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I think it was RRR that had the garden mis-hap with the dog. Thank you for the tip on the wet food. I have changed out it for dry. You know, I think I might like having friendlier chickens. Thank you for the reminder. It has been fun to have them in the house...of course, I know they will out-grow their box quickly.
Oops! Yep, sorry. RRR - sorry about your garden! Time to plant melons and pumpkins and squash, right?
A tip about the DMV. My wife went to get her license renewed; it turned out to be a four hour chore.
I had to get mine renewed the following month. I don't drive anymore, but still need the license just in case.
I was standing in line with my cane because I have trouble walking and standing. They moved me to an express processing. I was in and out in about twenty minutes. My wife could not believe it.
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My boys and I have hiked Picacho Peak many times. We try to do it the first Saturday in November every year.
2nd Saturday in October we do the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon.
We have others.
We'll be up at Jones Crossing on the rim next month... 3rd Friday & Saturday
BTW: From the parking lot on the north side of PP, to the top it took us about 32 minutes up... about 35 down. Don't know why it took longer coming down.
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My boys and I have hiked Picacho Peak many times. We try to do it the first Saturday in November every year.
2nd Saturday in October we do the West Fork of Oak Creek Canyon.
We have others.
We'll be up at Jones Crossing on the rim next month... 3rd Friday & Saturday
Awesome! You guys are hiking nuts! We love West Fork! Most of our hiking up north is done during our hunts. Haven't done many official trails up there, but spend lots of time hiking in the woods in pursuit of wildlife. You will have to make some recommendations to us. Our kids are just big enough, now, to do big hikes, so we are looking for more.
We had not done Picacho since before we had the kids and we didn't remember it being so difficult (we were younger then), but the kids loved it.
So sad that so many parks are closing. I know there are private companies offering to run the parks and give the state some revenue, but apparently this would be a problem with some union jobs or something. Boyce Thompson will be run by a private company.
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Grats on your broody. I don't think that the birds being from a hatchery has anything to do with it. I have 3 LF cochins right now that are broody and they all came from Ideal hatchery. I also have a little bantam that goes broody quite often and she is also from a hatchery although I am not quite sure exactly which one.
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What an interesting tip. I'll have to pass this on to the older generation in my life so they can be sure to take their walkers, etc when the have to go.
This was about re-training chicken attacking dogs. Not sure I agree with the sentiment of all of it, but a few more ideas to consider for those interested:
CheerfulHeart-Congrats on the chicks! Its too bad the broody didn't take to them, but they'll do fine in the house.
Speaking of chicks, I'm getting ready to place an order for some meaties, for late September. I'll be ordering them from Meyer Hatchery, and if anyone wants to get in on the order, either for meaties or just wants to order laying birds from Meyer, let me know. I'm willing to take delivery of the birds and keep them for a day or two, until people can pick them up. If you're interested, PM me.
Thanks for the garden condolences. I am no so worried about the dead plants as I am the sprinkler system we just put back there.
I am about ready to kidnap Caesar Millon or whatever his name his!
Rufus,
I should have had my Dad bring his back brace and walker then, right?
Shaun,
CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Give us the scoop when you get the chance. (plus pictures haha)
Cheerful,
Who doesn't love a broody? I hope she is determined about it too.
Before i get started let me preface this post with the fact that i am really tired and i am definitely rambling a lot in this post. Sorry for that. Ok read on
I can say one thing i have learned today is that a few people selling chickens (2 out of 3 so far for me) have soo many they really want to get rid of some of them and are happy when you are able to give them a good home and somewhat push you into taking more (Not the people on this forum mind you everyone from the forum I mention later were all GREAT to deal with!!!!) The other thing i learned is that it is REALLY hard to choose which chickens you are taking home. Deciding which of the 5 that you like you are not going to take so that you only take three home is almost impossible.
So yes we have chickens and my wife already wants one more (ROFL)
If you remember a while back my wife was not really wanting to get chickens and she was really holding me down from doing anything. This was mostly because she wanted me to finish building my son his HUGE swingset and slide for our son. So we finish that on Monday.
