Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

City Farm that is very sweet of you. What are you going to hatch? Problem is we are pretty far away living in Wittmann.
Thank you all for caring!

If it ends up working out, my wife and I can play messenger. We can meet Daphane downtown or in South Phoenix and then bring the chicks up to North Peoria. Between my wife and I, we are down in that area every day but Sunday. It's only about another 20 minutes from my house to Wittman.

City Farm, I think mix chickens are the best kind!
Demosthine, That will be great. Lets see what works out. Thanks.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Can someone explain the squatting/bowing situation? I assumed it was just the pullet being uncomfortable with a big ol egg in there moving down. Reading has suggested its a mating/submission move? Any facts?

Yup! your little girl is growing up.
I've never seen it, can any one confirm , if a pullet/hen doesn't like the rooster they will not do that, but make it difficult and impossible for them to mount. I do not have the experience yet. A lot of hours watching chicken when I could, and 1 year of having them.

 

[City farm]

City Farm that is very sweet of you. What are you going to hatch? Problem is we are pretty far away living in Wittmann.
Thank you all for caring!

If it ends up working out, my wife and I can play messenger. We can meet Daphane downtown or in South Phoenix and then bring the chicks up to North Peoria. Between my wife and I, we are down in that area every day but Sunday. It's only about another 20 minutes from my house to Wittman.

City Farm, I think mix chickens are the best kind!
Demosthine, That will be great. Lets see what works out. Thanks.

Oopsss, iPad only gives me a small area to scroll down...
Yes that sounds good... I wish I had a hen on eggs now.. They are not laying as much till September/ October.. As soon as we
have babies you just let us know and some are yours...

Are you comming to processing day?

 

[Fuzzybird]

CityFarm, I know the two roos I have will be there but I just don't know about me. I haven't caught the date of that! Not sure if I can stomach it but love to see everyone.

 

[Mikokoke]

We finally got a half-dozen eggs...Only since July 30! Not sure which hen is laying, since we just recently started getting eggs. From left to right: Sat, Mon, Tues, and today - Wednesday. My question: Is it one hen that's laying or two? Just questioning because the color of the eggs are so different. We have 3 RIR, 3 EE, 3 BA, and 1 SLW. I Do believe that the BA is the layer and the RIR is soon to follow. THoughts: Same hen or different?

 

[Demosthine]

Based on the colors, you have three layers. Four if you count that huge white one. The far left looks to be one hen, the two in the middle probably can from another and the fourth is definitely a different hen.

 

[Mikokoke]

Based on the colors, you have three layers. Four if you count that huge white one. The far left looks to be one hen, the two in the middle probably can from another and the fourth is definitely a different hen.

Well, don't count the huge white one in the back...That's store bought. It was just a comparison.
Thank you for the feedback. Now I have to figure out which one's are laying.

 

[wondertwinpower]

Ohhhhh this is great! You opened up one of the great rivalries in Tucson: East versus West! I'm very partial to the east side, including NE, straight east, and SE and Vail. They couldn't GIVE me a house in Oro Valley (mostly because the demographics are very heavily weighted to the 60+ crowd) and I like a more diverse neighborhood. But I know that it is PERFECT for lots of folks. Besides the large lot (I think you said at least 1/2 acre), what are your other requirements? What's the farthest you want to be from a grocery store, shopping, hospital, primary physician, gas station, park, cultural events, interstate, etc? One downside to the NE side is that it's farrrrr from the interstate, so if you're going on a roadtrip or even to Phoenix, it seems like forever just to get to I-10. Tucson is really an amazing place to live and I'm sure you will love it once you find your forever home!

Quote:

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
In my opinion a 4' x 4' tractor/pen would be way too small for 6-8 birds in Tucson. Even for Cornish crosses. Those birds get big fast - that's why they're raised for meat. For a pen area I usually figure on at least 15 square feet per bird. They need room to get out of the sun and wind and rain and you need to be able to keep their feed dry. People who successfully cram a lot of birds into small tractor pens usually have enough pasture area to move the pen daily. If you don't have room for heritage chickens you probably don't have enough pasture to move a 4'x4' tractor pen to fresh ground every day. It is hard to adequately locate a coop/pen in Tucson - the sun angle varies a lot, wind and rain can come from any direction, and rain is often horizontal. The more space the birds have the more options they have to get out of the elements.

