Arizona Chickens

[Sill]

So I was out doing some yard work this morning and I heard some strange noises coming from the coop that I've not heard before. There were two of my red sex links inside and since they were calm just noisy I left them be. A bit later I decided to check on them and found these on the floor of the coop between the feeder and wall.



They are my first chicken eggs. My RSLs are 20 weeks old this week and I was prepared to wait a couple more weeks so it was a pleasant April Fool's gift from the girls.

Now that a couple of the girls have started laying will they lay every day or do they usually work up for that?

Also what is the best way to get them to use the nest boxes? It's funny since I just but a dummy egg in each nest box this morning a few hours before they laid. We'll see where they lay next time.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

I built my chicken gate--to keep the chickens out of the garden--and some how it ended up costing WAY more than I had thought it would. Especially considering I had the wire and ONLY needed wood. For only about 10' of fencing. Dang. Maybe I should check my receipt because, whoa, no way this little fence and gate should have cost $100.00. Well, it's keeping trend with me having the most expensive chickens in Tucson! Anyway, it looks great and my garden already looks a million times better without all the barricades and protective fencing around it. The chickens aren't thrilled about having their ranging area severely cut, but they are using the dust bath area I dug for them and seem happy enough scratching around the old straw bales.

I was having a horrible time with flies in my chicken/garden area-- I finally bought some fly strips and a disposable fly catcher 'baggie' type thing. The fly problem was so bad that the fly strips were completely coated within a couple of hours. It took a while for the baggie to work up a really disgusting stench that attracted the flies, but it's working well now. It's full of hundreds of drowned flies. I have no idea where the flies are originating from--we clean up the dog and chicken areas regularly, no signs of maggots in my compost, and my neighbors have clean yards, but man, thousands of flies were attracted to my garden area. I could hear the massive buzzing from the other side of my yard. Gross. The fly baggie is helping so much...the rotting corpse stench emanating from the bag is a bit hard to deal with though! I was worried about the 'good' bugs getting caught in the trap and paper, but only a few non-flies on the paper ( and not a single bee, yay!) and only flies in the bag trap. I don't think much else would be attracted to corpse smell.

I've tried several things with the flies from sprays to traps and have only found one thing that works. The traps will capture the adults but they have already laid 100s of eggs that will hatch in 7 days. The sprays I have found are either an arm and a leg for the ones that do a decent job or not very effective for the cheaper ones. Flies are attracted to the moisture and the decaying matter to lay their eggs in so if you have one or both of these then the flies will be a comin. I finally heard about a place called March Biological control. The guy in charge is Brad and has some videos about bugs. Every bug has a natural enemy, the fly's is the fly predator. These bugs are the size of a small ant and fly. They somehow are attracted to the fly larvae and will attack and eat it thus interrupting the life cycle. Will it completely eliminate them? No, because you are always attracting them but my yard went from swarms humming around to hardly noticing them at all. The website is marchbiological.com. They also have all sorts of nematodes, lady bugs, praying mantids, the good bugs!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote: Yeah, the flies are originating from the soil, preferably moist soil with lots of organic material (e.g. your garden). I agree with Kev about the fly predators. Every year we have flies explode here like a biblical plague and last year we got Fly Eliminators from Arbico. I was up there at the store-front getting green lacewing eggs and they gave me a free sample of the fly eliminators. It was the first in seven years that we didn't have an explosion of flies. There wasn't even a noticeable increase. It seems to have carried over to this year too, as we're having very few flies. I plan to get more this week to keep on top of them. I love Arbico, they've been based right here in Tucson for decades and they are incredibly helpful. The best part is, with their new store-front you can go pick up anything there and have no shipping charges!

