Arizona Chickens

[flower]

So for those not familiar with processing of just too many rooster or even hens, AZKat, countrygirl74 will help or give a demonstration iand if a good time can be arranged I could come down to the valley and help also. Or if needed a processing party could be planned in the northern part of the state also. I plan on seriously reducing my numbers of big birds since I really do not need all of them and have chicks to feed during the winter time. I have been thinking of driving down to Gilbert as soon as the weather is cooler and watering the garden is not so critical.

 

[Twinklin]

Finally got my side yard back in order from building the run and converting the shed into a coop. It has been a mess with trash and scrap wood everywhere. My boyfriend and I are NOT carpenters and made everything up as we went along. We only let the girls in the run during the day (locked up in the coop at night) so it's pretty well predator proof but used the larger galvanized mesh to save a little money and doubled it up along the bottom 1/2 of most of the walls and have a 2ft skirt coming out off the bottom. Still need to get a little more to double up the last wall. The run is 8x8ft and about 6ft tall at the roof peak. I'll take a picture of the inside of the coop once the nest boxes are done, the girls are only 2 1/2 months so we won't need them for a while. The small garden I made today and has black oil sunflower seeds planted in it. The chicks don't go in the rocks so as long as I can keep wild birds from eating the sprouts they "should" grow.

So far we haven't had any issue with the oleander. I was super paranoid about it but we have about 40-50 of these HUGE ones that surround the entire back yard (they were there when we moved in) so removing them really wasn't an option. I did a lot of research before getting chickens because I was afraid of them getting sick from them but found info saying birds are relatively insensitive to them unlike humans, dogs, and other mammals though my little dog hasn't had any issues either but he's not outside much (little foofoo too good for being outside kinda dog). So I'll keep my fingers crossed we never have problems with poisoning. I do keep the branches trimmed back from the run and keep the run raked from the leaves and flowers as much as I can.

We picked a bad time of year to build and my boyfriend doesn't tolerate heat well so it was slow going. There's still some stuff I need to do, like make a nicer more permanent ramp up into the coop and maybe figure out a nicer roof for the covered side of the run, maybe a few pieces of standing seam roofing. But for the most part it's done, not the prettiest, fanciest coop/run but I'm pretty happy with it. They have a little roost in the corner, plenty of shade and the hose running in the top is their mister.

 

[City farm]

So for those not familiar with processing of just too many rooster or even hens,   AZKat, countrygirl74  will help or give a demonstration iand if a good time can be arranged I could come down to the valley and help also. Or if needed a processing party could be planned in the northern part of the state also. I plan on seriously reducing my numbers of big birds since I really do not need all of them and have chicks to feed during the winter time. I have been thinking of driving down to Gilbert as soon as the weather is cooler and watering the garden is not so critical. 

Yes, please let us know & hope it will work out for us to be there.. 3 of us..please PM us & let us know the time..I dont read all the posts..

 

[City farm]

I just dealt with a crop issue with my EE. I made a post that I updated as I went through the process. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/803948/first-time-owner-dealing-with-sour-crop#post_11639677 The steps I took ended up working really well and Eleanor has been back with her sisters the past couple days and feelin fine. I continue to give the lactose free kefir milk that I mention in my post. I mix it with whatever treat/scraps they get that day. When they finish this bottle I'm going to go a bit more inexpensive and get plain live culture yogurt that will helpfully keep their good bacteria levels up so I don't have to do this process again. I also add a little ACV to their water now. Ely lost some weight over the few days she was ill, and her crop stretched out but she's already looking better and her crop seems to be going back to normal. I check it every morning to make sure she doesn't have anything sitting in it. Good luck! To sum up my post these were the steps I took.
1. Hold chicken like a football, tilt head to floor, upside down and massage crop to let her vomit letting her breathe in between until you get no more vomit.
2. Isolate chicken in area with no hay or pine shavings
3. Massage crop for a few minutes a few times a day
4. Make a thick soup from kefir milk and crumbles or smashed up pellet, feed only that until crop is empty
5. Make sure grit is available
6. add Apple Cider Vinegar to water. I used 1tsp/quart.

