Arizona Chickens

[WestSideChicken]

My sons Ameracauna decided to confirm my suspicion that the pullet I bought was really a roo by standing on its ramp and giving me a proud little crow. We live in a no rooster area, so he will have to go. However I would like to replace it for him as soon as possible. Does anyone have a young pullet EE they are selling? my 8 yr old and is not handling it well that his special chicken was the only one that was sexed wrong. I am in the West Phx area near Laveen/Tolleson if anyone has a pullet or is willing to re home an 8 wk old roo?

 

[City farm]

Being new to chickening and even newer to composting, the idea has me very interested.
Anybody here work with a "home" or "family" compost pile? I would like to stop wasting and start using my food waste!

I have a family of 4 and foster dogs coming out of my ears, 4 young chickens and two tortoise youngsters who live outside (ones gone missing again!)

What are the DO AND DONT of composting with chickens? The article here is great but it seems to assume you already know the basics. I could read up on it but I'd rather get an Arizona perspective on this topic since we have such a funky climate to deal with.

I have the perfect corner where I'd like to make my compost pile, and the end use would be for my small 5x8 foot garden.

Thanks guys!

Toxic plant info for chickens. All though some will say citrus is ok.. We do give them a big of orange's.. Not to much..
Between the wild weeds that we harvest durring weed season and left overs.. People give us there goodies, & canned
Food.. We do make sure there is not to much sugar or salt.. Hope this helps..
http://www.poultryhelp.com/toxicplants.html

 

[City farm]

I have 2 compost bins, One is a large trashcan with holes drilled in it and the other is a plastic barrel on a stand that turns. I make sure both stay a bit damp and turn them every 1-2 weeks. I only do grass clippings, pine shavings, chicken poo, shredded paper, and fruit and veggie scraps that the chickens don't eat like rinds. We only have 4 chickens so I don't worry about the ammonia levels but from what I understand having a lot of chicken poop can kill your plants if you don't let it sit for an extended period. If I had more chickens I'd probably make sure I filled bin 1, let it sit for six months while only adding to bin 2, and 6 months later use the content of bin 1 and then stop adding to bin 2 so it can sit for 6 months, rinse repeat.

Great advice.. We did have two bins as well.. The black "yellow jacket" look a like fly keeps on taking over both our bins. Above spinner
& on the ground with worms.. Did not work just yet.. Now that we have the flock I could use them as a TREAT for them..
We do not use any citrus in the compost.. We share our chicken poo, plus all of the ground cover which includes..
Grass clipping from a neighbor that has no dogs, hay, pine shavings, cedar shavings along with our tree droppings..
We only put some of the listed above in our garden 2x a year..

 

[City farm]

I'm a mad composter.  I used to drive my family nuts, but now they're just as nutty as I am.  We keep a sealable container on the counter to keep every compostable scrap and empty it into one of our three bins outside in the evening.  If it's compostable, we compost it (tea bags, receipts, toilet paper rolls, non-glossy paper, pretty much any food product, etc).  I usually manipulate mine for the proper greens:browns ratio to get it hot, which kills a lot of the undesirable things and greatly speeds the process.  As others have noted though, it's really tough to compost wrongly.  It may take longer, but the end results will be just as good.  Really, the best suggestions I could offer are to keep it consistently moist (like a damp sponge) and turn it occasionally.  

I have seen photos of your fabulous green's.. I only dream of doing it right?? Someday ?? Some how you manage it just right..

 

[MagicChicken]

Today was the cockerels' day out. I came home this afternoon at the end of a rainstorm to find 10 soaking wet roosters having a crowing contest in the rain. Apparently they were enjoying the shower. A while later I looked out and noticed that almost all of them had developed purple edges on the backs of their comb blades. Hmmm.... It sure isn't frostbite - it got up to 109 here today. They didn't develop purple combs when it was 114 out, or after a rain on days when they've been confined to the coop/run, so I'm guessing the purple may have been due to evaporative chilling from all the running around they were doing after the rain stopped? They're chasing each other as usual and none of them look particularly stressed. Comb color is back to normal now.

Was going to post a picture, but they are not uploading for some reason.

 

[countrygirl74]

Do you guys put food and water inside you coop and your run? Or will just putting it in the run be good enough? Didn't know if they got up for midnight snacks and would need any inside the coop.

I keep mine in the run only - never in the coop.

