Arizona Chickens

[pipemum]

Phottoman, in that case, I'm sure the judge will find your wife and the fair not at fault for having the guy's vehicle towed. And the tow company responsible for the damages, since they were responsible for the damages, though..it's ***holes like this jerk (who parked and remained parked after verbally being told, more than once, not to park there, if I read correctly?) that really bring this world down. Entitled w-a-nkers.

desertmarcy, interesting about the crosses. Do you ever sell those Orloff/Amer crosses or was that just for fun?

It is really surprising about the hardness of the shells. The first egg my barred rock laid was tiny, but super thick. The membranes of her eggs are still hard to break. I end up with all of the shell peeled off and this wobbly intact egg. Pretty neat, till I let my daughter try to crack an egg. Messy. Very messy. But now I don't have to listen to, "Grandma let's me crack the eggs, ALL of the time. Pleeeaaaase?"

I thought I had 3 layers, pretty sure it's still only 2. The other 4 need to get on it. let's see....oh, they're only 25 weeks old. I was thinking they were closer to 7 months.

The meatie chicks have gotten the hang of exploring outside of their coop. Everyone is right, they have to be forced to explore for food, otherwise they will hang out face first in the feeder. I like 'em. They are sweet and curious. So far no stink since they've been moved outside. I'm considering raising another small group (ideally, I'd get another batch in 2 weeks, brood them for 2 weeks and move them to the pen after the older ones are processed), but I have to wait till butcher day to decide. It's going to be hard.

 

[Twinklin]

Total off topic rant, but some of the moderators and long time members on this site drive me bonkers with how rude and condescending they can be. Not anyone here in the AZ thread of course but in some of the other threads I follow they just make me so mad. It's like no one taught them how to word things so they don't sound like total jerks talking to us like we're the scum of the earth because we don't know everything about everything and apparently they do. Sorry *rant off*

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Total off topic rant, but some of the moderators and long time members on this site drive me bonkers with how rude and condescending they can be. Not anyone here in the AZ thread of course but in some of the other threads I follow they just make me so mad. It's like no one taught them how to word things so they don't sound like total jerks talking to us like we're the scum of the earth because we don't know everything about everything and apparently they do. Sorry *rant off*

I know, it's a terrible disgrace. I think those folks have no idea how they come across to the readers or they wouldn't behave as they do.

 

[desertmarcy]

Phottoman, in that case, I'm sure the judge will find your wife and the fair not at fault for having the guy's vehicle towed. And the tow company responsible for the damages, since they were responsible for the damages, though..it's ***holes like this jerk (who parked and remained parked after verbally being told, more than once, not to park there, if I read correctly?) that really bring this world down. Entitled w-a-nkers.

desertmarcy, interesting about the crosses. Do you ever sell those Orloff/Amer crosses or was that just for fun?

It was really just for my own flock. I wanted some green eggers. I sold a few of them after I could tell which were pullets and I already had what I wanted. But it is not a cross I do regularly. In fact, I only have one Ameraucana left. I sold the black one because she just went broody too much. This year, I crossed those same two Ameraucanas (before I sold the black one) to my Black Copper Marans for olive eggs. The black crosses are just gorgeous---beautiful green sheen to their feathers and nice muffs and bigger birds than their mother. Most of them are laying now and their eggs are a nice olive green, just what I wanted. I only got one olive egger pullet out of my Blue Ameraucana. That hen was doing a really good job for a looong time avoiding the male. I think she was intimidated by him since he was twice her size. I kept incubating her eggs and all infertile. Finally I got some fertile ones, but alas, only one pullet from all that hatched. She is younger and hasn't started laying yet.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I grew out 12 Orloff cockerels. Culled (butchered for meat) 5 of them a week or so ago. 7 left, will be a hard decision which to keep for breeding. They are starting to squabble so will need to thin them out some more soon. They are really nice birds, very mellow with people, so it is hard to have to butcher them. Not like a nasty, mean rooster. But it is all part of breeding quality chickens: keep the best and eat the rest. How many pullets did you end up with, Gallo?

