Arizona Chickens

[Gallo del Cielo]

I would use dicondra seeds or chocolate mint! if I remember tomorrow I'll show you pictures of the chocolate mint growing between my flagstones an invading my backyard grass. And it smells wonderful when you trim it. on the other hand with dicondra grass, it's an old grass that you never have to mow. It fills in the space, it almost looks like a round clover but its not a clover and you just give it a sprinkle everyday in the hot summer in all good sprinkle everyday and hot summer he should be fine.

I like how the dichondra looks, how drought tolerant is it? Would it survive a few days without watering in the hottest part of summer?

 

[pipemum]

Are your buckets, tubing, and/or pvc pipe accessible to the chickens? Depending on the type of insulation you use, the birds will eat it. I carefully wrapped pipe with the rubberized, higher quality pipe insulation years back and the birds ate it. Turkeys and chickens both. They would probably eat the foam insulation, too, or at least peck at it until it is gone

Hmm, okay, good point. I can wrap the 5-gal bucket and the tubing--those are outside of the run...they may peck when they are "free-ranging" in the chicken area, but I'll keep an eye on it. I won't wrap the pvc in the chicken runs.


My area doesn't have puncture vine, but we have something I consider just as terrible. Harder to pull, and the birds love it so it gets spread everywhere! Umm...I suddenly forgot the name!

eta: remembered it--Malta star thistle. Nasty weed.

 

[pipemum]

Water Cup Saga: Logged in to mention that I spread peanut butter on the yellow tabs. Then, I worried that wasn't' enough, so I dropped a couple of sunflowers in each of the cups to encourage pecking. Still worried they wouldn't quite get it, I left some dried mealworms in each cup. That'll get their attention! I took the regular gravity waterers out, so this is their only source. Freaking out a bit, as I'm at work all day. I did leave 1/2 a watermelon in their runs so that they have something with moisture.

One of my brahma meat cockerels started crowing on Friday. I butchered him last night. 13 weeks old, 2lbs, 6oz all prepped, and he was one of the bigger ones. I hope to fatten up the others before they start crowing.

 

[moms3cuties]

I like how the dichondra looks, how drought tolerant is it?  Would it survive a few days without watering in the hottest part of summer?

My experience is,,, if its been watered well previously and watered deeply it should be okay a few days, but it will wilt and you will have to revive it asap with water but I think the chocolate mint might fare better.

So talk with a local Gardner,,; I usually check with The herb lady. I think you can google the herb lady or the garden guy and see if she or he might get back to you! Kate at the home Depot in mesa (480 6449111 in Garden Dept) is excellent with almost everything she touches. You may be able to talk to her I think she usually excellant with advice and experience and leaves early. Try calling her well before noon! I have the biggest orange tree around and I'm successful with almost every single tree I have ordered online and planted, due to her guidance. I want to add a picture for you, but I don't know how to add a picture yet! -_-

 

[moms3cuties]

My experience is,,, if its been watered well previously and watered deeply it should be okay a few days, but it will wilt and you will have to revive it asap with water but I think the chocolate mint might fare better.

So talk with a local Gardner,,; I usually check with The herb lady. I think you can google the herb lady or the garden guy and see if she or he might get back to you! Kate at the home Depot in mesa (480 6449111 in Garden Dept) is excellent with almost everything she touches. You may be able to talk to her I think she usually excellant with advice and experience and leaves early. Try calling her well before noon! I have the biggest orange tree around and I'm successful with almost every single tree I have ordered online and planted do to her. I want to add a picture for you, but I don't know how to add a picture yet! -_-

FYI,
The Herb Lady and The Garden Guy

Are both HERE LOCALLY!!! =D Kathryn has books online at lulu and too!

 

[K9Dave]

Water Cup Saga:  Logged in to mention that I spread peanut butter on the yellow tabs.  Then, I worried that wasn't' enough, so I dropped a couple of sunflowers in each of the cups to encourage pecking.  Still worried they wouldn't quite get it, I left some dried mealworms in each cup.  That'll get their attention!  I took the regular gravity waterers out, so this is their only source.  Freaking out a bit, as I'm at work all day.  I did leave 1/2 a watermelon in their runs so that they have something with moisture. 

One of my brahma meat cockerels started crowing on Friday.  I butchered him last night. 13 weeks old,  2lbs, 6oz all prepped, and he was one of the bigger ones.  I hope to fatten up the others before they start crowing. 

The high is only 84 today. They'll be fine and it's a nice break from the heat, this should help with their acclimation to the heat. I've started a compost pile in the run and leave fruits and stuff in it for them to dig out. Then in the morning I drench it and it in the heat of the day they are laying on it cooling off. The straw hold water and moisture inside their shoots too I believe.

 

[pipemum]

How do cortunix quail handle our heat? I know they sound different than chickens, but are they louder? Is there a reason they are raised on wire? I'm thinking of trying some out, but only for meat at first. At this time, I'm not interested in a sustainable quail flock. Can I raise them on the ground for 8 weeks or so?

 

[DesertChickens1]

With the rising heat temperatures I thought I would make a post in how to keep chickens cool. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-cool-in-the-summer-on-a-budget#post_13439138 you can check it out if you want

 

[Tanichca]

For those of you who have large fowl ducks... How big is your water source, how often do you clean it and refill, and what do you do with all the water? I'm down here in Vail, considering getting some ducks for eggs. There's a large mesquite tree right next to the coop, if I dumped the dirty water near there, would it be too much for the tree?

 

[carnivore]

BOSS
I went out a few days ago to the local PetSmart and bought a 40# bag of black oil sunflower seeds. Ultimately, I want to grow as much feed as possible. In the Tucson climate, sunflowers grow like weeds anyway. To make sure the seeds would sprout, I put a handful in a bowl and covered them with a wet paper towel. After 3 days, SUCCESS! they are all sprouted. Since my growing area is not yet prepared, I just removed the paper towel and put the bowl in the brooder. OMG! You would think these chicks had never seen food before! Now I have to prepare some ground (where the chickens can't get to 'em) and get with the program!