Arizona Chickens

[Sill]

Good for you! Don't do like I did, and plant too many tomatoes. I now have a tomato jungle in my greenhouse, I can't even walk through end to end!


This was 2 or 3 weeks ago, it's much worse now!

Yikes! Oh boy can stuff go crazy with an aquaponics system. I hope you have lots of people to give tomatoes away to. Though we eat a lot of tomatoes I think you have too many! Still getting my system up and running. Replaced my old rusted stock tank with a new IBC.


Got the fish out of the stock tank into a temporary tank while we got the new one in place. The new IBC is painted and sports a shade cloth cover.


It's not plumbed yet for the SLOs, that is next, but I didn't want to wait any longer to get the fish out of the aging tank. I'm still using the old biofilter, so I can't overload the fish with food since its really too small for they number of fish and volume of water. It just makes water changes more necessary. Still debating with my DH how to set up the sump(s), I want two barrels, one for each of the two grow beds for this particular system and he wants one barrel for both.

Since he is doing the plumbing he will probably get his way.

 

[miwin1000]

They (roaches) probably came in with the straw/bedding or a pregnant one rode in on a feed bag or something, but they are very common in Arizona in general. In Phoenix, I've seen them as long as 4 inches! (OMG that was a BIG roach!) I had them (outside) before the chickens came, so I can't blame them. The chickens eat them, and I've never had a problem with the eye worm you mentioned. I use DE to keep the sucking insects down, and have never had a problem with any other bug type critters. If any of my animals come down with fleas or mites, they get treated immediately and then the grounds also with DE. The only time I've ever had a problem with fleas is when they came with someone else's dog.

 

[Annalog]

It didn't even hit quite 100 here today, and I lost 3 hens, presumably to the heat. That was quite a shock. I don't usually turn the misters on until it gets hotter, and the one pen where 2 died has no mister anyway. The only thing I can think is, it got hot so suddenly. We have had a relatively mild May so far, and just came out of a nice cool spell, then the temp. really soared today.
Last year, I did lose a few birds, but it was when it got up to 110 degrees and had been consistently hot for a month or more. I am just surprised. I lost an Orloff, an olive-egger, and a Rhode Island Red. Not a mark on them or anything wrong, they just keeled over in the late afternoon.

That is so sad.

 

[carnivore]

Here is a pic of the other end of the greenhouse, with the fish tanks.....

Koi in the brown IBC, tilapia in the grey one. The reason for the center walkway is that there is a 300 gallon rubbermaid stock tank buried under the first growbed on the left for a sump tank. The only fish in the sump tank is a foot long plecostomus, he keeps the algae at bay. For covers on the tanks, I made a hinged cover, the back section is leftover opaque pondliner, the front hinged section is shadecloth.
As you're looking at this view, I have another uncut IBC outside the greenhouse to the left. At the base of the brown IBC, you can just make out a blue backwash hose that goes thru the concrete block that is turned so the holes are horizontal. I keep the outside IBC full of water and let it dechlorinate, then use it to refill the sump tank evaporation losses.

 

[mnabity]

It's 'cuz they are watered 24/7 with fish poop water!

I will definitely try the fish poop water this year I have a 55 gal aquarium that really needs a good cleaning. I will be sure to siphon out water from that to water them. Crossing my fingers for big yummy maters.

 

[K9Dave]

I will definitely try the fish poop water this year I have a 55 gal aquarium that really needs a good cleaning. I will be sure to siphon out water from that to water them. Crossing my fingers for big yummy maters.

I also have a 55 gal tank and do 40 percent water changes every 10 days or so. The plants love the water don't get me wrong but you have to feed them 24/7 for these results. I use it for my starter plants and it seems to help. The results aren't super noticeable unless you're feeding 24/7. I have an extra 55 that I'm thinking of trying something with.

 

[carnivore]

I have discovered cockroaches!!!! UGH!! Who knew this would be a byproduct of having chickens?? First one I saw was in my guest bath, just a loner that I killed. The big long sewer roach kind. We have never had them before, especially not in my house.