Once that was done I got the GO i was waiting for from her. So I got a coop from ArizonaNessa (THANK YOU Vanessa!!!) She posted it here a while ago and its about the size i wanted for right now. Its easy to move around the back yard and was really built well. I will post some pictures tomorrow. With everything that was happening i didnt have time to take pictures today. I can tell however that I do plan to build a bigger coop soon LOL but this is exactly what i wanted for now and most importantly its great for a small coop when i need to separate any birds later! (trying to think ahead)
So the coop i got from ArizonaNessa is now inside an old dog kennel/pen i had already. Its currently set up to be 12ft x 6x but I will probably expand that here shortly. I would have done that already but i misplaced some of my connectors for the fencing panels so i couldn't go bigger yet. I will probably do 18 ft x 6 ft here shortly and that should give the chickens quite a lot of room. Plus i will let them out into the rest of the yard when i am around to just have fun and more room to roam. I also want to do this as i am trying to find out where is best to place this larger and permanent coop and I am not yet sure where would be best.
So for the chickens...
Well First My wife wants me to get a buff orp here tomorrow (sigh) I know a few people with them so i will try and see if i can get one tomorrow. I have a long day already planned so i hope i have time. I think we have enough chickens now but well she wants just that one so i better get it for her!!
Today I got one more large chicken than i planned and some bantams also that were too cute for words. (the bantams were not planned either)
The plan was two americaunas/EasterEggers, one Barred Rock, one White faced spanish, and one Jersey Giant. To make a total of 5 with the possibility of getting one silkie.
I got 3 americaunas/Eastereggers (Some i think are from Mahonris lines) One i think may have started showing roo after i got home (great timing). I got one Barred Rock alike planned. These birds were from ArizonaDesertChicks and i couldn't be happier with them. It was REALLY hard to not take home more but i had a plan and I was trying very hard to stick to it and only added one additional bird.
Next I got the other two i expected which are one Black Jersey Giant and one white faced Spanish. This was hard as i think he wanted me to look at more badly but he was a really nice guy and gave me a lot of info. These guys were also planned and that was supposed to round out the coop possibly adding the buff orp and or a silkie.
I got detoured today and looked at some silkies since i had been thinking of getting some but wasn't really that sure. Well i found some that were all bred to be frizzle/silkies and they were really cute. SO i got some small ones also. I will post more pictures later but that was 3 more chickens
So that's what I got. Its a lot of birds (more than i planned on for sure) but I am happy and I am making sure they are happy also. I will be adding on to my pen for them some more roosting areas just so they are covered there for sure and adding a roof to one side just so i know they are completely sheltered in case bad weather is to hit. The coop covers me for now and is really great in case the weather does get bad they all have a place to really hide and they all fit on the roosting bar!! which sort of shocked me. Where they are in the back yard they are 90% shaded all day and so they all seemed to like it pretty well. I may be starting on a new coop for them already just so that I am covered in case I really like this and want more or really for what ever. I am learning a ton just having them in the back yard and watching where they like to be and where they don't. You can only learn so much from a book or a website. You learn volumes more from just getting your hands dirty and my hands are definitely starting to get dirty
The other cool thing was that my dogs don't seem really interested in them at all which shocked me. Now so far its all supervised obviously but even when the dogs are in the yard they don't even bother to check out the coop so i think i have made my dogs aware that that is MY property and they will not touch it. (I HOPE)
So that is a long mouth full. We will see how many are truly hens and how many end up being roos but for now they seem happy. A few are already coming to me and jumping into my lap while i sit out there so i really cant complain at all.
So LONG day but totally worth it and i can now say I am a chicken dad.
Again I will try and post some pictures tomorrow. For now I need some sleep. I have to get up early and tour the Orpheum theatre tomorrow for a upcoming WCGAPS event in may. (So much to do and so little time)
