Arizona Chickens

[GreatWhiteAfro]

So I grew some wheat grass fodder for my girls and put in the run last night for them to enjoy since they seem to like my new little grass sprouts I'm trying to grow in the yard, and they didn't even touch the wheat grass!!! I figured they would be all over it because they love the sprouted lentils I give them and this is twice as green!! Any ideas how to get them interested in it? I want them to have more greens in their diet and sprouting the wheat is really easy.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

[SIZE=4A]itsredcandy[/SIZE] what a depressing month. With the heat it is Evernote worse. I'm so sorry and empathize Wuth your pain.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
If they are coming up in your garden and they haven't formed seeds yet, you can chop them off at ground level with a shovel and leave them on the ground as mulch. It will help retain moisture in the garden. You don't want to use Roundup near your garden plants. Or anywhere, if you can avoid it.

If you scrape the area clean of weeds you will quickly wind up with hard-packed concrete-like stuff in your yard that won't grow anything, and it will be HOT. Which is what the former owners of my yard did. The more you disturb the soil the less hospitable it is for stuff you want to grow and the more hospitable it is for undesirable weeds like tumbleweeds and goatheads.

I've been trying to revegetate my yard for 7 years. Have not had much success. So I am grateful for anything that decides to grow here. I pull out tumbleweeds and goatheads and cheeseweed and leave most everything else. Leaving most of the weeds gives the rabbits and ground squirrels more to eat, and they tend to leave my garden alone. Plus the weeds make shade for the lizards and baby quail, and they provide good homes for yummy bugs for the chickens. On the other hand, I haven't had as many weeds in the yard since the chickens have been free-ranging. So you might try chicken power for reducing your weed seedlings after the rains start. They seem to be pretty good at it.

 

[AZKat]

itsredcandy: I'm sorry you're having such a rough month.

Billiam: Its a boy!

 

[kevs-chickadees]

I 1958/59 I went to camp outside of Tucson. It belonged to friends of my parents. They had a water tank, we had to draw bath water then let it cool so we could bath. We filled the sink with water, used it until it got dirty, or we refilled it after we used it. Don't ask about the toilet. I burned my hand when I washed then the first time. I did not know.

Cooper is also anti-bacterial. Bacteria when they come in contact with certain metals explode on contact. Silver is even better. It was used to preserve milk and a silver coin was used as birth control. Door handles, railings are made with cooper/brass to prevent the spread of germs. Nickel however reacts differently and people can have allergy s, nickel is used to harden softer metals. It is the same with gold. It is believed by some that using silver flatware and serving plates will lack the silver into the foods, and will act as an antibiotic.

Not all metals should be blended, as pointed out with cooper.

Colloidal silver is an awesome antibiotic! My house has recently gone through strep and after the full doses of the prescribed antibiotic it came back with a vengeance. So it's been the CS since then + some good bacterias to go with it.

 

[pastrymama]

well I came home from the morning movies with the kids to an absolute disaster. we had several hens down with heat stroke and one dead in the coop. the kids were just hysterical but helped to pull out the dying hens and grab the hose on the patio to cool them down quickly. it will be touch and go still for 3 Basque, 1 FBCM, 1 SBEL, 1 Porcelain silkie, but I lost my other SBEL. I have the misters still going in the yard, the broodies smashed all the eggs which is just as well. I imagine the eggs are fried anyway. wow, I have had a super crappy chicken and duck year.

 

[maryhysong]

well I came home from the morning movies with the kids to an absolute disaster. we had several hens down with heat stroke and one dead in the coop. the kids were just hysterical but helped to pull out the dying hens and grab the hose on the patio to cool them down quickly. it will be touch and go still for 3 Basque, 1 FBCM, 1 SBEL, 1 Porcelain silkie, but I lost my other SBEL. I have the misters still going in the yard, the broodies smashed all the eggs which is just as well. I imagine the eggs are fried anyway. wow, I have had a super crappy chicken and duck year.

oh so sorry to hear that! Hope the others pull through for you!

