Arizona Chickens

[pdx2phx]

Tour de Coops....

I hope to make it out to see some! Our place isn't ready for exposition - we had to move/temporarily downsize the coop so we could have the house re-stuccoed, and the Ladies are NOT HAPPY. Wow...did we ever hear about it.....

I didn't think chickens could cry or be depressed, but ours sure did/were! They'll be in the temp coop until the stucco has cured and been painted, about a month or so.

They've adjusted for now, still giving us 2 eggs per day (not bad for 2.5 hens, the .5 being a Banty MFD)!


On another note, our Ideal chicks are all doing well, and we will be looking for homes for some of them for sure, definitely all of the Roos (I think we have 1 or 2 Roos in each breed - we got 3 of each).

They are all Bantams, just shy of 2 months old - Americaunas, Red Frizzles, White Frizzles, Buff Japanese, Sultans, Old English, Silver Laced Sebrights, Buff Brahmas, Mille Fleur D'Uccles. I'll try and 'get it together' enough to post some pictures if anyone is potentially interested

Happy Thanksgiving everyone......no shopping for me today!! It is just not worth the aggravation to me...

 

[NoSkiveez]

Welcome Monica!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday.

Nuclear - I hope they all hatch for you. One of my favorites is seeing the little chick move inside the egg.

Rufus - I thought you would be interested to know I have spiced up the feed to my Houdans on Monday. I spiced 3 days in a row, on the 4th morning one egg was in their nest box (broken, of course). Everyone is getting some chili now. I know its not completely scientific but it seems to have worked, so why not!

I picked up two incubators in Tucson for $20 today. One is an older Brower insulated galvanized steel still air (but has great clearance and I know i can get a fan in there. The other is a TX-6. It does not have the turner but I'm not too worried about a turner (considering what a replacement would cost for this). Both were pretty dusty but otherwise in good condition. I have both set up and running and will put some eggs in it tomorrow as soon as I can figure out where to put them. That was my black Friday deal.

 

[Lyongirl]

We may be getting a chicken coop today! We were in the process of building one but someone is selling one for $50 in Queen Creek that is 8 ft x 10 ft x 6 ft. It is huge and seemed to be very well built (we already went to look at it but it was too big to bring back home in our little truck so he said he could prob. deliver it tonight to us for gas money). We're just worried it might be too big for our HOA to be happy..plus it has sheet metal for the roof so I'm not sure if they would like the looks of that either. Fingers are crossed that the hubby will let us get it though!

 

[rufus]

Is it a hawk or a golden eagle? These birds have been hanging around our neighborhood for about a month now. These pictures were take of whatever it is as it sat in the tree in my backyard. The tree shades my chicken coop. Luckily, the chickens were on lock down.

 

[Mahonri]

No clue what that is Rufus.

We had one similar to that about 3 weeks ago hanging around the trees in our neighborhood.

It was HUGE... very wide wingspan, nice sized body. I haven't seen it since then.

 

[demonica29]

Thanks for all the welcomes. I would love to go on the tour de coop. It's going to depend on whether or not I get fired tomorrow, though. I got food poisoning from dinner at my mom's best friend's house last night, YIPPEE!! I had to call off work today. I am an optician, but I work in a department store optical, so retail hours and calling off on Black Friday is a really bad idea. Oh well, I had given my notice anyway. So, if they fire me, I will for sure join the tour. If I still have a job it will have to wait til next time.

 

[rufus]

When we first saw them, we thought they were buzzards. They seemed to like one of the advertising bill boards along the freeway.

The day before yesterday, my wife threw a fit about the tacky condition of our backyard. The chickens had reduced it to moon dust. She insisted that the chickens had to go back into the coop. Well, it was easier to coop them up than to listen to her.

I am too old to chase them, so I stranger dangered them with some bread. I just threw it into the coop and they ran in like I was giving something away free. I got them all except for Loretta. She has been around a long time, and this wasn't her first rodeo. She had seen that trick before.

Anyway, when it got dark, my wife got one of the neighbor kids to catch Loretta.

The next day this bird parked itself in our tree.

Rufus

 

[Mahonri]

I got 4 eggs today. 1GCM, 2FBCMs and one little BWA pullet egg.

I'm taking 2.5 dozen down to Tucson Tofu EARLY in the morning (trading for a polish mix that came from my eggs),
Then EVERYTHING I get from now till the 11th is going into the bators.
I'll probably have FBCM and GCM chicks for sale once I see how they feather out!
Just wish my polish and my Ameraucanas would start laying. Chili powder goes in all the feeders tomorrow, praying it works.

So DW and the kids are in the front room putting the lights on the Christmas Tree. We got them all up and then 1/4th of the largest strand the lights quit working. Exit me. I have no patience for going through each light (big surprise to all of you I'm sure)
Some of the boys and their neighborhood friends are playing cards in front of the fire (in the fireplace) in the family room. DW has Josh Grobans Christmas album playing on her i-Pod/Bose and it's filling the house with wonderful music.

I'm on BYC and watching ESPN in the bedroom. AZ leads OR 16-14 at present crossing my fingers for the Wildcats.... they are moving down the field quickly... I wish it were the 4th quarter! Looks like it's really raining in OR.

Happy Black Friday everyone. I only left the house once, to take the kids to Tangled. Cute movie.

 

[NoSkiveez]

Quote:
Im doing the same thing. I hoped to see another egg in that coop today, but didnt expect one. There wasnt any.

....BUT, I did have an exciting and unexpected egg arrive today. It was laid by my Cuckoo Marans hen! It was a great hard shelled egg. The egg was perfect and a nice size. It didnt even look like a pullet egg either....and it went in the trash. She was dusted Tuesday with Sevin Dust.

Was BYC down for a while today? I was having some withdrawls.

 

[NoSkiveez]

Mahonri - I Candeled eggs today as well. I took two blue eggs out that were clear and 1 that had a blood ring. I didnt bother trying to candle the dark eggs. Its hard to see thru them and feel good about weather they should be taken out or stay in. I'll wait until day 18 to candle again.

I have a few eggs in my incubator that I built and they will lock down tomorrow. I took very few eggs out this cycle. Almost all looked good still. This is an odd change...but I know why. Its because I have little space to put chicks right now (because of the mite problem, I can not put any chicks in the brooders outside because I am sure they would get mites too so I am keeping them on the enclosed porch for now). Im rather excited about these chicks. I hope they hatch.