Arizona Chickens

[BlueBaby]

Is anyone else beside's me getting rained on over here?

 

[FeatherPugs]

@BlueBaby we got a spit of rain BUT we got a giant bit of wind - really, really windy probably around midnight. Enough to wake me up. Crazy weather.....

 

[igorsMistress]

Happy Mother's Day ladies! @SonoranChick. You're the newbie, I hope it's special for you!

 

[BlueBaby]

Happy Mother's day too you also @igorsMistress, and the rest of you ladies here! @SonoranChick I hope that you enjoy your first Mother's Day, and that it will be a special one for you!

 

[NanaOfZanitas]

Use blue cheese for rats and mice. The mold in the cheese kills them and it won’t hurt your chickens.

No shit! Good to know! I'm worried since I'm just outside of city limits that I'll get quite a few mice or rats now that the kids are outside (my kids..i.e. the chickens.) I'm not *entirely* worried about the doves and pigeons that seem to be all over, because I'm keeping the babes in a small coop and then in a run once we finish it. We kind of cobbled together it using all discarded wood with the help of a friend of mine with power tools I don't have anymore. I'll take pics.

I assume I have more reading to do, but what are NN and the other terms you guys are using?

 

[BlueBaby]

@NanaOfZanitas NN= is the abbreviation for Naked Neck's. They have less feathering on the bodies, but you can't really tell unless you are handling the bird. They also lack the neck feathering. This help's to keep them cooler in our hot desert summer's. They are a good dual-purpose bird.

Edit: A few of us here have recently hatched out some NN chick's, and will have extra's if you would like to try out a few.

 

[NanaOfZanitas]

@NanaOfZanitas NN= is the abbreviation for Naked Neck's. They have less feathering on the bodies, but you can't really tell unless you are handling the bird. They also lack neck feathering. This help's to keep them cooler in our hot desert summer's. They are a good dual-purpose bird.

Edit: A few of us here have recently hatched out some NN chick's, and will have extra's if you would like to try out a few.

Ooohhh!! *chicken math at work in my brain*
Well, I'm on a pretty limited budget, but I wouldn't mind 1 or 2 if y'all are in the area.

Hubby was warned, after all! LOL
Iris

EDIT!!!!
Hubby has the Chicken Math!!! ROFLMAO!!!!
So, SiL came by earlier and "kidnapped" hubby, I assumed for mother's day shenanigans. They just called - they're at Tractor Supply getting the chicken food, and TSC has some chickens there that are just ready to go outside (so close in age to my kids) on special 5 for $10, and hubby asked me what I wanted! I knew for sure I wanted a Black Astrolorp, but the rest I told him to surprise me! And the bonus? They're all sexed female! WOOT WOOT!!

**Runs off to re-design the laying boxes in my little coop, re-think the run vs. free-range plans, etc.**

 

[BlueBaby]

Ooohhh!! *chicken math at work in my brain*
Well, I'm on a pretty limited budget, but I wouldn't mind 1 or 2 if y'all are in the area.

Hubby was warned, after all! LOL
Iris

EDIT!!!!
Hubby has the Chicken Math!!! ROFLMAO!!!!
So, SiL came by earlier and "kidnapped" hubby, I assumed for mother's day shenanigans. They just called - they're at Tractor Supply getting the chicken food, and TSC has some chickens there that are just ready to go outside (so close in age to my kids) on special 5 for $10, and hubby asked me what I wanted! I knew for sure I wanted a Black Astrolorp, but the rest I told him to surprise me! And the bonus? They're all sexed female! WOOT WOOT!!

**Runs off to re-design the laying boxes in my little coop, re-think the run vs. free-range plans, etc.**

Well, I don't know what area that you live in, so we won't know which one of us that has the extra NN chick's lives the closet to you. We have the started one's that were hatched about a month ago already, and adapted to being outside in a coop. No heat lamp required.

I hope that you get all sexed female chick's from TSC. I have heard of other's who ended up with what was supposed to be sexed pullets ending up with some that ended up being a cockerel.

 

[igorsMistress]

The bigs and littles got to have some interaction today. Other than a peck here and there over scratch all was well.

Hubs has his eye on one of the chicks hoping it's a pullet now. He tries to be standoffish but can't help himself.

 

[NanaOfZanitas]

I just went and evaluated my yard, how big does the night-time/coop area have to be? The advantage of a bigger area is obvious, plus, they can have constant grit and water, since one of the water spigots is in the area I'm looking at containing. 6ft high fencing on the long sides, 3ft on the ends for now until I can afford to get something other than the wire I already bought.

Hubby didn't buy 5, just 2, and turns out he and the son-in-law were at the feed store on Stockton Hill Rd., so not TSC. Also, the chicks they brought home are apparently not the ones he originally mentioned, they're going to have to stay a few weeks in a brooder, they're hatchlings, probably about a week old. So now I have a total of 6. I think that's going to be easier to gradually adjust to more chickens (for us, not necessarily them, obviously) and give me more time to get into a larger home eventually, not dealing with too many chickens and a landlord.

Still, wondering how many will fit in my little pallet based coop and although we just got a 25lb bag of crumble, I wanted to introduce the older ones to stuff like the sunflower seeds and corn and stuff.

I'm in Kingman, AZ, by the way