Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

Question for everyone: Does anyone cut one side of their chickens wings so they can't fly to high up? My girls are just 3 weeks old and can get up about 3ft and it worries me. I've heard you can cut one side to basically lopsided them Suggestions would be helpful!

Yes we have done that.. It does help so they will not fly out of their run. Or just easier for us to catch..
Our first flock was handled just about everyday... Then new flock we have been out of town & helping
our neighbors.. They are not as friendly.. The polish can't see and are getting use to comming up for
attention.. So adorable...

 

[cbnovick]

Question for everyone: Does anyone cut one side of their chickens wings so they can't fly to high up? My girls are just 3 weeks old and can get up about 3ft and it worries me. I've heard you can cut one side to basically lopsided them Suggestions would be helpful!

Depending on the breed usually they will attain enough weight with maturity to deter them from flying much if any at all...smaller, lighter and more flighty breeds like leghorns are more apt to 'fly the coop' as it were

I have clipped wings on persistent leghorns at around 16 weeks...but not sooner.

 

[cbnovick]

Alright, I'm looking to see what y'all have to say about the sexes of these birds. All were hatched from eggs from Desertmarcy about 14 weeks ago.

New Hampshire Reds--all of them look remarkably similar:

bird 1:




birds 2 and 3:

all three look like cockerels to me

 

[cbnovick]

The Russian Orloffs are terribly difficult to photograph.

bird 1:




bird 2 (on right):



I think they're both cockerels.

X 2...sure like the looks of that barred rock color pattern...Marcia's stock too?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

all three look like cockerels to me

Crud. That's what I suspected. The cape feathers are a bit on the narrow side. All three are so very similar in leg, feather, wattle, comb, overall size, etc. that I think they are indeed one sex.

 

[kukupecpec]

Does anyoneknow how to get rid of ants? It's been raining lots here and now both of my coops and my brooders are swarmed with ants. I can't go anywhere near the coops without getting bitten half to death by ants so I can't imagine what is happening to the chickens. I moved some of the chicks, but the others are in with their momma hens. The ones I could see had ants on them. Will DE work? Is there anything else I can do?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

X 2...sure like the looks of that barred rock color pattern...Marcia's stock too?

Thanks for your thoughts! Yep, they all came from Marcia.


Here's my three BRs:

bird 1:




bird 2:




bird 3:




I'm thinking all pullets, anyone think otherwise?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Does anyoneknow how to get rid of ants? It's been raining lots here and now both of my coops and my brooders are swarmed with ants. I can't go anywhere near the coops without getting bitten half to death by ants so I can't imagine what is happening to the chickens. I moved some of the chicks, but the others are in with their momma hens. The ones I could see had ants on them. Will DE work? Is there anything else I can do?

Oh boy, the ants are trouble right now. We were bitten terribly yesterday. DE might work on some ants. I've had relatively good luck with DE during the drier times of year on smaller species of ants, but with this humidity the effectiveness of DE will be greatly diminished (it works best at humidity levels lower than 65%). Once it gets wet it is completely ineffective. I had very mixed luck with leaf-cutter ants. I killed two of three colonies with DE earlier this spring. The two colonies that succumbed I managed to hit right as they emerged this spring and they never recovered. The third (and larger) colony has suffered greatly, but they still carry on. If they are in the coop near chicks I'd probably go nuclear on them and use an ant killer like this that the chickens can't easily get into. I also just found a box of Borax, which I have yet to try. It's supposed to work well with less of a toxic risk compared to the proprietary ant killers. I'll let you know how it works.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Here are my last two Orloffs:

Bird 3:




bird 4:




I'm pretty sure just by appearance and behavior that bird 3 is a pullet but I'm not so sure about bird 4.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Does anyoneknow how to get rid of ants? It's been raining lots here and now both of my coops and my brooders are swarmed with ants. I can't go anywhere near the coops without getting bitten half to death by ants so I can't imagine what is happening to the chickens. I moved some of the chicks, but the others are in with their momma hens. The ones I could see had ants on them. Will DE work? Is there anything else I can do? 

I've been using Diatomaceous Earth mixed with a little Garden and Poulty Dust. It's deadly on them. I put it at all the places they come through. I have a video of then, I have no idea of how to down load it. I put about a teaspoon dust to cup of DE.