Arizona Chickens

[carnivore]

I will post up some pictures see if there is something can be done. One of my biggest issue is to keep drinking water cool. I use a 1 gallon jar with poultry nipples even in the shade it gets warm.

Costs a bit to start, but I carpeted my whole run with a deep layer of mulch. I hose it down about 3 times a day to keep it cool. The chickens scratch themselves a hole and lay in it.

 

[Sill]

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.

What is it with this "practice" laying? A few of mine are doing that.

Quote:

Today was a hardest day since I started raising chickens. I lost Two birds to the heat, both just started laying! It was devastating and a bit hard to get over with. I had a water leakage this morning so I turned the water off to fix the leak. When I was done I left in a hurry to meet my friends for lunch. They were all well when I left at 12:15pm. I had lunch and then did grocery shopping afterwards and got home at 2:40pm, in about two hours I found two dead birds! Only then I realized the mister was not on. I always think musters are nice to have but didn't think it as difference between life and death. SAD!!!!!

Now I have three vacants to fill anybody let me know if you have pullets for sale.

Sorry about the losses, that's a lot with a small flock.

This pretty girl laid her first egg today!
Here it is next to an egg from one of my 2 year old EEs. It's tiny (only 32 grams) but I was so happy to see it.

Pretty egg! Pretty hen too, what breed or is she a mix?

Hello everyone,

Welcome to all the new peeps. Sorry about the losses and congrats on new chicks and eggs.

I moved into Bonnie's place (Ladykotadoria) on June 7th. Lost 5 girls that evening to ants. They must have sat on a hole in the evening. With the heat and stinging, they didn't have a chance. They were all in a heap. I was devastated. Then the next week, I lost one of my silkie girls. She had something going on with her that I couldn't fix.

So far the rest of the girls are doing well. I do not have internet set up at the house yet, so here I am at work as it is hard to type from my phone.

No crow collars...talk to pastrymama about her experience as it didn't work well with her boy.

jazzymedrano17...am interested in your system. Sent you an email.

Oh no! Sorry you lost some too. With the heat and stress of a new place it's understandable.

I hope pastrymama chimes in about the no crow collars, especially if it did not work for her roo.

Oh that's just awful.

I did a ton of research on cooling methods before I decided on chickens. I also chose to not use any means of cooling. The way I figure it is my chicks could have ended up in Minnesota or Vermont just as easily as they ended up in Arizona. They don't know any different. They live here so they have to adapt to it. My coop/run is well ventilated and they have access to shade all day long. My run has a trussed roof so they only have morning sun, but during that time the coop portion is in shade. In the afternoon they would have about an hour of sun that they couldn't get away from so I hung heavy shadecloth on the west side of the run. After 4:00 or so they then get shade from the adjacent garden wall. I run my lawn sprinklers for about 20 minutes before they get let out to free range in the late afternoon. They spend 2-3 hours cruising around on the wet lawn until they put themselves to bed.

I have a water tray they could stand in if they wanted to but it freaks them out. Every now and then I will dip their feet and lower body in the pool if they act like they are really hot, but they aren't too thrilled about that either. Twice a week I thoroughly water down their run and fill all their holes with water so they have cool ground to rest in. My run is just native dirt, sand and some straw.

eta: We have had consistent temps of 105-110 for the past couple of weeks. Yesterday was 112 and they were panting laying in the shade midday but by the time I let them out they didn't appear to be stressed at all.

My chickens love, love, love their wading pans! My quail too! Once they find how cool the water is the pans become the favorite places to hang out. Are you sure you're locating your pans in deep shade? If they get sun the water will be hot! They will not want to wade in hot water. Make sure you get pans made of unglazed terracotta, they evaporate water from the sides and keep the water much cooler.

We're doing about the same thing. I spray down the run a little and let it puddle every few days. Then every morning I gently spray everything down and find them laying on the compost pile during the hottest part of the day. I wish I didn't have to deal with block wall as I'm sure it holds a fair amount if heat but at least it's under the trees now. Can I feed the pine trees to help them green up? They've been neglected for a long time. Put out a lot of shade still but it could be a lot better if the tree was healthier.

Your pines probably need a good supplement that has trace minerals that our soil is lacking since they have been neglected so long. A good independent nursery would be able to give you advice as to what product to use. Also, a good compost tea is excellent for stressed trees.

One thing about pines, they only grow from the terminal ends of their branches, so no new growth from trunks of over-pruned pines. If someone had given your pine trees "haircuts from hell" it might be better to plant some new trees or shrubs under them to lend new shade than to wait for your pines to grow some shade they might not be able to grow.

She's eating much better. She still sort of picks at food and treats but she is consuming something whereas for a couple days I wasn't sure she was eating at all. There have been just a few flight feathers, mostly fluffy ones. I am trying not to intervene in the scuffles. I did have to grab Snoop by the beak and scold her once. I hope it doesn't get as bad as your poor girl. Like you say there is not much you can do.

