Arizona Chickens

[moms3cuties]

Looks pretty good Dave. As for nestboxes..my girls hate them. They've been using dog crates and cardoard boxes. Works for me. After a couple weeks I toss the box, replace the hay and that's it. And the dog crates are HUGE, so 5 or 6 hens nest in there at once. Not everybody is laying, but they all "practice" and enjoy their hen parties.

I use milk crates.

thanks for the advice. I always have good cardboard boxes. Do they need a top or ?

I would turn them on their side w grass clippings etc in it or do 1 box upright and 1 box sideways to see their preferences, in my opinion.
Keep in mind I have,"grass only nests," that I just put a shade cloth on top 2 weeks ago. I do have ceramic eggs both brown and white in my two nests! Se the nest is to the left of the 2 trees ( Fuji Apple & cocktail pears), left of my wooden fence, on the right.

 

[K9Dave]

I would turn them on their side w grass clippings etc in it or do 1 box upright and 1 box sideways to see their preferences, in my opinion.
Keep in mind I have,"grass only nests," that I just put a shade cloth on top 2 weeks ago. I do have ceramic eggs both brown and white in my two nests! Se the nest is to the left of the 2 trees ( Fuji Apple & cocktail pears), left of my wooden fence, on the right.

I love your set up. Very pretty. I have produce boxes out front now. Now with the new set up I need to be creative for roosts since the top is slanted. Do they have to roost? I have a little plank ladder but it only holds maybe 4 hens. A couple were on it last night but others were laying on the compost pile. All the tree branches here are too high off of the ground for them to enjoy those.

 

[kacklinkelly]

Our hens do not all roost at night. Some roost and one sleeps in the nest box. We use a 15 gal black tree container for our nest box. DH cut is down to the height I wanted, created a u shape in the front. They've been using it for about a year and half. When I clean the coop, I dump the contents of the nest box in the compost pile, hose out the nest box, let it dry, fill it with the wood shavings and the girls are happy as clams. No cost and works just fine. Gives them some sense of privacy, because the only low point is the entry. Sometimes I have two in there at a time. We have an EE who goes in every day and never lays any eggs. It's funny to see her go through the motions though.

 

[City farm]

Worked hard all day. Yard and house FULL of teenagers and a couple big tough Marines. A good time was had by all and some work actually got done. No stitches needed, but we ended the day with some skinned knees from RUNNING from chickens and falling. One scraped up face from taking a tumble from my orange tree. One cat bite.(Ive had that cat for 13 years and he has never bitten anybody!) Several chewed on shoes(free range bunnies). One hammered thumb. Assorted cuts from hardware cloth and I treated several blisters. The mess today was MUCH bigger than the mess from yesterday and I dropped my Blackberry into the tilapia tank and now it won't take pictures again. Did I mention that I also have my grandkids here during the day..one thats living with me while her parents are deployed ?
Uh huh. I'm beat. Tomorrow is day three of the ongoing saga. I will take some pictures with a real camera and try to post when the dust settles. I'm a happy- kind of-tired

What chickens chased them? Was it one or 2? Wish you could of gt that on video...we just bought the sign that say's guarded by attack chicken...
All though if it were our old rooster that might be true.. Out of the two babies we kept from our flock non have crowed yet.. The friends that got the very latest hatch says they might a few.. Oh boy,
Both of the 2 families that just started a new flock won't be happy to let them go..

 

[City farm]

Hi all, it seems I only come here when I have a question, sorry. Love the stories about foster children, really melted my heart about the young marine. I read the thread every day, I don't always have time to join in.

My broody hatchery RIR finally got over her hormones and seems to be back to normal. A week straight of putting her on the roost and out of the nest box after dark seems to have broken her. She still wants to sleep in the nest box but all broody behavior is gone and she is not nesting during the day. Now I have another one that is acting weird. It started yesterday morning when I went to feed breakfast. Lemon didn't come to the food trough and stood like a statue in one place in the run all by herself.

