Arizona Chickens

[Mama Hen Chris]

Awhee, those hats and together and the cup cake.. How In the world did you get those cuties to be still! Oh wait I forgot to see if there
was a candle lit..

My daughter was holding treats for them. Took lots of pics to get a good one.

Their birthdays are a couple weeks apart. Lauren gets to celebrate with the dogs.

 

[Twinklin]

Twinkling: love your colors. My family dose not believe in colors, only earth pastel, and shads of white. My daughter painted my bed room a crimson red

I love it. The first thing I heard was I should paint it white.

Ya, sure that is going to happen. I used to do murals, I did an entryway mural of a bull elk in a mountain clearing. The family I did it for called me some time later thanking me. Their house was built on the side of a small mountain, and other houses next to them were moving down the mountain. The new owners fell in love with my mural and did not oh ave the house checked for soundness. That was not required in those days.

Your design is so free and relaxed, gives a good feeling.

Thanks. I am an artist/sculptor/painter/floral designer so I'm all about color. The brown walls had to go. The foyer is the only beige room. I call it my "homage to Mom" because my mother is beige all the way. She loves color but is too scared to do it so everything in her house is beige and neutral shades of brown. The living room is sort of light warm orangey tan with a barn red accent wall. I don't think I have a before of the living room in all it's dark brown glory but this is after. (the holes and rectangles in the wall are built in speakers.





I also have a strange obsession with leaves hence the leaf stenciling on the wall in the sun room. I sculpt a lot of leaves for my jewelry, I have leaves tattooed on my wrist, I am drawn to anything with pictures or paintings of leaves. I am not sure why it's probably unhealthy. I keep wanting to paint some autumn leaf paintings for the living room but my boyfriend has cut me off. He says there's already enough leaves everywhere so we went with this more geometric theme. I still need to paint or sculpt a few things for the walls in there.

I'd love to see the mural you painted. I started a mural in my first apartment when I was 18. It was a fairy and a dragon but I never finished it before I moved again.

 

[flower]

What is your technique for making sculptures for walls ?

 

[Bobby Basham]

Yay...New Peeps.

Sorry folks, It seems like I can't post where I wanna be. I get sent to the general "where am I etc." instead of specifically Arizona Chickens, so I'll try again.



I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but ACE Hardware out here on Houghton south of Valencia (Rita Ranch) has been selling baby chicks for about six months now. It's been awhile since I been there, but I was pleasantly surprised. I live close to the new Taco Bell/Subway/ Travel Center accross from TTT truckstop, so I do my shopping over in the Rita Ranch area.

They have a dedicated aisle for ALL the supplies you would ever need, minus getting a coop. Chick feed, layer mash, pine chips, waterers, feeders etc. They even have a mini library section on chickens and gardening.

I know places like UPC discourages places like Agway and such for selling chicks in their stores because of improper treatment and neglect.

This particular ACE only gets a small batch of 25 sexed chicks every week from Privett Hatchery and they looked very well cared for. The chicks were all very calm and would come up to investigate a finger tip at the edge of their enclosure. They are on a deep shelf about chest height in a locked wood case enclosed with hardware cloth and a clear 4-inch tall plexiglass around the lower border so they can't reach probing fingers at that height, especially obnoxious kids. Those that don't sell and grow bigger, they offer deals like a two-for-one sale to move them out for the next batch coming in. There is a heat lamp and they keep the brooder very clean.

I'm glad they keep the order small so that you don't have hundreds of chicks crowded and stepping on each other and suffocating, and the clerks say that they are really selling quickly and alot of customers were looking at them and making plans.

The chicks seemed very content and a few were hopping around while others were napping. They didn't act skiddish at all. They drink from water nipples and have a /\ shaped step ladder to run up and down. I think the employees give them plenty attention every chance they get, and that human interaction probably contributes to their calmness.

Oh, right now they only carry Ameraucanas and Delawares @ $4.99 each, and, I didn't inquire further, but they probably would do special orders.

This will be my project when I retire, but I'm holding back because of the health insurance issues. I will eventually buy a coop and enclose it in a dog run of some sort, since I live in an HOA. I also need to do some serious landscaping in my blank canvas back yard.

I can retire in 8 days, but it ain't happening right now. Need to finish up some other projects, before tackling the chicken thang.