"Keep the best and eat the rest". Please proceed, it's much appreciated because there are a lot of us benefiting from it out here. The pullets I hatched out from you are stunning. Of the four NH eggs, three hatched and all were cockerels. All four SRO eggs hatched and only one was a pullet (I kept her). Three of the four FBCM eggs hatched and two of them were pullets. All three of the BR rock chicks I got from you were pullets!

So, I'll end up keeping just one each of the SRO, FBCM and the BR. The rest went to live in Bisbee, where they live idyllic lives (except the boys) as the first flock for a family there.

We are sooo much looking forward to getting the turkey from you! We have a fancy chef coming to cook it for us (she's one of our best friends

).

 

[Mikokoke]

Yesterday I posted this little sign on my coop. It so happens that when I am not home all day, my chickens lay only half of what they normally lay. Either they miss me or someone is taking my eggs. Let's see if my plan of attack works:

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
I raised my last two batches like Arizonachicken. We had the broody in a covered kitty litter box under the elevated portion of my coop. That area was fenced off with food and water available inside. We kept the litter box in there until the chicks decided to start roosting, which was long after the momma left to rejoin her sisters on the roost. We kept them in the fenced area for just a couple days and then removed the fence so they had full access to the coop and run. The older ladies were just fine with the the chicks. There would be the expected peck from the top bird when the chicks got up in her business, but even then, she was gentle. The only problem I had was with the broody occasionally going after the other lower ranking birds when they got too close to the chicks and even that tapered off after some time.

So:
We kept them all in the litter box on pine shavings, with the lid on. We had a couple bricks so that the chicks could jump up into the box. I don't think the lid was critical, but it might help keep them warmer as the nights get cooler. The chicks didn't roost until they were about three months old--they bunched up in the box together.

Good luck with the rest of the hatch! A broody mamma with her chicks is so much fun to watch. Endless entertainment and surprises.

 

[Arizonachicken]

I went to check for eggs under my broody (cuz the other hens lay in her nest) and she seemed very reluctant to let me lift her up. And when I did, there was a tiny wet chick! Yay! I don't see any pips in the other eggs, though. I took this pic a few hours later.

 

[pipemum]

I went to check for eggs under my broody (cuz the other hens lay in her nest) and she seemed very reluctant to let me lift her up. And when I did, there was a tiny wet chick! Yay! I don't see any pips in the other eggs, though. I took this pic a few hours later.

Aww, that's great!

 

[desertmarcy]

"Keep the best and eat the rest". Please proceed, it's much appreciated because there are a lot of us benefiting from it out here. The pullets I hatched out from you are stunning. Of the four NH eggs, three hatched and all were cockerels. All four SRO eggs hatched and only one was a pullet (I kept her). Three of the four FBCM eggs hatched and two of them were pullets. All three of the BR rock chicks I got from you were pullets!

So, I'll end up keeping just one each of the SRO, FBCM and the BR. The rest went to live in Bisbee, where they live idyllic lives (except the boys) as the first flock for a family there.

We are sooo much looking forward to getting the turkey from you! We have a fancy chef coming to cook it for us (she's one of our best friends

).

Thank you Gallo. My hopes of selling most of my extra cockerels as processed birds is not working out too well. I am not even making any money off them, most of them process out between 3 and 5 pounds (maybe those Barred Rocks will be bigger) so at most $25 a bird and with all the feed going into them and my labor to process...I would like to get some of my feed bill money back. Put an ad in the Edible Baja Arizona magazine and got deposits for turkeys and sold some live chickens....but no processed chickens. If people only knew how much better these taste than the commercial Cornish cross!! I do not think $5/pound for organic chickens is unreasonable. **sigh** That is part of the reason my feed bill is so high. I keep delaying butchering birds in hopes that people will contact me about getting processed chickens. If anybody has any ideas on how to market these, let me know. I can't really do the Farmer's Market thing so people have to pick them up here and that might be part of the problem.

Gallo, the turkeys are looking good. I have not weighed one so not sure how they will dress out, but this last month before Thanksgiving when they are between 5-6 months old, they tend to put on more mass. They are getting diced organic apples from Willcox every other day to put a finish on them. I wish they were going to be a little older, 7-8 months would be a better carcass, but a lot of these came from Porter's turkeys and I did not even get those poults until mid-May. Next year I will save the first hatched for myself instead of selling them all, then they will be a month older by Thanksgiving.