That's when a good rooster is priceless, they can intervene in hens' scuffles and prevent them from hurting each other.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
I did this too a few months ago and I think it has been fantastic for the flock. Now when they are locked up they are so much more engaged with foraging activities than they were without the litter. I used a couple cubes of pine shavings, a bale of alfalfa, plus a bunch of other green stuff. It has surprised me how fast it breaks down, and I only water it once a day, so I've had to add to it already a couple times. It seems to provide endless entertainment for them.

It's worth noting a potential problem of having the ground they're on continually wet, especially during this time of year. Consistently wet conditions can promote the growth of coccidia. People on this thread have lost numbers of birds in this way. It's best if the substrate that you're wetting for your birds dries out between wetting events, but that's not always possible. Keep an eye open for symptoms and be prepared to treat. Some of my reading suggests that the ecology of a deep litter situation will reduce the risk of coccidiosis while other papers I've read do not, I'm hoping it will be less. Of course, getting chicks out onto your native soil early on to develop immunity should also help with this problem.

 

[carnivore]

I did this too a few months ago and I think it has been fantastic for the flock. Now when they are locked up they are so much more engaged with foraging activities than they were without the litter. I used a couple cubes of pine shavings, a bale of alfalfa, plus a bunch of other green stuff. It has surprised me how fast it breaks down, and I only water it once a day, so I've had to add to it already a couple times. It seems to provide endless entertainment for them.

It's worth noting a potential problem of having the ground they're on continually wet, especially during this time of year. Consistently wet conditions can promote the growth of coccidia. People on this thread have lost numbers of birds in this way. It's best if the substrate that you're wetting for your birds dries out between wetting events, but that's not always possible. Keep an eye open for symptoms and be prepared to treat. Some of my reading suggests that the ecology of a deep litter situation will reduce the risk of coccidiosis while other papers I've read do not, I'm hoping it will be less. Of course, getting chicks out onto your native soil early on to develop immunity should also help with this problem.

I used that bagged Kellogg's mulch that they sell at most garden stores, mixed with pine shavings. Even though I wet it several times a day, it does dry out between waterings. Note that I am wetting it down with a hose, not a constant deal like you would get with misters or a soaker hose. The only other water is a couple wading trays and a couple 3 gallon waterers. I also frequently throw in BOSS, flax seed, grass seed, etc., so they occasionally uncover sprouts while they're scratching, and they do stay thoroughly entertained re-landscaping the run!

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
Last year I was using deep litter in the coop/run and wetting it down once a day with the hose. Everything went well until the rains started and the humidity kicked in. A few weeks later I discovered many of my birds were developing bumblefoot. I had to wonder if the wetness contributed to the foot infections. I totally mucked out the coops/runs and started over with lots of fresh pine shavings, and stopped wetting down the runs. (The birds still had wading pans available.) Treated all the birds and the foot problems eventually cleared up. Problem is the deep litter doesn't "compost" properly if it doesn't get wet down periodically. So I'm still trying to figure out the best arrangement for my setup. Curious to hear how the deep litter/mulch works for you guys over the stormy season. I like deep litter. I'd like it better if I could get it to "compost" properly here.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Last year I was using deep litter in the coop/run and wetting it down once a day with the hose. Everything went well until the rains started and the humidity kicked in. A few weeks later I discovered many of my birds were developing bumblefoot. I had to wonder if the wetness contributed to the foot infections. I totally mucked out the coops/runs and started over with lots of fresh pine shavings, and stopped wetting down the runs. (The birds still had wading pans available.) Treated all the birds and the foot problems eventually cleared up. Problem is the deep litter doesn't "compost" properly if it doesn't get wet down periodically. So I'm still trying to figure out the best arrangement for my setup. Curious to hear how the deep litter/mulch works for you guys over the stormy season. I like deep litter. I'd like it better if I could get it to "compost" properly here.
Oh, I'm so glad you posted that! I'll definitely monitor those feet. I'm like carnivore's situation where it seems to be completely drying out in the fluffy layer every day, but not so much the bottom, original dirt layer. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated about my results and I'm so interested in how it works for others in the heat and the long run. I really want this to work too. It has changed their behavior so much from how it was when the winter sod failed in June and they had mostly hard-pack soil to work with.

 

[desertmarcy]

I've been back and forth trying different things in my pens. I still haven't found the perfect thing. Perhaps pine shavings are, if you rake them out and replace frequently, but that gets expensive. Sand is nice, and I've bought a truckload of it--8 yards gets me free delivery--but where the truck access is to dump it is far from my pens. It is heavy and hard work, esp. in the heat to wheelbarrow loads to the pens. And I can't easily move the wheelbarrow INTO the pens to dump it, so that means shoveling it into 5-gal buckets that I carry and dump

Ugh, I'm tired just talking about it. I do like using sand, as it is absorbent. I use it to fill the huge holes that the hens dig. Then they kick it out again. Some of my pens look like craters on the moon, there are so many pits. Hard to rake out with all those holes.
Other things I've tried in my pens:
Straw. Don't like. Compacts down as soon as it rains and the birds eat too much of it and it has no food value. I worry about impacted crops with them eating it. Some people say it can be a vector for lice/mites. Don't know for sure about that.

