Arizona Chickens

[MagicChicken]

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.

This is a great argument for hatching in the winter, so the chicks are grown out before snake season begins.

 

[MaddBaggins]

GUYS!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! For the state of Arizona, I won poultry proficiency in FFA. Basically this means that out of the thousands of FFA members in the state I had the best knowledge and project relating to poultry!!! I am now going to Louisville in October to compete for the national title!! And yes i attribute much of my knowledge to you fine people!!! And on a side note....... I hear of rain. I like rain.

Hey, good job!!

 

[MagicChicken]

GUYS!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! For the state of Arizona, I won poultry proficiency in FFA. Basically this means that out of the thousands of FFA members in the state I had the best knowledge and project relating to poultry!!! I am now going to Louisville in October to compete for the national title!! And yes i attribute much of my knowledge to you fine people!!! And on a side note....... I hear of rain. I like rain.

Congratulations! Well done!

 

[flower]

bcluff Congrats on a good job !

Boy do I feel sorry for those of you down in the valley. It has been in the high 90s up to 100 here on route 66 but it is still too hot for me. My flock is panting also but they are certainly used to the heat as last summer they were just south of Death Valley. And................

For the first time since I been keeping chickens I have a pair of broodie moms. Five chicks so far from shipped eggs from Georgia ! Tiny seramaNNs !

Here is just one picture.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

From my limited understanding, most chickens won't eat ants because of the formic acid. Depending on the breed of ants, they will either spray or inject the formic acid, which is supposedly strongly disliked by chickens. I know there are a lot of people that have complained about this since I joined the Forum. At the same time, some of the replies were quite the opposite. I haven't had any major problems with ants, so I have no idea how my flock reacts to them. Maybe mine are just taking care of the problem before I know about it... ;-) Now, I have read that you can train the ants to eat them and they ultimately enjoy them. You "hand feed" them to your girls like treats. I have no idea how long or how often, but it's supposed to work. Oh, and once they find the area under the ant hill, I guess they destroy it trying to get all the goodies inside. [/quote] I have a tarrable problem with ants. Moisture from the misters are making it worse. Only one of my girls eats them. As for chickens destroying a mond it is tge larvey, if I understand it right, that is tasty, the live ants are a bitter pill for the stated reasons. Ants are wingles wosps. I think most have retained the stinger to some degree. I am almost out od DE, I will be using the last tomorrow to powder their pens. I need to check my girls and powder then as well. I have 1-1/2 weeks before the stitches are out, so they will have to wait. To night when I was out to do bed check, two of them were in the new coop, possibly 3, one was at the bottom of the ramp. I'm wondering if it is to open for them. I have been thinking of putting a net curtain over the front leaving a door opening. But I not sure if it will give enough air circulation. But it is nice that it is being used. I can not wait to getting back to it, I want to add one more roost for them. I have a feeling I will have my hand back sooner then I thought I wood.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

GUYS!!!!!!!!!! I HAVE WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! For the state of Arizona, I won poultry proficiency in FFA. Basically this means that out of the thousands of FFA members in the state I had the best knowledge and project relating to poultry!!! I am now going to Louisville in October to compete for the national title!! And yes i attribute much of my knowledge to you fine people!!! And on a side note....... I hear of rain. I like rain.

Congratulations, I am trilled for you

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Well, it seems the rain is back!!

Rain, I think I remember that stuff

 

[Sheof3Angels]

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.

Thank you Demosthine!! We will be sure to try that. Still stock piling my ice, preparing for a hotter summer. Luckily our girls have been raised in these Az summers so not much adjusting needed here in East Mesa. Just need to make sure they get ice 2x daily and we will increase that when it starts getting hotter.

I too worried about the ants in our back yard. Have not seen our girls eating them but who knows what they do when we are not looking. Of course we don't want to remedy the problem with any pesticides but the girls don't seem to be bothered by them.

Hope everyone has a great Father's Day weekend!!

 

[GreatWhiteAfro]

Is it normal and ok for ants to forage through my compost pile? I don't put a lot of food scraps in it, mostly yard trimmings and the used pine shavings.

 

[maryhysong]

Is it normal and ok for ants to forage through my compost pile? I don't put a lot of food scraps in it, mostly yard trimmings and the used pine shavings.

In my experience means it is too dry and there is not enough nitrogen to get it heated up and breaking down. give it some water and manure and that should get rid of the ants.