Arizona Chickens

[AZBootsie]

Count me in!! I would love a group project. My schedule is really flexible.

 

[CrazyerThanAverage]

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Sounds like a case for the hiddencamera

. I am definitely going to throw everything at them I have! (like hub-caps mounted on the hanging chain or a glue trap...). When I am done with all my projects (next century maybe?) I will definitely tackle a couple of your ingenious feeders. My better half has discovered the do-it-yourself chicken plucker. Now he is all over that idea. He is really getting into this chicken thing

. Considering that he thought I was crazy when I started it all...

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Unbelievable! Mine are not that smart yet. That is a tricky one. Definitely have to buy materials for those feeders...


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Great! I'll try that too . I have tons of that stuff flying around. As a matter of fact when they start laying and know for sure where the cozy home is I'll let them out of the run and they can go clean up after the horses and llamas

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Cool! I'll have to get some of that stuff. We have everything from tiny mice to klepto packrats.

Warning this is a little gruesome:
If you need to kill the offending packrats without killing anything that eats the the dead or dying animals (poison kills the pest, then the bird that eats the pest, then the bobcat that eats the bird...), a few people have sworn by grits near the mounds. They eat them, the grits swell, kills the ground squirrel or packrat, but not anything that happens to eat the dead or dying critter.

If you get a single kill type poison, only the first thing that eats it will die. We have a HUGE packrat problem (and big packrats

) that we have been battling for 10+ years. We started with rat traps and have evolved to electronic rat traps and poison. Bait boxes keep pets, livestock, and kids from getting to the poison and the bodies don't hurt anything that might eat them.

 

[NoSkiveez]

On the topic of mice, I live in a cotton field and we have mice (for the last twyo years, they have been outdoor mice only) and they walk on walls. They climb the sides of the house. They are hard to get rid of. I don't both trying anymore. I don't hang buckets anymore. I don't fill the bucket either. I put enough food to last them til noon, then come back and throw some scratch to them and they can eat the remaining feed they kick out of the bucket onto the ground. Then they tip their buckets over and lay their eggs Inn the bucket (or on top of the water containers, I haven't figured out how yet).

Eventually my husband is *supposed* to make a waterer that runs thru all the coops...it was last summers project.

We are down one more rooster. A Silkie (white one) beat up my daughter yesterday. Never an issue with him until yesterday. I'm wondering if what we are doing is causing them to be aggressive. Both roosters recently had been taken out of their coop. The phoenix's hens were put with a different rooster and he would pace the pen where his hens were. The Silkie roosters hens are not here anymore. I put another roo and pullets in the Silkies old cage. He paced that cage. Hmmm. I wonder if its related. Maybe I'm giving it too much thought. I really liked those roosters too.

 

[arizonadreamer]

Hey Gallo, I had my run and coop all planed out until I saw what you did for your birds. How wonderful a nice haven for them. Do you have some dimensions or an estimate of costs of hardware and materials, also how long did it take to get the grapes and grass in? I am guessing you had to keep the birds out of the run in order to get that established.

 

[cluckin_crazy]

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Wait.. you have grass in your run?? What DON'T you have??

 

[NoSkiveez]

Oh, and its hatch day! A JG and MH have pipped so far. I'm gonna be out of the house for a while today, hopefully there will be a lot of hatched eggs today.

 

[AZBootsie]

It's Hatch day here too!!!
2 are out. A Split/Lav Ameraucana and a GCM/Rocy. I am soooo Jazzed!!!

 

[pastrymama]

So of course the dogs eat the chicken poo. The other day my super duper beagle got into the scratch i stupidly left out while taking the children to school. A few days later, it all came back out and I was out in the yard and noticed the hens all gathered around something just going to town. They were eating the scratch right out of the dog s***!!!!!!

I almost barfed and started yelling at them and pushing them away with my foot, but it was like disneyland for them. Who knew that chickens eat dog poo? I can't bring myself to eat a single egg now, I am so grossed out. Time to pick up poo.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

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So, I really like my set-up, but it might not be best for everyone. I put my coop and run in about the only place I could in the yard while being legal and having some shade. Our property has a wall around it, with big gates on either side of the house. We're able to drive around our tiny back yard with the truck and it was important to us that we preserved that ability. Unfortunately, it meant that the coop and run had to be very narrow (4' wide) to get the truck past. I'd so much prefer to have a wider run, for a variety of reasons. The coop and run I ended up with was consequence of a huge number of compromises. I don't really know how much it all cost. The run was more expensive because we used redwood. I think that was some where around $400 for everything, but don't quote me on it. I never calculated the cost of the coop. I really didn't want to know. A bunch of the wood used in it was left-over from our house remodeling. I suspect it was somewhere around $450 for the basic structure. I don't have any plans on paper for it, but its foot-print is 4' X 10'. One great thing about it is that there's really not much to it. It's mostly wire.

We planted the grapes over three years ago when we first moved into this house. They are now in their fourth year. We always wanted chickens and we figured out right away where the coop and vines would go. It took two years to get around to getting the chickens.

Yes, my chickens have grass in their run.

. We started with it last year to give them something green to eat when we are out of town and they can't free range. We planted that batch right after I finished the run and it lasted into June, when we were on vacation and the irrigation to it broke and was shut off. I don't know if it would have lasted much longer anyway. It gets very dark under the vines and they wouldn't have gotten much light and I don't think it would have done well in the heat. We just put it in as sod. Last year it was just a little over $2.00 per 2' X 5' roll and we put in 8 rolls. We put it in again this year, but earlier (but it was $3/roll this year). I know everyone says you can't grow things in the run, but it really depends on a lot of factors, such as your growing climate, number of birds you have, size of your run and how much time they spend in there. I only have six birds that spend most of their time outside of the run in the winter (they spend most of their time inside the run in the summer--by their choice). I know having grass is an extravagance (especially in our climate) and if they can enjoy it for a few months I'm happy to put it in. This year I also made a neat little wire basket/cage to put over one small section of sod to see if I can keep it going longer when the roots are protected. BTW, putting sod in the run was NOT my idea. My wife insisted.

Did I mention that our birds are spoiled?

pastrymama, sometimes it's best not to know what they're eating.

Congrats to hatching chicks!

 

[mclevinson]

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Eeewwww. My dog horns in whenever the chickens get treats. Scratch, BOSS, mealworms...shes not agressive about it but persistent. I have to put her in the house during treat time. And eeewwww, I have seen her eat poo too.