If my post is old news, I apologize. Been so busy with other stuff and haven't kept up with all the postings. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

Edited by Bobby Basham - 9/23/13 at 5:56pm

 

[Angelray]

Thanks everyone for the very warm welcome! I appreciate all the tips for keeping my future hens protected from the summer heat. Twinklin, LindaMurphy, Featherpugs, AliciaSimon and HeidiSue - I think I got all your names right! We are planning to incorporate fans and misters as well as blocks of ice and frozen water bottles. My chickens will have a well ventilated coop with a small run, and will free range on my lawn, in my garden and the rest of the backyard in the evenings when I am home and on the weekends. The coop we will place behind a fence that divides the backyard and has shade all afternoon. I only plan to have 4. We don't have to worry so much about predators, we see the occasional hawk and one actually tried to catch a baby dove that had hatched in my tiki bar just about a month ago. We have coyotes but our yard is enclosed by block wall, 5-6 ft tall. I know they have been known to jump walls to catch small pets, but I had a chihuahua for 12 years and always felt she was safe.
What do most of you use for bedding and nesting boxes? Straw, sawdust, pine shavings? Anyone use the deep litter method for your run? I haven't decided if my run will be dressed or left bare ground. I 've done lots of reading and research and will continue to. We are visiting our 2 small feed stores over the weekend to see what is readily available locally, and what items we'll need to purchase out of town or online. We are headed to the big city (PHX) next week and plan to stop at Pratt's in Glendale which is probably where we will buy our chicks as most mail order hatcheries have a 15 chick minimum.
We need to plan our brooder and get the heat lap, feed and supplies for the chicks. I think that is all I have today!!
Kristine
Oh, and working on my profile today too!

 

[Angelray]

I'm new to this site also & have chosen to compost in my coop. When I have time...about once a week, I go and 'stir' the ground with my cultivator (garden claw), and once a month I put down some shavings, & we regularly throw in yard trimmings. I throw out scraps of produce for them to shred up & eat at also! I got my 1st egg today!

 

[Angelray]

I'm so sorry. I have lost my favorite chicken to a coyote and it really sucks. She was just such a friendly little girl. She love to be snuggled. I had nursed her to health at one point and she became very attached to me and me to her as well. It broke my heart to find nothing but feathers left of her. Now my little Elvis has no mate. I am going to have to find him a couple little hens to put with him. Once I do I will separate the flocks so they will not interbreed with the others.

Awww, sorry to hear about your girl. I also have a white crested blue rooster! I started my flock with 5 different polish (my blue, a black, a golden colored that I have never seen elsewhere, a golden laced & a sultan) but ended up with 4 roosters! I re-homed the other 3 but not my blue...Spot! I have the gold colored still as she was the only hen. She laid her 1st egg for me today!

 

[Angelray]

Demosthine, glad to hear you and your wife are okay after the accident. Glochids are the worst, careful picking on windy days, those things can get airborne too. Good idea about the wax strips! Definitely going to pack some in the hiking bag.

I'm so so so tempted to buy the orloff desertmarcy has for sale. They have all of my favorite features in chickens, color, cheeks, etc. But i have the perfect number of chickens right now. Sigh.

My Russian Orloff (Anya) is super sweet & an amazing forager!

 

[Angelray]

I have a Polish rooster that needs a new home! He was hatch the 1st week of May, and has eaten Purina chick feed his whole life. He has an amazing personality & has been handled daily by my children. I love him dearly but the neighbors don't. My landlord says he has to go! PM me if your interested.

 

[Twinklin]

What is your technique for making sculptures for walls ?

I'm a polymer clay sculptor. Typically I sculpt stuff like leaves and flowers. Like these.




I was hoping to make a sculpture for the wall using the autumn leaf theme. Similar to the ones I make for my jewelry on a larger scale. I roll large sheets of clay out. I cut out the leaf shape using stencils that I draw up, then I mold and shape the leaves and detail them with veins, then I paint them with mica pigments and bake them. When they're cool, I use a mixture of varnish and mica pigments or paint and paint them to give a more natural look and then a final seal. Since he's kind of set on this geometric theme for the living room I was thinking of making some sort of black metal grid pattern and attaching leaves in some way, that way we have the best of both worlds. Maybe I'll weave some branches through the grid and have the leaves on the branches. Not sure yet. I've been pretty busy with my Etsy store so I haven't made anything for the house since Christmas.