Arizona Chickens

[desertmarcy]

Oh, I can't wait till I get my eggs that are as dark as those!

Those BCM eggs look to be bare minimum to qualify for a Marans. They must be at least a #4 on the Marans egg color chart. Those are a 4 at most. Here are some that my hens laid that are a #5-6, that row of 6 eggs, and a couple are only 4 in front of them. You can see the difference. And @moms3cuties there's my Ameraucana eggs

Oh, and this photo was taken in the shade, so no sun glare. See the photo following to see what the sun does to the color of the Ameraucana eggs! The Marans eggs still look nice, shade or sun!


In bright sun:

 

[moms3cuties]

I think she said the roster was mixed. Then hen is a pure breed.. She might chime in..
The last egg has a pip this evening, and the other brown/ pink egg is out. I will take photo's tomorrow. Here are the egg's they came from.

So far %90 hatch rate, the only one that was no good was a leghorn..

Oh, I can't wait till I get my eggs that are as dark as those!

I bought those lovely POL, BCM hens from desertmarcy. I just wanted the dark eggs and the birds are actually quite nice and friendly and eat out of my hand & their quite a hardy set of girls. I was pleasantly surprised, as I hadn't raise these ones by hand so I was very pleased.
I would highly recommend her for getting some good quality heritage breeds. Also you support your local farmer. :cd

 

[moms3cuties]

Oh, I can't wait till I get my eggs that are as dark as those!

Those BCM eggs look to be bare minimum to qualify for a Marans. They must be at least a #4 on the Marans egg color chart. Those are a 4 at most. Here are some that my hens laid that are a #5-6, that row of 6 eggs, and a couple are only 4 in front of them. You can see the difference. And @moms3cuties there's my Ameraucana eggs Oh, and this photo was taken in the shade, so no sun glare. See the photo following to see what the sun does to the color of the Ameraucana eggs! The Marans eggs still look nice, shade or sun! In bright sun:

....Okay! ...so when will my chicks or pullets be ready for pickup, lol!

 

[pipemum]

You can have the cleanest conditions in the world, but if the chickens have access to the ground, they can pick up worms. Especially tapeworms, since those require an intermediate host, can be a beetle, ant, termite, fly...and you know how much chickens love to eat bugs! If they have tapeworms, those are notoriously hard to get rid of. Read some of the threads that dawg53 has posted in. He is very knowledgeable on treating tapeworms and gives detailed instructions. One treatment is not enough. Withhold food for 36 hours prior to treating. There are also pics of tapeworm segments in the feces, so you can compare.

I was hoping for roundworms, which seem easier to treat. But nope, I found a length of flattened segments in a poop. And the little wriggly ends, which match tapeworm poop images. Only one hen is so badly infected that her droppings are showing worm signs, though they will all be treated. I've read all of dawg53's thread. I'm waiting on the Valbazen to show up in the mail--I could only find HUGE bottles of it at the feed stores. Should be here today. Round 1 tonight. Round 2 in 10 days. Ugh.

 

[desertmarcy]

Yep, I did find a flattened tapeworm segment in a poop. Only one hen is so badly infected that her droppings are showing worm signs, though I know they all probably have them by now. I was hoping for the easier to treat roundworms. I've read all of dawg53's thread. I'm waiting on the Valbazen to show up in the mail--I could only find HUGE bottles of it at the feed stores. Should be here today. Round 1 tonight. Round 2 in 10 days. Ugh.

The post I read from him said to treat X3. This is what he posted. I saved it in a Word file on worming:

Withhold feed for 36 hours. Then give your birds 1cc valbazen orally undiluted. Wait 3 days, withhold feed 36 hours the 4th day, redose the 5th day 1cc orally undiluted. Wait 3 days, withhold feed for 36 hours the 4th day, redose the 5th day 1cc orally undiluted.
Three sets of seperate dosings.
If you have birds that weigh over 8 pounds, increase valbazen dosage to 1.5cc's.
After each dosing, dont give them feed afterwards for at least 3 hours. Then give them a small amount of feed to eat...if you dont, they will gorge on feed due to hunger, then it's possibe for them to get impacted crop due to gorging feed. Once the three sets of worming are complete, gradually increase their availability of feed over a few days back to normal.

I did this regimen with mine but I used the pills Trifen Plus. Only available in Mexico, but you can order it online. The pills are easier to give than the liquid. They got 4 each dose which is about equivalent of 1 ml of the Valbazen. Same active ingredient. However, even after 3X treatment, withholding food each day before, I still see tapeworm. It did knock the numbers down, I don't see as much. If the medicine does not get rid of the scolex, that mouth part of the tapeworm that attaches itself to the intestinal wall, the worm will grow back. So now I am trying Zimecterin Gold. Also a horse wormer that gets tapeworms. I have a lot of chickens, so I am doing them pen by pen. Too big a task to do all at once. I am determined to get rid of them. Also if your chickens have access to whatever intermediate host is carrying the tapeworm, they will get reinfected. It is hard to get rid of them. If the ZG doesn't work, then I guess I'll have to be resigned to the fact that some of them have tapeworm. They lay eggs, are active, healthy birds, so the worms don't seem to be doing them any particular harm. But who knows, without the worms, they may do even better. I'm also, little by little because it is a ton of work for me, moving sand into the pens. Makes the pens much easier to clean, like scooping cat poop out of a kitty litter box and the poop tends to get covered in it easily, making it less attractive to flies, one of the intermediate hosts of tapeworm.

