Arizona Chickens

[LadyKotaDoria]

MAN! i feel like I have been run over by an Australian Road train i have been pushing to get this coop done think roof, think roof, thing roooof . . . . . . Less then a week. . . . Roof, doors, paint, fence, don't know if I can do it. The heat ZAPS me. I would have more done if I hadn't pushed it yesterday.

Then clean.... Clean the yard, it is so messy right now. But that I can do one handed for the most part, a little at a time. Fill the trash and send it off each week. :/

 

[Demosthine]

I haven't fermented feed yet. My only experience with fermenting is with pickles. And I know there is a temperature zone for pickling vegetable so that you are getting good yeast and little to no mold. Is there an optimal temperature range for fermenting feed as well? It seems like it would be too hot here to get that 70-76 yeast fermenting range. I just read about people throwing feed and water into a bucket and letting it go. I'm wondering if they are in colder climates though. How do you guys do it?

Also, can you just still put the feed into a hanging feeder? Or do you have to offer it differently? Does it go bad in the feeder if they don't eat it fast enough? How does all that work?

X 2 I also have been wondering about the temperature parameters for fermenting feed. Is there a temp to never exceed?

I haven't been through the true heat of summer yet, but so far, it's been sitting in my garage for what, eight or nine months now? The bacterial growth on the top randomly comes and goes, but the smell has stayed consistent and I've had no problems with the fermenting. I consistently get bubbles when I stir and the clan devours the heck out of it when I give it to them. My garage temperatures have ranged from 60* up to 96* yesterday. It seems to be going well the entire time. I wouldn't keep it outside where the temperature in the shade has hit 114*, but the garage should be fine. Depending on the insulation of the shed, that may be perfectly fine, too.

For feeding, I initially used a ceramic dog food bowl, but recently upgraded to the large rectangular ceramic casserole dish from WalMart. Some have been concerned about plastics leeching chemicals, but I can say the ceramic and glass works very well. It's extremely easy to clean and heavy enough that they won't knock it around. And unless you feed them extremely excessive, it won't last long enough to go bad. Mine gorge themselves with it and it has nothing to do with being hungry. I can have other scraps left out, their dry feed out, bugs and grass during their free ranging and they won't touch it. They see that food dish and it's like flies on a gut wagon...

In order to force free-ranging, I've had to resort to feeding them in the later afternoon or evenings. Otherwise, I found they often clear the fermented feed dish and then lounge around the entire rest of the day. I want an active, healthy clan, so I had to change my routine. The only ones I have with constant food are the three two-week old turkeys. That'll be changing shortly, too. I just have to get more buckets and set their fermenting up as well.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

NotinOz, sorry about your hen.

MaddBaggins, yay for the egg! Can't wait till my hens are old enough to lay.

AZKat, a "ball of pure, feathery hate"...haha. Yeesh. We here about "mama bear" all the time, maybe "mama chickens" would be more apt.

How can I tell the difference between feed that is supposed to be feed as mash and feed that is in crumbles? I bought a sack of organic grower this weekend, and some of it looks like crumbles, but there sure is a lot of powder. The bag doesn't say crumbles, mash, pellets...nada.

I've read that silkies don't like to roost...I don't have pure silkies (silkie/Polish mix), and the 3 are roosting on the highest support beam in there (~5' tall). They are so small, I'm not even sure how they are getting up there! Well, duh, flying, but still.

There are very few hard and fast rules about chickens (or anything, for that matter). Many/most silkies would prefer to form a pile and snuggle together at night, but there are always SOME who prefer to roost. If they are raised with other breeds that are more likely to roost, more will take that path and roost, but even if only raised with non-roosting silkies, a few will decide to march to their own drummer. My third silkie was a splash cockerel who would always roost atop a 4' tall wire fence. And the fence was relatively loose. You will hear that chickens won't roost on wire, that they will not even land on loose wire, and that silkies don't roost. Stormie was never taught those rules, or else he wanted to break them (that would actually fit his personality better, lol). I've never had a silkie work its way up to the top of a tree to roost as I have had with other breeds, but I have to say that most of mine like a little height, at least in the warm weather.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I have 10 almost 4 week old chicks that I hatched in my class. Since they came home from school they have been spending their days out in the run-separated from big girls unless we are out there. At night they have been coming in to the brooder and heat lamp because otherwise they scream in the run when it is time for bed. Since the 6 chicks(a few days younger) that are with a broody are not sleeping under her-they stretch out nearby her, I figured it is warm enough for this group to sleep outside too. WRONG--they scream