This past week, going out to lock up the girls after dark, I saw a few crawling around in the run area near where I feed. I do FF so they don't scatter it everywhere, but there are still some remnants. I also have watered down the ground so we have moisture where there never was any before. I was a little freaked out when I saw them out there and wondered how on earth the one got into my house!

Last night I put a mouse glue trap outside of the run adjacent to the food trough. We caught about 7 of them!!! EWWWWW! Most were the bronze colored ones but 2 were black. THEN, to top it all off... I fluffed my comforter that we fold onto the floor each night to put back on the bed this morning and there was one inside of that!!!! OMG, I just don't know what to do??? How can there be so many so soon? Where did they come from and how are they getting into my house?

I put another glue trap out tonight, along with a tray of powdered sugar and baking soda. I read a bunch of threads and will also do the glass jar thing with shortening and something sweet in the bottom to see how many I catch. I have been tossing straw in the run so my girls don't have to stand on the hot ground and rocks, but I may have to curb that until I see to what degree my infestation has gotten. I also plan to get some orange guard (??) to spray all around my home entrances. I still just don't know how they are getting in!!

I read DE, cucumbers, etc will also help. Anyone in AZ have any experience with this? Any tired and true remedies to get rid of them for good? So far other than the ones inside I have only seen them at night so the chicks aren't eating or chasing them. I also read about eye worm that they can spread so I'm not planning on letting my girls eat them even after I catch them.

Borax. Cockroaches are actually very clean bugs, and when they walk thru borax powder, they will lick it off their feet to clean them. The borax will dehydrate them and they will die. It used to be very common for people to sprinkle borax behind fridges and stoves, under cabinets, etc. for this purpose. I don't know it's effect on chickens, so I would only use it inside the house.
Yes, I am a fount of little known facts, but in this case, they are not useless facts!

 

[K9Dave]

Well, the electric fence install seems to be working as advertised. The older chicks have been out in the run since Friday morning. My dog must have discovered the wire early on, there have been NO further excavation attempts. I also put in a 2 foot high plywood wall so the chooks can't even SEE the dog, they were freaking out whenever he came in view.

And Welcome to BYC Annalog!

Welcome Annalog. Great group here. We have unique chicken needs here in Az since it's so hot, so this section of BYC is very valuable.

When I was a kid out neighbor was a Trapper for a living. When he went out of town, which was a lot, I was responsible for feeding his animals. He had a pack of maybe 9 wolves behind his house in an electric fence. Kind of a rescue of sorts I guess. This fence was Horse Strength and they avoided it like the plague. All but one little 8 week old puppy that would bounce right through the jolts to follow me home. He never whimpered or showed much sign of discomfort. Crazy strong little SOB. He later gave him to me and I named him Mango.

At our house we had 14 Walker Hounds behind a e-fence and it was dog strength. My brother and I would have competitions to see who was tougher and could hold on longest. Lol. Dumb boys.

Just getting to check out the thread after being busy all day. We're building quite a group. Nice

 

[K9Dave]

It didn't even hit quite 100 here today, and I lost 3 hens, presumably to the heat. That was quite a shock. I don't usually turn the misters on until it gets hotter, and the one pen where 2 died has no mister anyway. The only thing I can think is, it got hot so suddenly. We have had a relatively mild May so far, and just came out of a nice cool spell, then the temp. really soared today.
Last year, I did lose a few birds, but it was when it got up to 110 degrees and had been consistently hot for a month or more. I am just surprised. I lost an Orloff, an olive-egger, and a Rhode Island Red. Not a mark on them or anything wrong, they just keeled over in the late afternoon.

Sorry Marcy

 

[K9Dave]

Borax. Cockroaches are actually very clean bugs, and when they walk thru borax powder, they will lick it off their feet to clean them. The borax will dehydrate them and they will die. It used to be very common for people to sprinkle borax behind fridges and stoves, under cabinets, etc. for this purpose. I don't know it's effect on chickens, so I would only use it inside the house.
Yes, I am a fount of little known facts, but in this case, they are not useless facts!

Same here about the facts. Ha

What do you do with all those tomatoes Carnivore? We'll buy some from you, my wife hates store toms but loves home growns.