Then when I let them out after work they were all climbing at the door to get out which is normal. After being on the lawn for a while, there was a fruckus and when I looked over poor Lemon was being pecked by the formerly broody hen who then grabbed her by the neck and tried to mount her. JEEZ, from being broody to trying to become the rooster??

Then another hen went after the broody one. For the next couple of hours Lemon avoided the other 3 completely. She didn't eat any of the snacks I put out and hid in the run while everyone else munched on grass and dug for bugs in the dirt. She does appear to have thinning feathers on her head or she's been pecked. She's always been the smallest of the 4. They went to bed fine together, but this morning I could tell Lemon was just a little off. Again she didn't head straight for breakfast like they always do.

They are 9 months old and have been together since chicks. Up until now we've never seen any signs at all of pecking order. They've all gotten along just famously and no one has tried to become top hen. There has never been any pecking or struggles of any kind.

Could they just now be starting to establish order? They have been laying since February. Could it be the heat and they are irritated? Yesterday was one of the coolest days in a long time, only 102 and cloudy all day. Lemon made a pretty watery poop yesterday afternoon and they are on FF so they are usually more solid. I've only been getting 2 eggs a day for a while now. I know the broody wasn't laying and I know they slow down in summer. How would I know if she was egg bound?
Thanks in advance for all your help! You guys are the best!

Not sure, just keep an eye on her.. She could have been pecked to much.. Runny poo, parasites or some other bug.. Keep us posted..

 

[City farm]

[/IMG]

My original coop/run thing wasn't completely working for me. It had no other shade than the cloth one we made a couple weeks ago. It started to rip. I decided to move it all to another part of the yard under some pine trees. I cannot believe how much cooler it was all day for them. I never even put the cloth cover back up after all was moved. It's not pretty but will suffice for now.

I'm no photographer but in learning that taking pics during the middle of the day is hard.

It's 24x5. Is that ok for 8 hens? I'll be putting boxes in for nests later after some adjustments.

That must of been a lot of work moving it... Look great, we used a old book shelf for their nesting box's at first.. Now they use the box's in the coop.. A few still like the book shelf.. It was free, can't beat that..

 

[City farm]

Looks pretty good Dave. As for nestboxes..my girls hate them. They've been using dog crates and cardoard boxes. Works for me. After a couple weeks I toss the box, replace the hay and that's it. And the dog crates are HUGE, so 5 or 6 hens nest in there at once. Not everybody is laying, but they all "practice" and enjoy their hen parties.

Agh, sounds so cute.

 

[City farm]

Looks pretty good Dave. As for nestboxes..my girls hate them. They've been using dog crates and cardoard boxes. Works for me. After a couple weeks I toss the box, replace the hay and that's it. And the dog crates are HUGE, so 5 or 6 hens nest in there at once. Not everybody is laying, but they all "practice" and enjoy their hen parties.

I use milk crates.

thanks for the advice. I always have good cardboard boxes. Do they need a top or ?

I would turn them on their side w grass clippings etc in it or do 1 box upright and 1 box sideways to see their preferences, in my opinion.
Keep in mind I have,"grass only nests," that I just put a shade cloth on top 2 weeks ago. I do have ceramic eggs both brown and white in my two nests! Se the nest is to the left of the 2 trees ( Fuji Apple & cocktail pears), left of my wooden fence, on the right.

Agh, now that's what I am talking about!!!
How beautiful girl...

 

[Arizona Son]

I just saw this and have never even heard mention of it before! Has anybody had any experience with this product? I would love to hear "real world" info/reviews of it


http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/chickens/No-Crow-Rooster-Collar-p1580.aspx

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
Watery poop in June in Arizona is not usually an issue unless there are other things going on with a bird. Chickens drink a lot of water when they are hot, and they often have watery poops because of it. The other behavioral changes show something else is probably going on with that bird. Hard to say what. Could be a combination of things. Egg bound? Parasites? Beginning of a molt? If you think she might be sick you should quarantine her immediately. Otherwise keep an eye on things. Good luck!