Arizona Chickens

[5pinkarrows]

Welcome, Rocky! I bet there are lots of chicks close to you.

I hope you find this group to be as helpful as I have.

 

[Bob's Henhouse]

Well...crap. Cachubby is hanging in there, even if barely, but his clone, Chicken Little was laying in the AZ room, not moving. Brought him in and tried giving him liquids, and food, but he didn't make it.

He was all feathers, and not much else. I noticed he was moping around, but didn't know he was in such sad shape. Been using warm washcloths soaked in 1/2 listerine, on Cachubby, then pouring on betadine. No change yet, but he did drink quite a bit tonight. I'm hoping it helps. I'm going out and dusting everyone with DE, and probably putting Sevin in a dustbox in the AZ room for them, then keeping them cooped up a few days so they'll be sure to use it. Looks like permethrin would be good to spray them, and/or the coop and surrounding area with. Guess I'm not keeping a good enough eye on them. I can't be losing them like this.

 

[Lyongirl]

Hello everyone! Sorry I disappeared for a while. Life became a little busy.

So we only have the two barred rock girls now and they are outside (not laying yet of course since they are only about 9 weeks now). I've been watching Craigslist like a hawk because we want more hens, prob. about 5 more for the moment. We want to have a varied flock so here's my question for you guys: Is it safe to buy hens off of Craigslist and expect that the people aren't lying about their age and the chickens are still laying, or should I just wait and order chicks from My Pet Chicken? I don't mind raising more chicks I just know it will take longer to introduce the babies to the two girls we already have then it would be to introduce chickens that are already the same size as them. Are any of you going to be selling pullets/hens in the next few months? We just have the problem of not being able to have any roo's because of our HOA but the feedstore near us was kind enough to take the two we did end up with off our hands.

Sorry to hear about your roo Bob. I hope he feels better soon.

 

[dewey]

Bob's Henhouse :

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/67557_img_03431.jpg
Any ideas what it is? Seems to have started after fighting amongst the roos for reordering the pecking order.

Bob, so very sorry about your roos.

These 2 sites have symptom charts for help in dx'ing:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps044 (chart at bottom)
http://www.poultry.msstate.edu/extension/pdf/diseases_poultry_diagnosis_symptoms.pdf

Some other poultry disease info sites:
http://www.thepoultrysite.com/publications/6/Diseases_Of_Poultry
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp
http://www.poultryhub.org/index.php/Fowl_Pox​

 

[LarryPQ]

Quote:
It is a crapshoot. Your big worry shouldnt bei their age, it should be about disease. I learned the hard way, and lost an entire generation of birds (30+) to some unknown respiratory disease. Then there is Marek's to worry about, etc, etc. I now keep a closed flock, select chickens come in, but they do not leave---except for the soup pot/

You are better off getting hens from friends or people you know who will not lie to you about the health of their flock. There are some very reputable people on BYC, if you poke around long enough you'll find them.

If all else fails, and you have to buy form CL, QUARANTINE FOR 30 DAYS, MINIMUM.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
If it were me, I would get day-old chicks now. 9 weeks difference will be easier to integrate, I think. Some feed stores have them now and I know some BYC members have them.
If you really don't want roosters, go with sex links. There's a lady in Gilbert that hatches red, black and marans sex links. She advertises on CL when she has them.

 

[dewey]

Quote:
It could be several months before your rocks start laying (I

rocks), so new chicks would only be 9 weeks behind them, while hens already laying would be several months ahead of your rocks. I've never ordered from mypetchicken so I don't know their shipping times, but hopefully you can find some locally right away, either from someone here, or several local stores have chicks year round.

In buying from just anyone off CL I'd be most concerned about disease instead of age, too. Nothing is 100% safe and people can unknowingly have and sell diseased birds, so I'd prefer to start with new chicks. A layer is usually $20 & up. Sexed chicks are just a little more than straight runs and there's not too much chance that way of accidently getting roos.

 

[Lyongirl]

We were planning on getting sexed chicks though it's not the end of the world if one ends up being a rooster, they just have to go to the feed store like our other 2. It's more a question of variety that we want. Most feed stores only have 1 or 2 types of a chicks and the dust inside of the house wasn't very fun to deal with so I'd prefer to make sure we get all the chicks at the same time if we end up getting chicks. The only reason we'd be ordering for mypetchicken is because they have a min. order of 3 for large cities and I think it's 5 for where we live which is exactly how many more we want right now. I wasn't specifically looking for laying hens but possibly pullets that are the same age so that they could be introduced sooner than waiting for the little chicks to grow up. I understand the disease problem but wouldn't that exist no matter who we purchase from? If anything is older than a chick I would assume that even if you know the person they may not be aware of a disease they have so the chicken would still need to be quarentined regardless (with my understanding). So everyone is saying buying chicks is the better choice?

 

[Lyongirl]

Actually the place I live the min. order is 6 chicks from the site but I'm hoping one of the people I go to church with who has built a coop but doesn't yet have chickens might want to order some as well. If she does that then we could split the shipping costs which would make them cheaper as well.

 

[ca]

Don't plan too low numbers when buying chicks. You might loose a chick or two. Pratt's in Glendale has a pretty impressive selection of chicks including Delaware and Ameraucanas...