Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

Button doesn't look any better yet, but it's only been 24 hours of supplements.
I told my daughter, while the girls were free ranging, that I'll give Button a few more days to see some improvement. She asked "and then what?". I told her then I'll take care of it. She got sad, but she understands.


Oh ;( keep us posted..
 

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Aloha, I'm not a long time chicken owner and I still have lost chickens. Sounds like you've got a politician in the making on your hands.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

My Orpington girls: Daphne Daisy Dolly My Blue Barred Rock (from beehappy4ever) still nameless

Beautiful, my Orpington is a mix, yours, OH MY, lovely.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

We set up our first super/bee hive this evening. It did not go as planned.. . . . S didn't think it thru. Actually I think he got nerves. He had loose shorts, and T shirt. Places for bees to go and panic in. I could see the realization move across his face. Then he forgot to remove the plug in the queen chamber. He is coming back just before sun rise to take care of that waring better clothing and maybe gloves. After the hive is established he should not need gloves.

I got stung for the first time in my life. One was just above my eye. I told S to spray it with smoke. He asked where?... I said my forehead,. . . He said where? I said quick my forehead. He said where, let me look. By then she was in my hair and started buzzing. S said OH, there she is I see your hair moving, but I can't see it. . . . . I said, hur AAAAA.. . . ITS STINGING to late. I pushed my fingers into my hair trying to go under the bee to remove it. It can't sting again. S looked for the stinger and removed it.

well, now I know, I'm not allergic to bee stings.

I need to get my own hive, so if my bees sworn I might be able to set them up. Then I will not have to tarry to capture the one under my shed. 2 hives will be quite enough. Honey for 2 households. Royal Jelly, and bee pollen, how wonderful.

So is this hive at your place or someone else? I would love to watch and eventually participate in bee keeping. Honey, like you said is just one of the many benefits of the bees. I'm eating the local raw honey currently for my allergies. Nothing and I mean nothing would touch them before, on a scale of 1 to 10 they were at a 10 85% of the day. Now they are never more then at a 2. No side effects, drowsiness, its awesome!

 

[kevs-chickadees]

Kev: I should have mentioned that I have an irrigated lot, and also recycle the gray water from our washer. The downside to mulberries is that they are water-hogs, and you need to water them well if they are going to grow. I also mulch around the base with dirty straw from the coop, and I think that the nitrogen has helped as well.

Guess I'll be sneaking in lots of overnight watering duties. I take it the soaps don't effect the tree at all. I thought about roughing in a soft water system and capturing the rinse water to do the same thing.?????

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

My bees are still under the shed. My future hive will be on the slab, S's bees are now on the slab. All at my house. We will be putting up some shade for them to help them. I have plans on building one more 10' bed addition to my garden for bee flowers. My bees have been very well bee haved. I am sure it was one of S's bees that stung me. He said it was one of my bees.

You are welcome to come over to see them, I suggest maybe this summer, after they are established.

 

[Fuzzybird]

I have a weird question. Talked to a guy that I met via Craigslist, who bought a few chicks from me about a week ago. He said he had a few of the newborn chicks die off since he bought them, and was a bit upset, because he says he has chickens that are nine years old and he has NEVER lost a chick, or had a sick chicken in his flock. Says he has a ton of chickens on his property, and some are nine years old.

Do note that these chicks that I sold him were grabbed pretty much direct out of the brooder, and were less than 24 hours old, so I didn't have time to raise them for a few days before they went to their new home and scan for any weakness in the babies. He said oddly that only the pale colored ones died and the darker ones were fine . . . bizarre! I wish I'd had a chance to "vet" them for a few days before they went to new homes, but since hatcheries shove them in a box and ship them across country, I figured they would be OK?

But that's beside the point, I'm still baffled because he says he's never lost a chick or adult, never ever ever and he says he owns tons of chickens and buys them all the time! A friend of mine told me that illness can be carried by wild birds, and by mosquitoes, so you can't really ever isolate your coop totally. He said that was crap, and he'd never heard of illness spreading unless it was directly from another sick chicken making contact with a healthy one, so he just quarantines them for a couple of months before introducing them to his main flock, and says because of that he has never lost a single chicken to illness in years.

So my question is: Have any of you long-term chicken owning folks been fortunate enough to NEVER have a sick chicken or a dead chicken?

I can see that if you bought vaccinated chicks from ONE hatchery years ago, and never ever ever ever brought in another chick since then. But this person did say he had bought other chickens off of Craigslist, plus hatcheries, and introduced them to his flock. Is he just the luckiest chicken owner on earth? Or have others of you had chickens for many years, bought from various sources, and never had a single one turn up sick or dead? Totally curious . . . . and completely jealous. LOL!

If you have had a BIG flock for several years and have never had a sick or dead chicken, pipe up! I really want to know your secrets!

Is quarantine the 100% cure??? Does that mean never a sick or dead chicken ever again?

In my humble opinion he is a big fat liar

 

[8machines]

In my humble opinion he is a big fat liar

It sounds fishy to me too! I recently purchased many day old chicks unvaccinated and they are growing like weeds.

 

[cbnovick]

No baby for me yet...but look what other surprise we had today!

ADORABLE!!!!!

 

[AZKat]

Kev: Soap can be an issue, so you need to buy (or make) biodigradable laundry soap. its a little more expensive, but the cost of water helps to offset it.