Arizona Chickens

[BlueBaby]

Hi guys! I hope everyone has been well. Sorry it's been awhile. Its going to take awhile to read the thread to get caught up in what's been going on. We've been SUPER busy over here. We remodeling our kitchen. I have been prepping, staining and appling polyurethane to all the cabinets we bought. I have almost half of the old cabinets ripped out to get a jump start on the project. My husband is off next week and we will be installing them. My new stove just came in today. Can't wait till it's all done! So after Easter things should go back to normal I hope!

I also bought an incubator recently. I put 24 eggs in it to see how well it worked. Last week I hatched 20 chicks. One didn't make it. I'm pretty excited I did so well with my first try! BlueBaby gave me lots of great advice. I hatched black and blue Easter eggers and 1 black and 1 yellow Aulstrolph x California white cross. It's funny to see 1 yellow chick in a sea of black and blue. I'll get some more pictures soon!
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Last week we stopped in at TSC to pick up dog food and of course I always have to see the chicks. They had all chicks and ducks marked down to 25 cents. I picked up some Marans. We sell lots of eggs to people at my husband's work. I've wanted a couple to add extra color to the eggs. Most of the customers love the diversity of the colors.
Here's the Marans
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I just threw in a picture of the lovely shades of eggs because I could!
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Yes, you did well for your first hatching, and you should be able to on this next hatch that you are going to do. You have the experience now.

My Australorp and White Breese eggs are due for hatching on April 5th, but I will have to grow this batch out to pick what I want for my future breeding. So, after this hatching I will be taking a break from my incubator and shutting it down until after my grow-outs will be laying eggs. (The first one's that will be laying will be these Crested Cream Legbars in maybe May, then White NN's in July, and then Australorps along with the White Breese in Sept.)

 

[Btruax]

@Btruax WOW - there's three of us relatively close to each other. I'm off of 11 Mile Corner & Hanna or Estrella & Hanna - @Babycat ranch is off of McCartney & Overfield Rd. All within 6ish miles or less of each other - we must get together to have coffee or tea sometime.

Lol good to know Im not the only one out here That would be cool, if my dogs let me out more but no, that sounds good

 

[Jadesun6]

So I also had to cull one o f my hens about a week ago. I had an egg eater on my hands. I was losing at least an egg a day for at least a month. I tried the fake eggs and mustard eggs with no luck. I have read they can teach the other hens to do it too. I saw one of my hens with egg on her comb and tagged her leg. This was the only time I actually saw egg on her. My husband came up with a great idea. I put a small hole in an egg and put blue food coloring in it. Sure enough the tagged hen had blue egg on her. Plus I caught her eating the egg when I was collecting them. This was a bantam hen that would fly on my shoulder everyday and talk to me. It seems strange without her. Has anyone ever had this issue? They have oyster shells available 24/7 so calcium wasn't the problem. I honestly think she just got a taste for it. I havent seen any signs of anyone else doing it thankfully.

 

[Jadesun6]

As my new girls begin to lay I'd probably collect during day bc there is so many lol
Seems like every time I'm outside there is one laying so I never disturb them, but that's just how my set up goes, either way you are good and when they are new layers you'll probably gather them right away it's exciting I still remember the first egg....

Mohawkie (poor girl), was laying, I saw an egg by her, she didn't know yet to lay on top of the other egg, I slowly grabbed the egg, she looked a bit freaked
I went running into the house to my sleeping family showing them the small wonder

Anyone else remember their first egg?

My first egg was from an Eater egger. It was a tiny blue one layed under the steps. I called my mom and sent everyone a picture. No one shared my excitement though. My husband rolled his eyes like usual anytime I talk chicken.

 

[cavemanrich]

Egg eating is a terrible habit that is hard to break. I'm sure you had a tough time deciding the end result.

 

[Jadesun6]

Yes it was. Since we sell our eggs and I have about 20 customers I couldn't have that. I had a feeling it was her from the beginning. On the positive side it wasn't one of my standards that's a great layer.

 

[SonoranChick]

@Catwest & @Jadesun6 keep those chick pics comin! They make my day!
I have found that if I don't collect eggs throughout the day, I end up with some broken eggs. I am in there frequently and have never caught any of them intentionally breaking the eggs, but a few like to roll them around and sometimes they fight over the favored nest, which can result in cracks and breaks. And I really need to get a swamp cooler pad to place under the hay in the box, I tried newspaper and they shredded it. Also, as I believe @meetthebubus mentioned, mine are young and are little laying machines, so I like to collect them more often.
I am also pretty worried about a few of my girls (mostly Reese, the barred rock) who like to just sit, sit, sit all day long in the box. I know @BlueBaby lost a hen in the heat that way last summer. It's like their instincts take over and they don't realize that they need water. I love living in the desert but the unrelenting summer heat definitely concerns me.
@DesertChic I am very jealous of your plans to obtain a tractor it's on our wish list! One day...

 

[Btruax]

My first egg was from an Eater egger. It was a tiny blue one layed under the steps. I called my mom and sent everyone a picture. No one shared my excitement though. My husband rolled his eyes like usual anytime I talk chicken.

Lol they just dont get it sometimes, my gf didnt get excited until my girls finally started laying.

 

[Btruax]

@Catwest & @Jadesun6 keep those chick pics comin! They make my day!
I have found that if I don't collect eggs throughout the day, I end up with some broken eggs. I am in there frequently and have never caught any of them intentionally breaking the eggs, but a few like to roll them around and sometimes they fight over the favored nest, which can result in cracks and breaks. And I really need to get a swamp cooler pad to place under the hay in the box, I tried newspaper and they shredded it. Also, as I believe @meetthebubus mentioned, mine are young and are little laying machines, so I like to collect them more often.
I am also pretty worried about a few of my girls (mostly Reese, the barred rock) who like to just sit, sit, sit all day long in the box. I know @BlueBaby lost a hen in the heat that way last summer. It's like their instincts take over and they don't realize that they need water. I love living in the desert but the unrelenting summer heat definitely concerns me.
@DesertChic I am very jealous of your plans to obtain a tractor it's on our wish list! One day...

Misters might help with the heat, as much as they pretend to hate the water, it does cool them down, and their coops as well. I use shade cloth on the top of one of my coops, under the chicken wire, seems to help. My other coop has a 10×20 "carport "canopy" over it, that is a huge help in the sun and heat, easy 20° difference. Just my experience so far, as a noob lol

 

[Btruax]

Misters might help with the heat, as much as they pretend to hate the water, it does cool them down, and their coops as well. I use shade cloth on the top of one of my coops, under the chicken wire, seems to help. My other coop has a 10×20 "carport "canopy" over it, that is a huge help in the sun and heat, easy 20° difference. Just my experience so far, as a noob lol

I am considering solar fans, like attic gable fans to install also, keep the air from stagnating during the summer