 

[City farm]

I too have an A/C unit in the coop. I keep it at 82 so it is comfortable for them while laying eggs. we have misters in the runs and two containers with ice water for them to soak their tootsies. Daphne loves her foot soak.This is a planter saucer and the other is a under the bed plastic container that 4 girls can hang out in.

Boy OH boy those are some spoiled chicken..

 

[City farm]

It's been a terrible 2 weeks for me and birds.  I lost my beautiful BO.  I had a broody hen that I wanted to get chicks for.  cbnovick and pastrymama were kind enough to share some rare birds with me.  I had gotten sulmtalers and brahmas from pastrymama and some blue and brown Orpingtons from cbnovick.  I had 5 of the orpingtons for my brood, day old cute fuzzy butts.  The night I got them home I waited until the sun went down and it was dark, I transfered broody hen from nest to brooder and put the chicks under her.  She wouldn't have it and started pecking at them.  I moved her back to the nest and the chicks into the garage.  Next morning I go out and realize I didn't shut the brooder.  I have a board that seperated two sides of the brooder and I have quail growing out on the other side.  Well the board fell down and I had 12 quail on the loose.  I found 2 that had met their demise with my cat.  I found many running around the yard and caught them.  The neighbor called me and informed me that 2 of my quail were in her back yard.  I was able to get them as well.  A few days later I found another in the yard and then a week later another.  I fixed the board in the brooder with a screw and put the chicks with my broody hen.  She seemed to except them this time.  No pecking.  She just ate and drank and would sit.  They crawled under and over her and she seemed happy.  That afternoon I went to my grandmothers for 3 hours.  When I got home I check on the birds.  She killed three, leaving me one brown Orpington and one blue.  I pulled her out and put her back with the hens.  Those two are doing good.  My broody, she's still broody.  I kick her out of the nest every time I go out there.  She really makes me mad.  Then, 2 days ago, as I feeding the pullets (hopefully) in the grow out pen I realize one of the sulmtalers is just laying there not interested in the food as the others are going nuts over feeding time.  I pick her up and her crop is full and hard.  I brought her in and was able to get her crop emptied.  I put her in my indoor brooder under a light that keeps the brooder about 85.  She dried out from the crop emptying and was drinking water on her own.  She was standing and no longer limp.  She had been so much smaller than the others her age.  Well she passed that evening.  I did an autopsy and found the her gizzard was packed full of food and very expanded.  There was no bile in her gizzard, not sure if there is suppose to be.  I was very extended and full, just packed with grass and food. 

Just a sad backyard bird raising month.

Oh man that is a very weird few days?? So sorry about your loss.. Next time you or anyone does a autopsy call us... Please..

 

[Demosthine]

Geeze, ItsRedCandy and PastryMama, you're both having rough years! I wish there was something I could do to help!

My clan is out there panting up a storm, but they seem to be doing fairly well and are still free-ranging. I did have my daughters take a few extra precautions today when the forecaster raised the high from 118* to 120*-120*. I have a box fan blowing on the back porch, along with the ceiling fan. I had them fill the wading tub (and they "filled" it to the brim), plus add fresh water to the water tin. I guess the turkeys were sitting next to and atop the frozen OceanSpray Cranberry Juice container. That's about the extent to what I'm doing and only when temps break my threshold of 117*. Part of it was more of the sudden shift from 110* up to 120*.

Oh, and not a single egg so far today. I do believe this is the first time since they started laying that we may not get any eggs at all.


SO, with our discussion early regarding grass, xeriscaping, and temperatures, I decided to do an unscientific test of the various parts of my house. I started by sitting in the backyard and calculated how many sweat droplets appeared on my arm in 60 seconds... I cooled off inside and repeated the procedure out front... Just kidding!!!

What I actually did was to place a digital quick-read meat thermometer in each location and allowed it to sit until the temperature stabilized. I wasn't really surprised the results, but it makes me feel a whole lot better about my setup... And it explains why they prefer sitting in the shaded grass below the slides

Backyard
Shaded Grass: 88*
Sunny Grass: 97*
Shaded Porch with Ceiling Fan: 111*
Inside the Coop: 112*

Front Yard
Shaded Rock: 119*
Sunny Rock: 127*