Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

Hi everyone! So I'm finally coming to grips with our tragedy and wanted to pop in with an update to what's been going on around here. We decided we will be getting more chicks. I actually ordered them today. They will be here in early April. I am excited but also terrified as I don't want to fail them like I did my other girls. I know what happened will be a haunting reminder to never leave the gate open no matter how tired or lazy or whatever it was that caused me to be forgetful that night. We ordered 9 expecting that ordering a larger batch we have a greater chance of a rooster or losing one in transit. We once again got them from MPC since we were very happy with the quality of the birds last time we ordered from them. These are the breeds we got: Salmon Faverolles Easter Egger Blue Silkie Golden Laced Polish White Sultan Black Copper Marans Blue Ameraucana Silver Laced Cochin Olive Egger I tried to get different breeds and color combinations from our past chickens so I'm not reminded of them so much. I wasn't sure how I'd handle seeing one that looked exactly like one of the hens that was killed. I was only going to get pure breeds but we decided getting an olive egger was a good choice for egg color variety, and also got an easter egger for a chance at a blue egg in case the Ameraucana ends up being a rooster. We never got our blue egg from our feed store EE, if you recall Eleanor ended up laying cream. So we weren't missing out on a blue egg this round. Hopefully I made good choices. We are planning on expanding our run this winter. We'll be doubling it to 8x16 so the 9 birds should have a lot more space should they need to be confined to the run for any period of time. In non chicken related news, I recall a couple of you being interested in the convention we were going to be attending and I was making a costume for. We did go to Blizzcon this past weekend and it was amazing. Here's how my costume turned out. Thank you all again for the support you sent me after our attack. I'm going to try to skim through some posts that I've missed the last month. I know the predators are out in full force as I'm reading a lot about coyote and hawk attacks from different chicken owners around the country. I hope everyone is doing well and I can't wait to show you all our new babies this spring.

You made a great pick of chicken's.. Your basket will be wonderful.. And wow love your hair do!! And that lamp.. I got get one!! Does it work?

 

[Twinklin]

You made a great pick of chicken's.. Your basket will be wonderful..
And wow love your hair do!! And that lamp.. I got get one!! Does it work?

Thank you! The hair is a wig that I painstakingly styled. It was long pigtails and I ended up having to cut the hair off of it and made the buns separate and then sewed them on to the wig. The lamp is actually an hourglass that is a replica of one in the game that the costume is based off of. It doesn't light up or anything. It's made from plastic martini glasses.

These are what the character was created to replicate.




and here's a close up of the hourglass I made.

 

[kacklinkelly]

Holy Cow you are creative!!!! The costume and lamp are spot on in my opinion. Looks like you had fun. Glad to see you happy!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Last night something tried to dig under the fence of my large pen currently housing all my older laying hens. Probably the same predator that got my Barred Rock cockerels since I never caught it. It is the same fence line only a bit farther down. Only this time, after throwing rocks away from the fence, it met welded wire and was stopped

So my predator repair had a test and passed. It tried to get in around 6-8 feet of fence line based on where the rocks were moved. There are 47 hens in that pen, some I am still using for breeding, so it would have been devastating if something got in there.

I love it when a good plan works.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

@Twinklin , you are amazingly creative, crafty and talented! I'm so glad you're getting new birds too. It's good to see you back.

 

[maryhysong]

Last night something tried to dig under the fence of my large pen currently housing all my older laying hens. Probably the same predator that got my Barred Rock cockerels since I never caught it. It is the same fence line only a bit farther down. Only this time, after throwing rocks away from the fence, it met welded wire and was stopped

So my predator repair had a test and passed. It tried to get in around 6-8 feet of fence line based on where the rocks were moved. There are 47 hens in that pen, some I am still using for breeding, so it would have been devastating if something got in there.

ugh; hope you catch it soon! I have started putting thin layers of cement with rocks embedded in it up around my coops; Eventually shouldn't be such an issue once I have all my perimeter fencing done so my LGD can go all around them, but right now some of them are in the open. Just this week Giotto has warned off a coyote and alerted me to a hawk scoping things out. I have lost only 1 bird since I got him in May and that was to a hawk awhile back. Best investment I've made in long time.

 

[maryhysong]

After the Tucson show I will be setting eggs; I am only going to hatch to order this year, PM me if you want to make arrangements for chicks. First up will be EE & olive eggers. As day olds they will be straight run, which I know can be an issue for some of you, but I just can't get the hang of vent sexing!

 

[Tanichca]

The Tucson show is a week away... and I'm getting my first paycheck of over $200 tomorrow.
I foresee a catastrophic application of chicken math in my near future.

Also, if anyone near Tucson or Vail needs barn cats anytime soon, we have kittens that will be ready to leave their momma in about six weeks. Their parents and siblings are proven mousers... we haven't seen a rat around our farm for years. But fifteen cats is a few cats too many for us.

 

[Arizona Son]

I have started putting thin layers of cement with rocks embedded in it up around my coops; Eventually shouldn't be such an issue once I have all my perimeter fencing done so my LGD can go all around them, but right now some of them are in the open. Just this week Giotto has warned off a coyote and alerted me to a hawk scoping things out. I have lost only 1 bird since I got him in May and that was to a hawk awhile back. Best investment I've made in long time.

Mary, is that a Kuvasz? Maremma? something else? Good looking dog either way!

 

[City farm]

Last night something tried to dig under the fence of my large pen currently housing all my older laying hens. Probably the same predator that got my Barred Rock cockerels since I never caught it. It is the same fence line only a bit farther down. Only this time, after throwing rocks away from the fence, it met welded wire and was stopped So my predator repair had a test and passed. It tried to get in around 6-8 feet of fence line based on where the rocks were moved. There are 47 hens in that pen, some I am still using for breeding, so it would have been devastating if something got in there.

ugh; hope you catch it soon! I have started putting thin layers of cement with rocks embedded in it up around my coops; Eventually shouldn't be such an issue once I have all my perimeter fencing done so my LGD can go all around them, but right now some of them are in the open. Just this week Giotto has warned off a coyote and alerted me to a hawk scoping things out. I have lost only 1 bird since I got him in May and that was to a hawk awhile back. Best investment I've made in long time.

He is gorgeous