Arizona Chickens

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote: I agree, a picture with all chicks would be helpful. Otherwise, I would hold off on getting rid of it if it were me. This chick could be a leghorn. Leghorns are great layers, heat tolerant and grow combs early.
If you are worried that you won't end up with enough hens, I would get another chick but hold onto this one. If you end up with too many pullets, they are easy to find a home for and there are so many roosters looking for homes that it will be really hard to find a home for a chick.

 

[Demosthine]

Yes flood irrigation is lovely if you live where it's available. But that is only parts of Phoenix and Tucson; the rest of the state we are at the mercy of the water companies and AZ water just raised their rates.

Crab grass is a short lived weed. It will crowd out the real grass, grow quick then die off leaving large brown spots all over.

The one I always had a problem with before having chickens was the darn nutgrass. It didn't matter what I did, I couldn't get rid of that horrible stuff. I even spent good money on the several of the really expensive nutgrass killers. They would go away briefly and then come right back a few weeks later. The plant spreads the "nuts" underground, so you have to have a very good penetrating, water-based herbicide. Unfortunately, none of them worked for me. The chickens appear to be eating it all before they even have a chance to grow. It's downright fantastic.

I need to look in to the pasteur mix of grass for this winter. If I remember right, there was something saying not to plant rye if you are letting the chickens free-range. I need to confirm that, though. I still have a few months to figure that out and need to make sure we call get through this heat. Hopefully, this is the only really hot week this year. We had about a week of really harsh cold, so our summer should match with a week of really hot. The rest will be mild and easy to survive.

 

[Arizonachicken]

First of all, Nutgrass is not a grass, it is a sedge. The proper name is Nutsedge, and this is why you can't treat it like a grass. Round up will not work effectively. The products for Nutsedge work by translocation through the plant system, moving down the runners and eventually killing the nutlets. In an established Nutsedge area, you can have THOUSANDS of nutlets so you need consistent treatments-about 3 treatments per season-for 3-4 years. There are trade secrets to effective and proper application techniques. I could tell you them, but then I'd have to kill you. . It's taken my husband years of research and trials to know how to take care of this nasty pest without killing the existing lawn. Nutsedge is a bad one for sure.

I'd like to know about the rye. Keep us updated on your research for that!

 

[nwebber]

It would help to see a picture of this one next to the others. Are they all the same breed? A/he looks kind of big. What are the chances of this chick being a Cornish X? If it is, it'll grow REALLY fast. Either way, 2 weeks is a bit early for most breeds to be able to sex them. Some if the experts on here may be able to help.

 

[nwebber]

I honestly have no idea if she could be a Cornish breed. We just hoped to get 3 healthy girls and we really love them and their personalities that have formed over the last two weeks. In response to her looking big she actually is the smallest (but not by much) to the other two. We feed them all kinds of scraps and they inhail it lol. I think I accidentally posted a pic of her with one other but it may be too dark to see them? Maybe I should get one more chick now just incase knowing I can't introduce a new chick later on.

It would help to see a picture of this one next to the others. Are they all the same breed? A/he looks kind of big. What are the chances of this chick being a Cornish X? If it is, it'll grow REALLY fast. Either way, 2 weeks is a bit early for most breeds to be able to sex them. Some if the experts on here may be able to help.

 

[nwebber]

Here

I agree, a picture with all chicks would be helpful.  Otherwise, I would hold off on getting rid of it if it were me.  This chick could be a leghorn.  Leghorns are great layers, heat tolerant and grow combs early.
If you are worried that you won't end up with enough hens, I would get another chick but hold onto this one.  If you end up with too many pullets, they are easy to find a home for and there are so many roosters looking for homes that it will be really hard to find a home for a chick.

Thank you for all the help. Here is a silly question that I'm obviously not figuring out via the Internet on my own! Do most breeds end up with a crown on their heads whether they are a hen or a rooster?

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

I honestly have no idea if she could be a Cornish breed. We just hoped to get 3 healthy girls and we really love them and their personalities that have formed over the last two weeks. In response to her looking big she actually is the smallest (but not by much) to the other two. We feed them all kinds of scraps and they inhail it lol. I think I accidentally posted a pic of her with one other but it may be too dark to see them? Maybe I should get one more chick now just incase knowing I can't introduce a new chick later on.


Quote:
I usually get one or two more than I want to make up for the rooster error thinking that I can always sell an extra pullet. However, I always end up keeping them. (Chicken Math!)

 

[kevs-chickadees]

I keep the lawn for a few reasons. First and foremost, my one-year old daughter absolutely loves being outside and always have. She was out crawling in the yard at six or eight months old. It's allowed her to get a nice amount of sun and outside play without worrying about her falling on rocks and gravel.

I also like the grass because it helps insulate the ground against the sun's heat. During these extreme temps, dirt and gravel can both get extremely hot. A plot of grass is comfortable to walk on no matter what the temperature. All of my girls are bedding down on the grass in the evenings and being lazy. I've never found them that way in the dirt areas, nor the rocks, even though the rock landscaping is all under the shade of the oleander. They are more often sitting in the sunny grass versus the shaded rock. Going hand-in-hand with that, I think it decreases the residual heat that is let off at night, too, allowing the backyard to remain cooler at all times. We have way to much of a "parking lot effect" as it is. If I can reduce the temperature in my immediate area without any additional effort or very little expense, I'm game. To be quite honesty, I spend more time and effort trying to keep my darn gravel front yard clean. All the leaves, trash and everything imaginable gets caught in the rocks. A rake didn't work well at all. For a leaf vacuum or blower, you are either using larger amounts of electricity or gasoline.

Of course, you have the extra benefits of grass for everyone. Fresh greens and more bugs for the chickens, the amazingly beautiful aesthetic looks, the extra material for composting if necessary, gentleness on the body for the kids playing, etc. A desert landscape can't accomplish any of this.

Several years ago when new home construction was booming, I was called out to check on a houses water source being to hot. To make a long story short the water was held in a large above ground container and pumped to the individual homes. I checked the temp. at this particular home's meter and it was a whopping 98* it had a rock yard and from meter to service it actually gained 2 degrees. Just for comparison I checked the neighbors temps only they had a grass yard, it was 10 degrees cooler coming from their water service. The only desert plant I have in my yard is a aloe vera (sp?) and my wife had to fight me on that one.

 

[kevs-chickadees]

My girls are two weeks old tomorrow and we bought them from Mesa Feed Barn and they did not know yet what breeds the girls were. He said you have about a 10% chance of getting a rooster. I was hoping wed get lucky and not grab one knowing we would have to get rid of it if we did.

Of the dozens and dozens of chicks we have bought at Mesa Feed Barn we have never gotten a boy. I don't know if that makes you feel any better or maybe worse if it does turn out that way.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
Mesa Feed Barn orders from Ideal Hatchery. I got a boy at the barn and a boy from an Ideal order. That's only 2 out of about 30, though.