 

[nwebber]

Hey there everyone, we are getting ready to fertilize our yard and we are curious about what we can use with our chickens who free roam most of the time? I can coop them up if need be but wanted everyone's advice. This is the first time fertilizing sense the girls have joined us. Thank you all in advance

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

So I was out doing some yard work this morning and I heard some strange noises coming from the coop that I've not heard before. There were two of my red sex links inside and since they were calm just noisy I left them be. A bit later I decided to check on them and found these on the floor of the coop between the feeder and wall. They are my first chicken eggs. My RSLs are 20 weeks old this week and I was prepared to wait a couple more weeks so it was a pleasant April Fool's gift from the girls. Now that a couple of the girls have started laying will they lay every day or do they usually work up for that? Also what is the best way to get them to use the nest boxes? It's funny since I just but a dummy egg in each nest box this morning a few hours before they laid. We'll see where they lay next time.

So I was out doing some yard work this morning and I heard some strange noises coming from the coop that I've not heard before. There were two of my red sex links inside and since they were calm just noisy I left them be. A bit later I decided to check on them and found these on the floor of the coop between the feeder and wall. They are my first chicken eggs. My RSLs are 20 weeks old this week and I was prepared to wait a couple more weeks so it was a pleasant April Fool's gift from the girls. Now that a couple of the girls have started laying will they lay every day or do they usually work up for that? Also what is the best way to get them to use the nest boxes? It's funny since I just but a dummy egg in each nest box this morning a few hours before they laid. We'll see where they lay next time.

First egg is always egg-sighting

 

[LindaMurphy]

I can always tell when my girls are laying their eggs. It gets rather noisy down there. I'm waiting for my young ones to start laying or crowing LOL.

 

[Demosthine]

Hey there everyone, we are getting ready to fertilize our yard and we are curious about what we can use with our chickens who free roam most of the time? I can coop them up if need be but wanted everyone's advice. This is the first time fertilizing sense the girls have joined us. Thank you all in advance

Without a doubt, the best two fertilizers come from poultry and rabbit manure. Second to that comes goat and sheep. These four are all considered "cold" manures, meaning they won't burn or damage your lawn with a fresh application. They dry very quickly and are easy to crumble. Using fresh manure like this may cause a slight smell when it's watered, but I find it pleasant.

Next best would be aged horse manure, followed by aged cow manure. Since these are "hot" manures, they will burn your grass and cause damage, so they need to be aged at least six months. Grass fed animals are all supposed to be considered "cold" manure, but those are the holistic ranchers and they use there's on their own land. Never seen any available.

Check your local Craig's List, usually in the free section. Just do a search for manure and stuff should come up. I've always found options. We have a guy about three miles up the road that we could fill five to ten long bed trucks with. It was nicely aged and went down beautifully over the yard.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Chicken manure is VERY hot! Rabbit is cold. Horse and cow manure are fairly cool. All are very good fertilizers, but hot ones need to age or be very dilute.

 

[a little chiken]

Hey guys I have 1 Ancona laying hen. she is a year old. I bought her as a pullet last April. She is more aggressive than my americauna chickens and the only Anacona that I have. She lays a white egg every day. I am asking $15 for her. She is very traditional Black with white molted Anacona color. I want to keep mostly my Ameraucana hens and roosters. I have a few other breeds but I have found I just am not fond of her. message me if your interested in her.

 

[kpgoldstar]

So I was out doing some yard work this morning and I heard some strange noises coming from the coop that I've not heard before. There were two of my red sex links inside and since they were calm just noisy I left them be. A bit later I decided to check on them and found these on the floor of the coop between the feeder and wall.



They are my first chicken eggs. My RSLs are 20 weeks old this week and I was prepared to wait a couple more weeks so it was a pleasant April Fool's gift from the girls.

Now that a couple of the girls have started laying will they lay every day or do they usually work up for that?

Also what is the best way to get them to use the nest boxes? It's funny since I just but a dummy egg in each nest box this morning a few hours before they laid. We'll see where they lay next time.

They will usually work their way up to laying daily. I kept fake eggs in my nest boxes for a few weeks before laying age and they have never laid anywhere else. I have 4 production RIR's who have been laying for about 6 weeks.