I did try for more than 15 minutes.. Noting came up.. It was soft but she would not regurgitate. I did bring her up every 1-2 mins.. . I will try again later..

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

So for those not familiar with processing of just too many rooster or even hens, AZKat, countrygirl74 will help or give a demonstration iand if a good time can be arranged I could come down to the valley and help also. Or if needed a processing party could be planned in the northern part of the state also. I plan on seriously reducing my numbers of big birds since I really do not need all of them and have chicks to feed during the winter time. I have been thinking of driving down to Gilbert as soon as the weather is cooler and watering the garden is not so critical.

Where are you located?

 

[Diggidy]

Anyone have a Tangerine Beaut Vine? I am trying to figure out if they are safe for chickens. I would go for grapes, but this vine seems really easy to care for and is green year round.

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/358/tangerine-beauty-crossvine.php

 

[Demosthine]

We got dome helacious wind, lightning and thunder in the far Northwest Valley last night! There was even a moderate amount of rain, too. My wife sent me out three times to make sure the flock was ok

It made for a gorgeous bike ride in to work this morning. Let's do it again tonight, please!

 

[Phottoman]

We got dome helacious wind, lightning and thunder in the far Northwest Valley last night! There was even a moderate amount of rain, too. My wife sent me out three times to make sure the flock was ok

It made for a gorgeous bike ride in to work this morning. Let's do it again tonight, please!

We did a very rare thing last night, we went out to dinner at one of the casinos in Laughlin, it was fish night and we were very careful to NOT overeat, but it was GREAT. We got home about 9:00 and turned on the TV to catch some news, and saw the news about the rain fall down in your part of the State, and as we drove home I was commenting about all the lightning off (WAY off) to our West, then watched the news out of Las Vegas and the flooding they got there.

WOW, and here we were just 10 miles or so West of Kingman, and nothing, not a drop.

But this morning it is already 83* (at 6:30 AM) and getting very muggy.

I am just about Summered out. I can hardly wait until the winter gets back here.

I know, in Arizona, it's ten months of Summer, two weeks of Fall, a month and a half of winter and three days of Spring. Well, that's what it feels like.

@CountryGirl74, I don't want to intrude, but would you please send me a PM and give me an idea where you are located. I would LOVE to start raising meaties, and I doubt I would have trouble processing them. It sounds almost like we are close enough to invite you over when you are ready to do your thing, and I would LOVE to learn. We live in Golden Valley right off Highway 68, paved roads MOST of the way to the house and very hard to get lost, our streets are very well marked.

Skip

 

[Twinklin]

We got nailed in N. Scottsdale. Our first rain with the shed converted as a coop. Definitely need to put a rain shield above the door out to the run and use a sealer of some type along the floor joint on the one side because water got in a bit. Luckily we use sand as litter so I raked it all loose and it should dry pretty fast. The winds were so high last night it blew the lid right off our hot tub and that thing is heavy. Hope everyone made it through the storm ok. Looks like they're calling for more all weekend.

 

[mckenzy]

We got nailed in N. Scottsdale. Our first rain with the shed converted as a coop. Definitely need to put a rain shield above the door out to the run and use a sealer of some type along the floor joint on the one side because water got in a bit. Luckily we use sand as litter so I raked it all loose and it should dry pretty fast. The winds were so high last night it blew the lid right off our hot tub and that thing is heavy. Hope everyone made it through the storm ok. Looks like they're calling for more all weekend.

Nailed in N Phoenix too. Was interesting to watch my larger birds just bunch together and hunker down for the storm. They'd shift their weight with the wind. The baby birds were freaking out. After the wind picked up my patio table (iron!) I decided to move all 4 birds into a large dog kennel till the storm passed. My pool had a hundred pounds of wet leaves in it too! And I don't even have any trees!

Hope everyone else's backyard chickens did ok.