Hmmm, sounds like Oro Valley isn't the area I'm interested in! I was looking in the NE, or NW areas too. We want at least 1/2 acre, and want our chickens, no HOA.

It's still 5 years down the road. We'll be visiting next summer to check things out. Any opinions as far as West vs. East Tucson? We can only have 6 now, but we probably would not get more than 12 when the time comes. (I can hear some snickering, lol)

Thank you!

If you want chickens I would definitely avoid Oro Valley. It is the land of the beige, where HOAs rule. Be careful of areas close to Oro Valley, too. The town has a tendency to annex nearby areas. Avoid anything with an HOA. Unfortunately that eliminates most of the housing built in the last 15-20 years.

The city of Tucson is actually pretty good about allowing hens but they don't let you have roosters.

West vs. East Tucson is a preference thing. The west side tends to be less expensive. On the other hand, west side residents tend to wind up driving into the sun when they commute. Folks in the northeast part of town have a lot of traffic to deal with before they get anywhere. A lot of location choices depend on what you will be doing once you are here. Checking it out is a good idea

 

[desertmarcy]

In my opinion a 4' x 4' tractor/pen would be way too small for 6-8 birds in Tucson. Even for Cornish crosses. Those birds get big fast - that's why they're raised for meat. For a pen area I usually figure on at least 15 square feet per bird. They need room to get out of the sun and wind and rain and you need to be able to keep their feed dry. People who successfully cram a lot of birds into small tractor pens usually have enough pasture area to move the pen daily. If you don't have room for heritage chickens you probably don't have enough pasture to move a 4'x4' tractor pen to fresh ground every day. It is hard to adequately locate a coop/pen in Tucson - the sun angle varies a lot, wind and rain can come from any direction, and rain is often horizontal. The more space the birds have the more options they have to get out of the elements.

I totally agree with MagicChicken. It is hard to locate a coop here unless you are in a area that has really big, old Eucalyptus or pine trees that can provide a lot of shade and cooling. When I ordered my Cornish cross chicks, the lady at the hatchery asked if I had ever raised them before, and when I said no, she said, well let me give you some pointers. And one of the pointers was, put the feed and water as far away from each other as possible to force them to get up and walk, otherwise, they will just sit there and eat out of the bowl, and drink, never move and have leg problems.
I did as she suggested and had them in a big pen with a walled off corner where they could stay warm (nights were still cold). I did not have any lame ones.

If you want chickens I would definitely avoid Oro Valley. It is the land of the beige, where HOAs rule. Be careful of areas close to Oro Valley, too. The town has a tendency to annex nearby areas. Avoid anything with an HOA. Unfortunately that eliminates most of the housing built in the last 15-20 years.

I like my older neighborhood, built in the 50's, on the NW side (west of I-10). Most of the people who move here want to keep animals and do their own thing without being hassled. It is great that I-10 is very close but driving to Mt. Lemmon is a trek. An hour's drive just to get to the base of the mountain. Might as well drive down to the Santa Ritas or Huachucas to cool off. Not that I'm going anywhere with all my birds

A lot of people west of the Tucson Mts.: Picture Rocks, Sandario Rd area, keep all sorts of critters. Seems like anything goes out there. And the Red Rock area up towards Picacho is getting built up and has farmland. A friend of mine moved up there from near or in Oro Valley. She has goats, chickens, turkeys, not sure what all else. A little bit of a trek out of Tucson, but not too bad. I moved here and rented for a year before purchasing. Gave me a chance to scope out the different areas. A lot has changed since then, that was in 1978.

The city of Tucson is actually pretty good about allowing hens but they don't let you have roosters.

West vs. East Tucson is a preference thing. The west side tends to be less expensive. On the other hand, west side residents tend to wind up driving into the sun when they commute. Folks in the northeast part of town have a lot of traffic to deal with before they get anywhere. A lot of location choices depend on what you will be doing once you are here. Checking it out is a good idea