Arizona Chickens

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote: Oops. I have been watching these pods for about a week now, so they probably aren't any good. Not that I would know...I have never in my life eaten an okra.

Grab one and bite into it. It might not be too woody yet. What, wait a minute. You've never eaten an okra in your life?!!!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Is three years old about right for an Australorp to stop laying? She is the oldest of my group, and I haven't seen an egg from her in over a month. Or should I be concerned that there is something wrong? She is acting fine in every other way.

I have a BA that is 3.5, when she's not broody she still lays like a champ. Although, I have had birds stop laying for a month at a time around this time of year.

 

[tsuninight]

Quote: We were watering it daily. We don't have a drip/sprinkler system in yet (dang budget), so we've been watering them manually. They have a well around them from when they were planted and we were filling all the wells once in the morning and once in the evening. We got these garden spike things for them now and now we just water two of the 4 trees for a couple hours (hose drip) in the evening along with filling all the wells and everything seems to be doing okay... well... jurys still out on the fig, but it is doing a little better. I think new leaves are a positive though lol. Though actually none of the trees but the fig seemed to care about the amount of water we were giving them before I was told they needed a 2-3 long soaks per week. I'm hoping once we get a drip system in (thinking this fall) things will even out a bit too.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Hmmm...that sounds like plenty of water. Did the leaves turn yellow before falling off? Do you know what type of fig it is?

 

[Twinklin]

well... they found the garden. To this point they've been sticking to under the bushes and the grass because they only have like 1/2 hour to explore at a time, but today I laid out in the grass with them for an hour and let them roam a bit more. We have tons of spiders in the grass near the garden so they got really excited at first, luckily they didn't get too carried away eating all my veggies. Then they lost interest after 5 minutes and walked away. They have the smallest attention spans.

 

[notinoz2007]

We have had virtually no rain yet. Just a few light storms, but no more than 1/4". I finally moved the last of my birds outside yesterday---17 turkey poults, most are a month old but they are very frightened at being outside and won't leave the back wall of the pen. It is a relief to have no more chicks or poults inside in brooders to care for. This has been a crazy year for hatching for me as I try to raise up a bunch of chicks of each breed just to pick a few to work with for breeding. We really need a live in caretaker to help out so we can take a vacation, but have not been able to find the right person since our last caretaker left last fall.

oh my gosh, sounds like my dream job! too bad i have a family to take care of, haha

 

[kevs-chickadees]

That's true, but as the person trying to keep the thing alive it's also infuriating. I'm just glad it seems to have stopped the fig production and moved onto leaf production. The thing was down to like 10 leaves that were all looking crispy at the end. It just surprises me that my Truvita tree has oranges that are steadily growing everywhere and doing beautifully and the Fig has just struggled like crazy. Ah well it will live or not live. I think it's chances are improving though since it's starting to have leaves again rofl.

If your looking for more leaves and less fig production feed it a lot of Nitrogen. I've heard this many times and found it to be true with my fig tree. I have a white kadota that is now begining to really boom. It gets watered deeply once a week. I chose the white kadota because it doesn't turn a dark color when it's ripe hoping this would deter every bird within a square mile that visits my yard. Now I have to figure out how to deter big bird my neighbor from coming over and picking them off my tree before I can get to them. Seriously!

 

[notinoz2007]

We are having one heck of a gullywasher. A few minutes before the storm rolled in I tried to get the pullets back in the coop. They would have none of it. So I went back inside and the rain started, gentle at first, and the girls were wandering around the yard.. then it rained a bit harder and they were huddled under a creosote bush... now it is flooding some of the yard and I can see them bunched together standing really upright, still under the creosote bush. At least they're in one of the higher parts of the yard. They don't look real happy but hey, they can't say I didn't try to warn them. The outside birds manage to survive this stuff so I am sure the chickens will be fine. Maybe next time they will listen to me. In the meantime they are getting very, very clean. Maybe I should toss them a bar of soap?

Edited to add: It has dropped over 2" of rain in less than an hour. It is still raining. I managed to get six wet pullets back in the coop. Two are still having none of that inside stuff. OK by me. They can figure out how to swim across the moat that has formed outside their pop door when they finally decide they want to be inside.

my chicks roost on an old table frame in the run - for some reason they dont like to sleep in the coop. the day it rained i went to check on them and there was 2 inches of water in the run and only 3 chicks on the table. the others were all Under the table laying IN a huge puddle! i had to move 15 chicks into the coop and off the wet ground! now for the past 2 nights they roost on top of the 6 ft block fence between my neighbors house and mine... i am gonna get in so much trouble one day, LOL

My Son an avid Boyscout troop 262 Glendale and I built this Redwood Chicken Tractor just thought we would share. Thanks

that looks great, i love the redwood also

We're in high fig season here! For the past couple weeks we'd been doing a pretty good job of keeping up with eating every ripe fig, but a couple days ago they started ripening in earnest. I picked 8lbs and started dehydrating them. We've gotten 2+lbs each day since and both dehydrators are working hard with this new moisture in the air. With any luck, we'll continue getting figs up through the first frost. Fresh figs, truly one of the great gifts in life.

Anybody else harvesting anything?

All four are friends now. I guess it takes a rain soaked bush huddle to become chicken family.

Certain I'll have to start clipping the Buttercup wings soon. Not even sure how they got up there!

that is so cute! i should have taken the rain as the opportunity to integrate my flock! as it is i let them all free range together about an hour a day to get used to each other.

Quote: i would love to see your work as well. if you dont post here maybe you would consider hosting pics on a different site and posting the link?

Quote: for a small tree i think i have gotten a decent amount of figs. they smell really sweet but i havent tried any. i bought it for my chickens, for shade and food, so just pick and toss in the run. maybe next year when i have more they will have to share with me

re: processing chickens - i actually couldnt process my first time. i cried then put the chickens on craigslist. the second time was better because i didnt name them and didnt really bond with them. i would be interested in getting together with other people to learn different methods. for instance - i dont pluck my birds, i just skin them. i will probably be processing in early september, one of my cockerels started to try to crow 2 days ago, but they are still so small!


and now i am all caught up, lol.

 

[notinoz2007]

kev, your neighbor is big bird? lol...

 

[wondertwinpower]

Does anybody know what kind of bird this is? It was on the power line going to the next door neighbors house, and the chickens were all freaked out, and one of my dogs would not stop barking at it.