I use a chipper shredder for yard prunings and have put this material in the pens. It is a mix of coarse and fine. The birds love it and pick through it and eat material they like. It makes a nice mulch in the pens and is free. Eventually, it needs to all be raked out, because as MagicChicken said, it doesn't compost well here. Raking it all out with all the accumulated poo is a lot of work, but once mixed with the chicken manure and put in a deep hole and watered, it will compost better with the added nitrogen.

I have a lot of growing birds and they eat and poop a lot! I like to clean the pens more frequently with growing birds, so having litter in the pens is a waste. Right now the pens are just dirt since it is easier to rake them clean. It seems like less flies when there is something in the pen to absorb the moisture. I did put several wheelbarrows of chipped/shredder material in a 6'x12' pen that has growing chicks and it is nice for now.

I turned off my mister this morning because too many wet spots in the bare pens and too many flies. I hate flies

Chickens did okay today without it.

 

[carnivore]

I've been back and forth trying different things in my pens. I still haven't found the perfect thing. Perhaps pine shavings are, if you rake them out and replace frequently, but that gets expensive. Sand is nice, and I've bought a truckload of it--8 yards gets me free delivery--but where the truck access is to dump it is far from my pens. It is heavy and hard work, esp. in the heat to wheelbarrow loads to the pens. And I can't easily move the wheelbarrow INTO the pens to dump it, so that means shoveling it into 5-gal buckets that I carry and dump Ugh, I'm tired just talking about it. I do like using sand, as it is absorbent. I use it to fill the huge holes that the hens dig. Then they kick it out again. Some of my pens look like craters on the moon, there are so many pits. Hard to rake out with all those holes.
Other things I've tried in my pens:
Straw. Don't like. Compacts down as soon as it rains and the birds eat too much of it and it has no food value. I worry about impacted crops with them eating it. Some people say it can be a vector for lice/mites. Don't know for sure about that.

I use a chipper shredder for yard prunings and have put this material in the pens. It is a mix of coarse and fine. The birds love it and pick through it and eat material they like. It makes a nice mulch in the pens and is free. Eventually, it needs to all be raked out, because as MagicChicken said, it doesn't compost well here. Raking it all out with all the accumulated poo is a lot of work, but once mixed with the chicken manure and put in a deep hole and watered, it will compost better with the added nitrogen.

I have a lot of growing birds and they eat and poop a lot! I like to clean the pens more frequently with growing birds, so having litter in the pens is a waste. Right now the pens are just dirt since it is easier to rake them clean. It seems like less flies when there is something in the pen to absorb the moisture. I did put several wheelbarrows of chipped/shredder material in a 6'x12' pen that has growing chicks and it is nice for now.

I turned off my mister this morning because too many wet spots in the bare pens and too many flies. I hate flies  Chickens did okay today without it.

For right now, keeping it wet enough is a problem. Rain won't be a deal breaker either, because most of the run has tarps on the roof for shade.
Humidity might become a problem, will keep an eye out for problems, and maybe have to cut back on the watering?
Is anybody having problems with those little ants, and if so, how do you deal with them?

 

[SLacoss]

Someone approached my wife yesterday at church to inquire if our flock was okay. apparently he saw a coyote running down the street with a chicken in its mouth. I can only recon that the Brahma that I found in the alley was from the same flock and had flown over the wall to escape the coyote.

I have an electric fence going around my coop and one crazy dog on patrol. I have little worry the coyote will get into my coop. If my dog cannot get in there then the coyote will have less luck.

As for misters, I use a single one in the back part of the run where I never put food. I have used it sparingly in an attempt to acclimatise them to the heat-only a few hours in afternoon when over 105. Next week it will be when over 106 and 107 the next.

 

[City farm]

Hello everyone,

Welcome to all the new peeps. Sorry about the losses and congrats on new chicks and eggs.

I moved into Bonnie's place (Ladykotadoria) on June 7th. Lost 5 girls that evening to ants. They must have sat on a hole in the evening. With the heat and stinging, they didn't have a chance. They were all in a heap. I was devastated. Then the next week, I lost one of my silkie girls. She had something going on with her that I couldn't fix.

So far the rest of the girls are doing well. I do not have internet set up at the house yet, so here I am at work as it is hard to type from my phone.

No crow collars...talk to pastrymama about her experience as it didn't work well with her boy.

jazzymedrano17...am interested in your system. Sent you an email.

Oh boy, so sad for you! hope you are doing ok? Condolences from us..
I will be seeing Pastrymama in a few days will ask her....