Arizona Chickens

[Mahonri]

I have a friend that is looking for chicks. Anyone have any available? She lives in Good Year. Please pm me ...thanks

I HAVE TONS. Send them my way. (Hatched March 23rd)... straight run. Lots of Cochins

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

I HAVE TONS. Send them my way. (Hatched March 23rd)... straight run. Lots of Cochins

Thanks..I will let her know.

 

[alohachickens]

We'd be willing to raise them for a bit for you. My wife absolutely loves chicks, so I'm sure she'd be ok with it! Not that I need any more girls of our own. We already have 8 hens/pullets and 3 roosters. I'm actually just started building our second and larger coop today. The 11 are definitely outgrowing the 3'x5' one that I initially had set up for the 4-6 hens that I had wanted.

I'll PM you with more of my information.

Awesome! Going to respond to your PM, thanks!!!

 

[MaddBaggins]

Looks like we had a little rain while I slept last night. The floor of the run is damp, but not muddy. The girls were out and waiting for me to bring the morning treat. Radishes and strawberries again. They go nuts for red radishes with the greens on.

I tried introducing the 2 younger ones over the weekend. It's been around a month ( I lost track of how long exactly). It didn't go over to well yet.
Question: Will the older girls (all raised up together) always go after the new girls to some extent? Should I expect some amount of pecking?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Looks like we had a little rain while I slept last night. The floor of the run is damp, but not muddy. The girls were out and waiting for me to bring the morning treat. Radishes and strawberries again. They go nuts for red radishes with the greens on.

I tried introducing the 2 younger ones over the weekend. It's been around a month ( I lost track of how long exactly). It didn't go over to well yet.
Question: Will the older girls (all raised up together) always go after the new girls to some extent? Should I expect some amount of pecking?

I think you can expect some pecking whenever you add new members to an existing flock. The trick is to know the right point to intervene. Also, all things being equal, the younger birds will most likely be lower in the hierarchy and the older birds will work to make sure they stay there.

 

[Arizonachicken]

Looks like we had a little rain while I slept last night. The floor of the run is damp, but not muddy. The girls were out and waiting for me to bring the morning treat. Radishes and strawberries again. They go nuts for red radishes with the greens on.

I tried introducing the 2 younger ones over the weekend. It's been around a month ( I lost track of how long exactly). It didn't go over to well yet.
Question: Will the older girls (all raised up together) always go after the new girls to some extent? Should I expect some amount of pecking?

 

Good to know about the radishes! I have a ton in my garden right now.

In my experience, as long as the new hens are about the same size as the others, and there is room for the new ones to get away, they will work it out. With my last batch of chicks, I let the young ones free range with the older hens for a week or two. They'd get pecked, but could run away. So they pretty much established their place before they were cooped together. There still was pecking (nothing serious) but I just had to walk away and let them sort it out. I don't know if you have a rooster, but he seemed to help. He would protect the ones who were getting picked on...he kept the older hens in check. Just as long as there's no serious pecking, i.e. drawing blood, it'll sound and look worse than it is. It's all part of being a chicken.

As far as if there will always be pecking, yes. Just a peck here and there when someone gets out of place. There's a definite social structure.

 

[Demosthine]

Looks like we had a little rain while I slept last night. The floor of the run is damp, but not muddy. The girls were out and waiting for me to bring the morning treat. Radishes and strawberries again. They go nuts for red radishes with the greens on.

I tried introducing the 2 younger ones over the weekend. It's been around a month ( I lost track of how long exactly). It didn't go over to well yet.
Question: Will the older girls (all raised up together) always go after the new girls to some extent? Should I expect some amount of pecking?

 

Depending on the breeds, there may be a good amount of pecking order issues. It has seemed like we've added something every month and only had minor issues, though. It's was the worst at night trying to get them all in the coop.

We just let them hash it out, with very minor intervention. Some say if you sneak them in late at night, it'll help things go better. Others recommend putting your small ones in a kennel inside the coop or run. That will let them get acquainted through a barrier and may ease the integration.

On rare occassion, it may just never work. Watch them all and see if there is a particular ring leader. Old timers are serious breeders seem to recommend culling these mean ones for the betterment of the flock. For breeding, you also want the docile traits, so culling also helps your future lineage.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Oh to be 115lbs again!!!! But I guess you did give me another good reason to be slightly chunky - I won't blow away!

We haven't got the moisture, yet... although earlier in the day, there were actually a few teeny, tiny snowflakes blowing in the wind. Then it just sprinkled long enough to make the dust stick to everything.
Chickens stayed out in it all day! It was cold, NO windblocks here at all - lost a portion of the tin off the roof off their coop.
Where are you at where it's thunderstorming?

I get some funny looks from people when I tell them I'm a mechanic and I work on a ranch. No one can understand how a tiny little girl has so much gusto! I always tell people who say that to me that its not fun being so thin. Everyone underestimates you and thinks you are not physically capable of moving anything heavier than a milk jug! And i get blown around in the wind.... As for the storm I'm out by Apache junction and its pouring!!! Thankfully it let up enough to feed the horses an clean the chicken water!

I know what you mean. I'm 5'4" and a truck driver. I was 125-130# got it all the time. Went down to 115# I looked like death, I enjoyed putting wieght on. My family line has mostly hefty woman, I have joined them, I'm not happy about that. Apparently not unhappy enough to do anything about it and stop eating goods. My youngest has had 2 children, tried to keep the baby fat, but lost it. She can't keep wieght on. When in high school we were at the mall and I heard people talking about that pure anarchic girl. My daughter then took out a half eaten candy bar and finished it. To this day she keeps safety pins, just in case.

I am amassed at how strong she is.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I have a question on chicken behavior? Has any one ever seen or know of a chicken that sleeps and rests like this?

When I first posted the picture I thought little of it. I have seen her laying like this often. I showed it to a lady today who moving home so she can have chickens again. She said she never seen anything like that and wondered if anything was wrong with her leg. Powder usually lay to the right with the left leg out, but then she will lay to the left with her light leg out.

She has been giving me 5 to 6 eggs a week now, seems healthy.

I've seen plenty that nap like that after (or during) a dustbath. And I have seen them take dustbaths on an amazing variety of surfaces...such as the throw rug she is lying beside...

 

[alohachickens]

I just got an order placed with Ideal Poultry for their Speckled Sussex. I was going to order only 15 pullets but then I found out heat packs aren't available, and the last thing I want is to "dispose" of a bunch of roos! So I'm looking to sell off five of these Speckled Sussex chicks.

They are $4 each (so that's $20 total for all five) and will be vaccinated for MAREK'S (most local feed store chicks DO NOT come vaccinated!)

The Ideal Poultry Speckled Sussex are known for being a lot more "flashy" with TONS more white than the Speckled Sussex that we typically get around here. Ours usually come from Privett Hatchery, theirs kind of tend to look a bit dull. I have been very happy with Ideal chicks in the past.

I have been on the wait list for these for almost two years. They are REALLY hard to get because they sell out fast! Last year they only became available in late June, which of course was too hot to ship to AZ. So I've been on the wait list ever since. Please PM me if you'd like five of these babies, they will be here Thursday or Friday!