Tapeworms are extremely common in flocks. This is why. They are very hard to get rid of.

 

[desertmarcy]

Oh, and @pipemum I had to put the days to withhold feed, days to treat on my Outlook calendar! Only way I could keep track. When you are retired, every day just blends into the next.

 

[pipemum]

Thanks for that reply! I did read several of the Valbazen posts from dawg, but missed the info above completely. I noticed he did update his advice as the years have passed. This new info is very helpful (I was only going to use 1/2cc) in addition to only dosing 2x--I swear that was his advice as recently as a 2014 post. Anyway, intuitively, the higher and more frequent dosing *feels* like it'll be more effective. I plan on dosing them when they sleeping in the coop. Luckily, I'm an idiot savant at syringe dosing (yay, what a talent to have!!), so at just 9 birds, it shouldn't take too long or be too stressful. I hope the Valbazen takes care of the tapeworms, if not, I too will try the Zimecterin Gold.

It has to be exhausting treating all the birds you have! Tired just thinking about it.

And yes, it's getting marked on my calender, with an automatic reminder for the next doses. I can't trust myself to remember.

Oh, I just spent $$$ and ordered the fly predator from Arbico--scheduled delivery each month for the next 10 months. That should keep the flies down this year.

 

[pipemum]

I see that dawg also recommends alternating valbazen with Zimectrin Gold or another wormer with the praziquantel in it. I may pick up some ZG this weekend. I feel mildly concerned about dosing the birds with so much, but better chemicals than tapeworms feeding off of them. Pumpkin seeds aint' gunna cut it! I'm somewhat amused/horrified that folks seem to think DE, fermented feed (which I do) and apple cider vinegar (I also use) act as wormer or preventative for their chickens. Nope, doesn't work that way.

 

[dofnup]

Somebody needs to invent a soap that instantly dissolves chick poop from feathers, but have it be non-toxic to the chickies.

I'd buy gallons of the stuff!!!


... why yes, I DID just spend the last hour carefully washing pasty butts, somewhat unsuccessfully! I cleared vents but some really stubborn remnants still clinged ... obvs I wasn't gonna scrub or anything ... ugh

... it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it!

Speaking of vent ... that's all I needed to do

I know y'all can understand

 

[desertmarcy]

Thanks for that reply! I did read several of the Valbazen posts from dawg, but missed the info above completely. I noticed he did update his advice as the years have passed. This new info is very helpful (I was only going to use 1/2cc) in addition to only dosing 2x--I swear that was his advice as recently as a 2014 post. Anyway, intuitively, the higher and more frequent dosing *feels* like it'll be more effective. I plan on dosing them when they sleeping in the coop. Luckily, I'm an idiot savant at syringe dosing (yay, what a talent to have!!), so at just 9 birds, it shouldn't take too long or be too stressful. I hope the Valbazen takes care of the tapeworms, if not, I too will try the Zimecterin Gold.

It has to be exhausting treating all the birds you have! Tired just thinking about it.

And yes, it's getting marked on my calender, with an automatic reminder for the next doses. I can't trust myself to remember.

Oh, I just spent $$$ and ordered the fly predator from Arbico--scheduled delivery each month for the next 10 months. That should keep the flies down this year.

It would not be so exhausting if the treatments worked. But I have to keep going back and retreating. I wonder about all the chemicals, too, and if it is affecting hatching since I'm hatching right now. Not all are making it out of the egg. But like you, I feel like I have to do it. I have spent hundreds of dollars on wormers. Literally. I wasn't going to redose on the Zimecterin Gold, so they each got a big glob of it. Dawg53 said a pea-sized amount. That is subjective. They got at least that. I have some stainless steel measuring spoons for small amounts and used the largest spoon. Filled it, then swipped it out on the end of my finger, then opened a beak and stuffed it in their mouth. They were not keen on that of course! I think one tube treated about 6 or 7 birds. At $9/tube, that gets expensive.

I order fly predators from Spalding Labs. I just got my first shipment for this year a few days ago and dispersed them yesterday. I am on a monthly schedule so they automatically ship. It is tricky putting them out here. We have so many quail, and they will scarf up the pupa and if the wasp hasn't hatched yet, bye bye wasp. I put them in bags and hang on the fence line near where I dump the pen cleanings. I went out and checked today, and one bag was empty except a few live wasps!! I think the wind flipped the bag up and the pupa all fell out, but I didn't see any lying on the ground. So they probably got eaten

Fortunately I did not put them all in one place. It is $28.95 a month for 10,000 for Spalding. That is expensive quail feed.

So all these extra costs related to raising chickens....people sometimes ask if I make money....yeah, right