark purple, almost black juice before hand. Now, it's a medium mauve color. Mauve? That's never a color I would have expected! The Prickly Pear is still a very dark plum color, typical of it's juice. So far, it's maintaining that color and I hope it stays that way to the very end. Some have problems with it changing in to a white wine, but those tend to be the ones who boiled the juices. I did a cold extraction process, so I may be ok.

It's been a fun process so far. I'd love to visit Sonoma County and hit a few of the good wineries. Meanwhile, neither of my grape vines took after transplanting. I'm afraid the chickens probably got to every little green sprout that tried to come back to life.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Redrocketrooster, here are some pics, it seems I have a photo hog :/ Silva is in all but 1 photo

 

[countrygirl74]

Question....

When anything is crossed with a silkie hen, will all the babies have the 5 toes like a silkie? Or, if all the babies have 5 toes, does that mean only my silkie roo fertilized? Just wondering because all 3 of my babies have 5 toes but one is really gray and growing at quite a faster rate. Wondering if my splash cochin roo ended up fertilizing one of the eggs after all...

 

[pollo disco]

Up to 3 eggs a day with the girlies. I have 5 of them so , I guess 2 are still waiting to start? Also, this morning I was leaving the house around 4 and it is still very dark. The chickens were up and about in the run. Thats a new one on me. SO I thought maybe something russled them up? I walked the property to make sure. hmm. anyhow, feed the girls and made sure they had water. My big ole' turkey tom is still roosting at night with the chickens. lol. His big butt takes up soo much room that 2 chickens were left on the ground. This morning I put up the other roost for them, so tonite they can be up also. I know its still early, but I am thinking about this winter and some of the arrangment. Also, I am thinking of raising some Meaties as well. This chicken thing just doesn't stop does it?

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Silvia or Sylvia (not sure of spelling) is from Transylvania and was largely developed in Germany. How cool is that?

is that the face of Dracula? An area of a little more then 34,000 miles.....