Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

OMG OMG OMG. I guess all it took was talking about it and bringing it up to you all for her to lay her first egg. I went out to get our other girls egg and was squealing with delight when I opened the door to see two eggs and one being green!!!! My EE layed her first egg final at 7 months 2 day. Way to go KFC, we love our girls.

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Awesome, how eggciting.. Love that nest as well...

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I posted the advertisement Not the video! For the newbies.

I still find her one of the creepiest, weirdest people around. Those eyes and that body movement just screams mentally disturbed to me. Of course, the constant short clipping of the video in between recordings make it that much worse. You blink and go from six chickens in the background to none, and then back to three or four. It's just disturbing and wrong!

Soooooo! Soooo true! She SHOULD be declared a National Treasure. I love her. She could go on stage........... But the cut an past is important part of the fun of the "onegirlrant"

 

[Demosthine]

Soooooo! Soooo true! She SHOULD be declared a National Treasure. I love her. She could go on stage........... But the cut an past is important part of the fun of the "onegirlrant"

Only if she gets lost in the National Archives to collect dust... Maybe send her down to the Vatican Library?

 

[Demosthine]

On the way home up Grand Avenue today, we noticed some strange growth on the trees Southeast of 51st Avenue and Bethany Home Road. Any idea what type of tree this is or what the growth is?

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Met Mary, my Buff Orpington. I was concerned because she was # 12 in the picking order of 12 pullets and hens. The grow out pen was moved and 2 sides are not 100% protected. 4 of the chicks got out from under the pen in the front. So I let Mama out, and this is what happened in the first seconds. I wasn't ready for the explosion. I am no longer worried. She even attacked Thelma. I have 3 alpha pullets. Those are the ones she attacked.
Thelma is the one that trimmed Mary's comb. I heard the commotion, and got Thelma to back off. She had her trapped and really picking her hard. I contemplated a Thelma Roast. I put Blue Kote on it and it healed nicely.
[VIDEO]

 

[Twinklin]

Hey all. It's been a while. My girls are still doing well. Eleanor is forever dealing with a pendulous crop which is super annoying but we deal with it a day at a time. I do think I'm finally going to fashion a bra for her to hold it up and hope it helps her. Phillie and Onyxia both still lay about 5 eggs a week each which isn't too bad with the cooler weather. Eleanor laid about 5 cream colored eggs but hasn't laid since we had our first night with frost which was over a month ago. Around that time she had a bad case of sour crop, got quarantined and then the temperature dropped pretty significantly. I think it was just too much and she hasn't adjusted back. I also got a few barely speckled eggs back then too which I assume were from Tea. Either that or Phillie or Ony had some fluke spotty eggs instead of their usual solid light brown. I haven't gotten another speckled in about a month so we'll wait until spring and hopefully I start getting some more speckled ones regularly. All the girls are about 8 1/2 months now.

I ordered 4 chicks through MPC for mid May. A silver laced polish, blue orphington, blue laced red wyandotte and a white silkie. I did list substitutions I'd accept in order to get them on time but crossing my fingers I end up with the 4 I really wanted. I recently won an Ecoglow 20 brooder and am really excited to use that instead of being paranoid about the heat lamp falling in the garage. So that's an update on chicken news. Hope everyone is doing well.

 

[Demosthine]

Hey all. It's been a while. My girls are still doing well. Eleanor is forever dealing with a pendulous crop which is super annoying but we deal with it a day at a time. I do think I'm finally going to fashion a bra for her to hold it up and hope it helps her. Phillie and Onyxia both still lay about 5 eggs a week each which isn't too bad with the cooler weather. Eleanor laid about 5 cream colored eggs but hasn't laid since we had our first night with frost which was over a month ago. Around that time she had a bad case of sour crop, got quarantined and then the temperature dropped pretty significantly. I think it was just too much and she hasn't adjusted back. I also got a few barely speckled eggs back then too which I assume were from Tea. Either that or Phillie or Ony had some fluke spotty eggs instead of their usual solid light brown. I haven't gotten another speckled in about a month so we'll wait until spring and hopefully I start getting some more speckled ones regularly. All the girls are about 8 1/2 months now.

I ordered 4 chicks through MPC for mid May. A silver laced polish, blue orphington, blue laced red wyandotte and a white silkie. I did list substitutions I'd accept in order to get them on time but crossing my fingers I end up with the 4 I really wanted. I recently won an Ecoglow 20 brooder and am really excited to use that instead of being paranoid about the heat lamp falling in the garage. So that's an update on chicken news. Hope everyone is doing well.

