Arizona Chickens

[Demosthine]

Lots of panting chickens here. Been very diligent on trying to keep the girls cool in the afternoons. Been stock piling the ice cubes, chunks and pies (yup we are making "piecicles"). Our girls love the piecicles because they can stand right on top of them and when they melt they make a great dirt bath. Silly girls. Really concerned about what we are gonna do when we hit the 100-teens.

Does anyone in here use the air tight pail and oil pan/water dish to provide their chickens with water? My husband and I bought one of those orange pails from HD and a rubberized 3 gal watering bowl from a feed store and can not get the air tight seal that is needed for the "home made watering system" to feed the water into the 3 gal bowl without it over flowing. What are we doing wrong??? We have tried drilling holes at the bottom with the pail right side up, flipping the bucket upside down..... different types of "bowls". Ugggghhhh!! Don't want to have to spend too much money but I'm getting to a breaking point, especially with how hot it is and getting.

Take a brand new bucket and drill one or more medium sized holes about a half-inch below the top rim of the bucket, or whatever height you want your water level to be. I would probably do a 1/4"-3/8" drill bit. Leave the rest of the bucket alone. Fill the bucket appropriately and put the bowl over the rim of the bucket. With the help of a second person, flip the entire contraption over. Water should come out initially, but stop once the water level reaches the top of your holes that you drilled. It's that easy.

In order to get a proper seal that would allow you to drill holes in the bottom of the bucket, you will need to buy the more expensive lids that have the rubber gasket in them. Those lids are probably about $5 each, so it's still not a terrible price.

 

[520farmer]

Lots of panting over here too, we've had to bring our chickens up to Tucson with us so we can deal with a house some tenets trashed and it is hot! I have two water baths and put out a couple frozen water jugs for them in the afternoon but I can't wait to get back to Rio Rico!

Maddbaggins or anyone else have you hit your FF with a hydrometer, or maybe just taken a test swig lol, to see if there is a noticeable alcohol content? I've been giving them liquid from the top in a separate container to give them a little extra nutrition in the hot summer months and it's really just beer, I don't have my equipment with me or I'd check it myself...

 

[MaddBaggins]

Lots of panting over here too, we've had to bring our chickens up to Tucson with us so we can deal with a house some tenets trashed and it is hot! I have two water baths and put out a couple frozen water jugs for them in the afternoon but I can't wait to get back to Rio Rico!

Maddbaggins or anyone else have you hit your FF with a hydrometer, or maybe just taken a test swig lol, to see if there is a noticeable alcohol content? I've been giving them liquid from the top in a separate container to give them a little extra nutrition in the hot summer months and it's really just beer, I don't have my equipment with me or I'd check it myself...

I'm not doing the FF thing, so that's a negative Ghostrider.

 

[desertmarcy]

Hi, I'm new to raising chickens and have learned a lot from this forum - thank you. I'm at 5400 elevation in SouthEast AZ so we don't get as hot as Tucson or Phx but it's still hot. We did get rain out here yesterday, not a lot but enough to cool everything down and it smelled wonderful! Here's a pic of my girls this morning (I think it's 62 degrees right now). There are two Easter Eggers (Purdy & Cheeks), two Silver Laced Wyandottes (Sylvia and Lacey) and two sex links (Lucy & Ethel). No eggs yet but hopefully soon!

 

[Arizona Son]

OK, i've about had it with snakes!

This morning, I found a very well fed garter snake in my outdoor chick brooder. With five suspicious lumps in his body. Was so fat that he couldnt fit back through the wire, or was too full & lazy, I dont know. Either way, I destroyed him. That makes 7 chicks i've lost out of this batch in 2 separate incidents. Of course, the Blue Andalusians that I hatched from eggs I got from another member here on BYC, were amongst the most recent victims of this reptilian onslaught!

Weird, because I never had a problem with snakes before this. Unless you count that time my dog was bit on the foreleg as she innocently walked past a bush a baby rattler was hiding under. Ugh.