Today was the cockerels' day out. I came home this afternoon at the end of a rainstorm to find 10 soaking wet roosters having a crowing contest in the rain. Apparently they were enjoying the shower. A while later I looked out and noticed that almost all of them had developed purple edges on the backs of their comb blades. Hmmm.... It sure isn't frostbite - it got up to 109 here today. They didn't develop purple combs when it was 114 out, or after a rain on days when they've been confined to the coop/run, so I'm guessing the purple may have been due to evaporative chilling from all the running around they were doing after the rain stopped? They're chasing each other as usual and none of them look particularly stressed. Comb color is back to normal now.

Was going to post a picture, but they are not uploading for some reason.

My silkie roo apparently think it's his job to crow at the thunder. Needless to say, with monsoon season upon us, he's been quite annoying.

 

[countrygirl74]

One is here!!!!

I let my silkie Cloud sit on 4 of her own eggs. At the time, the only roo available was the blue silkie as our cochin started mounting the girls after she started sitting. So, these are pure silkies, though they are only hatchery quality.

I candled a while back and one ended up being a dud - not even fertilized. The other 3 were developing. Well, one hatched yesterday!! The cool thing is that I went out to check on her, lifted her up and actually saw the first pip happen in those few seconds! I left them alone for a while, then snuck a peek later and then again today. Was a little worried about the other two but I gently held one of the eggs to my ear and could hear movement and peeping inside! Yay! She (Cloud) is such a sweetie - never pecked me once during her whole broody time or even when I wanted to see her new baby. Here's some photos....


1st pip


Hatched!




All fluffed up...


Discovered the chick starter left in there for mom...




Hopefully tomorrow I'll have 2 more babies to show!!

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Do you guys put food and water inside you coop and your run?  Or will just putting it in the run be good enough?  Didn't know if they got up for midnight snacks and would need any inside the coop.

I go out and just set in their yard at night when I can not sleep. I have lights in back of me that makes it never really dark in my yard. On one occasion, one of my girls got up and walked down the ramp, then walked over and got a log drink. Returned to the roost, waking everyone up for a brief minute.

 

[redrocketrooster]

RRR: What you're hatching sounds great! I'd also be interested in some of the cool looking and harder to find white egg layers, like Hamburgs or Exchequer Leghorns.

My Pet Chicken does both Silver and Blue Hamburgs...I haven't found a decent source of Excheqer eggs yet!

I have 2 compost bins, One is a large trashcan with holes drilled in it and the other is a plastic barrel on a stand that turns. I make sure both stay a bit damp and turn them every 1-2 weeks. I only do grass clippings, pine shavings, chicken poo, shredded paper, and fruit and veggie scraps that the chickens don't eat like rinds. We only have 4 chickens so I don't worry about the ammonia levels but from what I understand having a lot of chicken poop can kill your plants if you don't let it sit for an extended period. If I had more chickens I'd probably make sure I filled bin 1, let it sit for six months while only adding to bin 2, and 6 months later use the content of bin 1 and then stop adding to bin 2 so it can sit for 6 months, rinse repeat.

How well would pine shavings compost? I go through several bags of it a week. It shavings, chinchilla pee/poo, twigs, hay and rosehips they dont finish. I feel wasteful tossing it away!

So, for those that were interested, the organic co-op orders for the first week of August are now open. Orders and payment is due by July 25th. Go to http://www.phoenixorganicfeed.com/ for more info. I am stilling willing to do the pickup for this one in the West Valley. As the deadline approaches, let me know by PM if you want me to get your order and where we should meet afterwards.

Are your chickens on this feed already? I considered ordering but I have two bags of feed to go through still. I've heard that chickens can be picky and turn down organic feeds???

I have seen photos of your fabulous green's.. I only dream of doing it right?? Someday ?? Some how you manage it just right..

One is here!!!! Hopefully tomorrow I'll have 2 more babies to show!!

Oh my goodness! What a cutie! your making me itch for my silkies to get here already! Since Daddy roo crows at thunder maybe you should have a stormy name set for this hatch lol. I'm fairly bad at growing indoor plants. I started a window garden facing west of mint, lavender and thyme. The mint is spreading low and wide while the thyme and lavender continue to sprout but die shortly after. I have a larger pot of impatiens that all sprouted but halted growth now too? This makes me so sad and i'm pulling out my hair to figure out what to do! Should i move them outdoors? The room can be as cold as 72f and with the clouds the sun desn't come through the windows.

 

[Arizonachicken]

Wow. My guy's spurs aren't that long, but they are much thicker.