. Breaks my heart. And when we go out there, they jump on us to snuggle

. Well I don't want to spend the night with them in the coop so I gave in and brought them in again last night

oops my son had taken the brooder out of his room to clean it. Well they were just as happy to stay in their little transport box and sleep in his room, Mind you it has no lid and is only 4 inches deep. So they snuggled and slept their all night with no heat lamp--makes me pretty sure they could have handled the temp outside (inside is probably cooler) and they just suckered me into bringing them inside because that is where they are used to going to bed. I did try putting them in their transport box(it is a 1 ft by 2 ft cardboard box that is 4 inches deep that we have always used to take them outside to play from the time they were 3 days old) and leaving it in a crate in their run but all they did was panic and throw themselves at the bars

I am trying to leave them out longer and longer each night but at a certain point they start screaming to come in. Anyone have some suggestions to help ease their transition to sleeping outside at night?

a night-light?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Thanks, Demosthine. Looks like the feed I bought was probably mash. Hrrmm. Gonna have to figure out how to feed mash now! My homemade and bought feeders are made for dry food.

eta: browsing through BYC posts, I think I'm just going to use some holes cut in a milk jug for this mash stuff. I can still hang it, and it won't cost anything. My daughter goes through milk like whoa, so easy to replace too. I'm grumbling a bit because I liked pouring the dry food into the feeder and not worrying about it for a few days. Grumble, grumble, extra step in the morning, grrr. No big deal, really, but ugh.

etaa: okay, now I'm confuzzled. Mash doesn't need to be moistened? I can feed it dry? It has been working in the feeder I'm using, but there is a lot more waste--I wonder if the chickens have been looking for crumbles and sweeping out the powder. I have previously feed them moistened, end of the bag crumbles, and they loved it, and I guess preparing fresh, wetted mash isn't TOO much of a hardship for my morning routine, lol.

The term mash can mean different things to different people. In some areas mash means moistened feed (regardless of whether you are mixing powdered, crumbled or pelleted feed with water); in the manufacture of feed, it is synonymous with POWDERED.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Oh, and tell me: did I get fleeced? The 50lb bag of organic feed was $33. It's my first 50lb bag of anything but dog food. I just read a thread where people are buying 100lb sacks of feed for $13.

How old were THOSE posts? $33 is pretty reasonable with current prices. Purchasing in bulk is less expensive (compare 25lb bags versus 50lb of the same product), and purchasing non-bagged is also less expensive, but I don;t know of anywhere in Arizona to purchase that way.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

14 eggs today.

I will be selling all of my chickens and moving to north Phoenix within the month.

Sad to loose this awesome hobby, glad we'll be closer to the kids schools.

Maybe you will be able to have a few at your new home? Best of luck!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

The other hen with heat stroke was in the nest box this morning. Will go out in a bit to check on her. She was sitting on the ground after dark last night, and I put her on the bottom rung of the ladder roost and she was able to hang on, so I think I pulled her through it. I know the problem with my misters. They are getting clogged with minerals and not spraying right, dripping more than spraying. I am not dealing with the heat very well myself these days and not able to go out there and unscrew them all and clean them, pipe tape them all and screw them back in....there are a lot of heads, 3 per pen X 8 plus more in the long pen at the end..ugh I am hot just thinking about fixing them all. Anyway, that is why I am getting muddy puddles, they are not "misting" , they are dripping.

It helps to have an extra set of the mister heads so that you can simply replace the clogged heads with the clean ones all at the same time, then go in and put all the clogged ones in a dish of CLR. It helps to use one of the filters that you can purchase where misting systems and supplies are sold. Doesn't eliminate the need for cleaning, but does decrease the frequency. This time of year I like doing outside work in the evening when it is a bit cooler and the sun is not glaring down.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I had my baby today! 7 pounds 13 ounces, 20 and 3/4 inches long, and the cutest baby girl I've ever seen!

Congrats!

 

[flower]

I had my baby today! 7 pounds 13 ounces, 20 and 3/4 inches long, and the cutest baby girl I've ever seen!

BEST WISHES TO THE FAMILY OF THIS PRETTY BABY GIRL !