 

[jbolt]

jbolt you hatched fertilized eggs you bought at trader joes?  are they intended for hatching or for eating and kept in the cooler? what is your ratio of hatched per dozen eggs? I had no idea you could do that.

Oh its really fun. The hatch rate is low, but that's because eggs are mechanically graded, washed, packed and stamped, then cold shipped from California to Arizona. To add to the already scrambled state of the eggs, I believe that the hens are fed such a low quality feed that many chicks seem to die in shell at about day 14. I usually set 3 dozen at a time and I get 20 chicks. The ones that hatch are amazingly Hardy, small, fast maturing, and eat 1/3 less than LF barnyard mixes. So in short yes it can be done

 

[jbolt]

There is a whole byc thread on hatching trader joes eggs.

 

[Demosthine]

OK, i've about had it with snakes!

This morning, I found a very well fed garter snake in my outdoor chick brooder. With five suspicious lumps in his body. Was so fat that he couldnt fit back through the wire, or was too full & lazy, I dont know. Either way, I destroyed him. That makes 7 chicks i've lost out of this batch in 2 separate incidents. Of course, the Blue Andalusians that I hatched from eggs I got from another member here on BYC, were amongst the most recent victims of this reptilian onslaught!

Weird, because I never had a problem with snakes before this. Unless you count that time my dog was bit on the foreleg as she innocently walked past a bush a baby rattler was hiding under. Ugh.

I think it's time to lock that brooder down tighter than Fort Knox! That's one of the reasons that my brooder is elevated off the ground the way it is. Not to say that it's impossible to crawl up it, but I've never seen our desert snakes crawl straight up a 3'x4"x4" beam and then creep around the 2"x4" boards that stick out, only to manage to get through the chicken wire on top of it. I think I'll secure my backyard a bit better, though.

Have you thought about wrapping your brooder in the metal screen door mesh? That should eliminate any possibility of a snake getting in, but still let ample airflow through, too. I wouldn't think it'd be very expensive, either.

 

[desertmarcy]

OK, i've about had it with snakes!

This morning, I found a very well fed garter snake in my outdoor chick brooder. With five suspicious lumps in his body. Was so fat that he couldnt fit back through the wire, or was too full & lazy, I dont know. Either way, I destroyed him. That makes 7 chicks i've lost out of this batch in 2 separate incidents. Of course, the Blue Andalusians that I hatched from eggs I got from another member here on BYC, were amongst the most recent victims of this reptilian onslaught!

Weird, because I never had a problem with snakes before this. Unless you count that time my dog was bit on the foreleg as she innocently walked past a bush a baby rattler was hiding under. Ugh.

I would suggest you snake-proof your outdoor brooder if you are having that much of a problem. If you kill one, you leave a void in the ecosystem, and another will move in, especially if there is a ready food supply. You live in the desert and have moved into snake habitat. Garter snakes are not likely to eat chicks, probably was some other species. Sorry about your chicks, but can't be too sympathetic since I like snakes and hate to see people kill them. There must be a way you can keep them out of your brooder. 1/4" hardware cloth would work. Any snake small enough to go through that is not going to be able to eat a chick.

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

Oh its really fun. The hatch rate is low, but that's because eggs are mechanically graded, washed, packed and stamped, then cold shipped from California to Arizona. To add to the already scrambled state of the eggs, I believe that the hens are fed such a low quality feed that many chicks seem to die in shell at about day 14. I usually set 3 dozen at a time and I get 20 chicks. The ones that hatch are amazingly Hardy, small, fast maturing, and eat 1/3 less than LF barnyard mixes. So in short yes it can be done

There is a whole byc thread on hatching trader joes eggs.

Thats cool, I would have never thought of trying that. 20 out of 36 is nothing to sneeze at, I think its pretty good considering all those eggs have been through. I gotta go find that thread.