Arizona Chickens

[meetthebubus]

@nicollee what are your little ones names?

 

[SonoranChick]

The Aloha babies on a visit to the backyard

Lookin good!

 

[BlueBaby]

The chickens got the left over spaghetti noodles with some pasta sauce stirred in. Boy did they get noisily excited!

I'm keeping a close watch on my incubator now. Egg's are due to hatch tomorrow, but sometimes I get one or two that will hatch a day early.

 

[Geranium]

What do you guys think about sand as the floor in the coop for our climate? The coop will have a dirt floor, but I think I would like to do a layer of pea gravel and then a few inches of sand... I'm in Tucson, in terms of temps.

 

[BlueBaby]

What do you guys think about sand as the floor in the coop for our climate? The coop will have a dirt floor, but I think I would like to do a layer of pea gravel and then a few inches of sand... I'm in Tucson, in terms of temps.

I really don't know, because I don't use sand. I have read here in other threads before about chickens eating too much sand and it messes up the crops of the birds.

 

[Geranium]

I really don't know, because I don't use sand. I have read here in other threads before about chickens eating too much sand and it messes up the crops of the birds.

Seems like people either love it or hate it... What about a plain dirt floor? It's so arid here and he have hard dirt, I feel like it would scrape clean.

 

[BlueBaby]

Seems like people either love it or hate it... What about a plain dirt floor? It's so arid here and he have hard dirt, I feel like it would scrape clean.

That's all I have here, just the dirt floor. Cleaning up in there is sort of easy, using a kitty litter scoop, and an old cat box or bucket to haul it out.

 

[nicollee]

@nicollee what are your little ones names?

Well the feather patterns keep changing, so I'm not even sure who is who except for Dusty fuzzybutt (the first one hatched, and the one with the least white)
Amelia Airhart (the first one to jump on us, and confronted the Alpha hen)
Spot (at birth had a distinct spot now faded)
and Waffles(my son named it)
Just let me keep believing they are all hens....

 

[FeatherPugs]

@Geranium I have waffled back and forth about sand in the coop. Will it be too hot in the heat - at the beach it definitely is hot. I also have dirt, in the winter months it has more straw on it - not deep - just more than I would usually have as straw tends to be warm. Summer I keep it fairly clear of straw - same reason, straw is hot. I also have a poop board under the roosts so there is very little poop on the floor to worry about - the girls don't really spend much time in there except to lay their eggs. I don't keep their food or water in the coop. One of the things you said is the dirt floor would scrape clean, that leads me to believe you don't use a poop board under your roosts. I also believe the dirt does just fine for me. Sometimes you just have to "see" how it works.

 

[Geranium]

@Geranium I have waffled back and forth about sand in the coop. Will it be too hot in the heat - at the beach it definitely is hot. I also have dirt, in the winter months it has more straw on it - not deep - just more than I would usually have as straw tends to be warm. Summer I keep it fairly clear of straw - same reason, straw is hot. I also have a poop board under the roosts so there is very little poop on the floor to worry about - the girls don't really spend much time in there except to lay their eggs. I don't keep their food or water in the coop. One of the things you said is the dirt floor would scrape clean, that leads me to believe you don't use a poop board under your roosts. I also believe the dirt does just fine for me. Sometimes you just have to "see" how it works.

I'm undecided about a poop board. My plan for the roosts is to span the short side of my rectangular coop (about 6 feet). My door will be on the long side, at the opposite end of the coop. So I don't know to wrangle a poo covered board out the door... nothing is built yet though, as the chickens aren't arriving until mid- September.