Wow, that's a shame about Eleanor. For those who don't know... Since it is believed to be a hereditary trait, personally I would cull her. Firstly, it's a recurring problem that supposedly only gets worse. Secondly, it is supposed to be a contributing factor to impacted crop and sour crop once it occurs. Since the crop muscles don't usually return to normal, the crop becomes inefficient and digestion becomes difficult. Feeding only softer foods will help this, as anything fiberous will most likely cause problems. Her not laying could very likely be related to it, too, since it's more difficult for her to get the proper nutrients out of her food sources. Has she lost weight, too?

I didn't realize MPC allowed you to buy such a small amount of chicks. The minimum order size is made largely to ensure that there is enough body warmth to maintain the high temperature requirements. I do see now that they use a heating element for smaller orders, which is a great idea. I just hadn't realized it! That's great information to know. I was really wanting a Silver Laced Wyandotte when I was first getting started, but it didn't work out that way. Maybe someday...

 

[Twinklin]

Wow, that's a shame about Eleanor. For those who don't know... Since it is believed to be a hereditary trait, personally I would cull her. Firstly, it's a recurring problem that supposedly only gets worse. Secondly, it is supposed to be a contributing factor to impacted crop and sour crop once it occurs. Since the crop muscles don't usually return to normal, the crop becomes inefficient and digestion becomes difficult. Feeding only softer foods will help this, as anything fiberous will most likely cause problems. Her not laying could very likely be related to it, too, since it's more difficult for her to get the proper nutrients out of her food sources. Has she lost weight, too?

I didn't realize MPC allowed you to buy such a small amount of chicks. The minimum order size is made largely to ensure that there is enough body warmth to maintain the high temperature requirements. I do see now that they use a heating element for smaller orders, which is a great idea. I just hadn't realized it! That's great information to know. I was really wanting a Silver Laced Wyandotte when I was first getting started, but it didn't work out that way. Maybe someday...

I'm not ready to cull her yet. I'll definitely try out a crop bra on her before I do that. She hasn't lost weight. I check her every morning and night. If she's sour in the morning I empty her out, and I make sure she's eaten every day by checking her crop at bed time. I still have them all on fermented crumbles but I'm taking them off of it once this bucket is done and back to yogurt for breakfast and crumbles with water to soften. I think the fermented feed is too much for her. She gorges on it and I think it bubbles up and makes her way too gassy expanding her crop with air, but just crumbles turned to mush without having time to ferment should be much better. She was doing much better when I had them on the yogurt for their good bacteria before I tried out the fermenting. When Eleanor has sour crop all the girls get confined to the coop and run until she's gone through the "full at night/empty in the morning" cycle with out any help from me for a few days. Then I mow the lawn to make sure she can't gorge on long grass and then they're allowed to free range again. She usually goes at least a month without having issue. I'm not concerned with her laying. We got plenty of eggs from the 2 girls who lay consistently for my bf and I. We've even been able to give some away. She's my favorite chicken. She the only one I really ever bring inside to hang out on my lap while I watch TV and stuff.

It depends on where you live for MPC to send small amounts of chicks. My zipcode is 3 LF, or 5 bantam, or 4 mixed. I'm in Scottsdale. Up further north where it's not quite as warm all the time might be different. I think I tried putting a Flagstaff zipcode once out of curiosity and it increased the minimum number to 7 LF. I also saw that because I'm only ordering 4 I can't get any before April when it's cold out. So I trust they know what they're doing with all that, they have a "system". These 4 chicks will be it for us unless we move to a larger property or I lose some of the ones I have to sickness, age, whatever, so I wanted to make sure I got as many of the breeds I really wanted in this final 4 as possible.

 

[tsuninight]

I know a company called Flucker's sells freeze dried crickets. They also sell canned crickets. I haven't tried the freeze dried ones but did use the canned ones for sugar gliders. They are very moist and look absolutely disgusting but the sugar gliders seemed to like them. I think both of these are marketed for reptiles, but can't think of a reason not to give them to chickens. Amazon sells both of these products btw/

TY! I'll check them out.

 

[nwebber]

Roosevelt was all up in my business while I was trying to play on the iPad out back. Super curious girl.