Arizona Chickens

[pipemum]

ladyKodaDora, sorry to hear about your two chickens.

maddbaggins, kudos to your daughter for taking care of business!

Mama Hen Chris, great photos!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote: Me too.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Good morning peoples! Been super busy at work, long story and sad. Besides all that, my flock is doing great. We get between 6-9 eggs everyday. One of the neighbors has become our egg broker. She buys them up and sells them to her friends. lol . I'm still getting some brewing done. I have a Farmhouse Rye, Pumpkin Ale and Imperial Porter all fermenting as well as a Saison and Irish Stout bottled up and lets not forget the Blonde, IPA and English Ale I have kegged.
Almost lost one of the girls the other day when it was super hot. Daughter came home from school and found her layin there kind of lethargic. She scooped her up and dunked her in some water, then put ice in their wading dish, gave them frozen grapes and kicked on the mister. By the time I got home, everyone was fine. I was proud of my daughter for taking care of the situation before she even called me.
Just wanted to check in and say hi!

Well done!

 

[FeatherPugs]

That is one super great daughter you have! Give her a big squeeze for all of us!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

TICK CHECK!!!

It's that time of year again. For the past four years since I've had chickens in AZ I've had poultry tick outbreaks that I've first discovered in mid-August. This year was no exception. I found five adults two nights ago and then three last night. These ticks hide for most of their lives and are difficult to detect. They emerge from their crevices right at dusk and feed for about the first 30 minutes following sunset (depending on how quickly they can locate a bird). After feeding for about 15 minutes they drop off the chickens and then crawl back into their crevices until they need to feed again. Unless you look carefully around the roosts within that 30-minute window of time, you may never know your birds are being savaged by them. If they go untreated, you can quickly have thousands of ticks feeding on your chickens. They're relatively common in AZ and transported by wild birds. If your coop is under a tree where wild birds roost or if wild birds visit your coop and run, you will be at higher risk. My coop is located directly under a large eucalyptus, where all kinds of birds roost at night. I'll be doing a thorough coop cleaning and then spraying down the roosts with Orange Guard today. FWIW, every year that I've posted a similar warning, at least one other person here in AZ has also found ticks, so it's worth a few minutes of examination.

 

[Arizonachicken]

Thans, Gallo! I'll be checking tonight. *shudder*

 

[City farm]

So sorry LKD.

X2.

 

[City farm]

Good morning peoples! Been super busy at work, long story and sad. Besides all that, my flock is doing great. We get between 6-9 eggs everyday. One of the neighbors has become our egg broker. She buys them up and sells them to her friends. lol . I'm still getting some brewing done. I have a Farmhouse Rye, Pumpkin Ale and Imperial Porter all fermenting as well as a Saison and Irish Stout bottled up and lets not forget the Blonde, IPA and English Ale I have kegged.
Almost lost one of the girls the other day when it was super hot. Daughter came home from school and found her layin there kind of lethargic. She scooped her up and dunked her in some water, then put ice in their wading dish, gave them frozen grapes and kicked on the mister. By the time I got home, everyone was fine. I was proud of my daughter for taking care of the situation before she even called me.
Just wanted to check in and say hi!

 

So glad that you checked in... Why to go girl !
Boy I am envious of your brewing skills.. I can't wait to start going this winter.. So if anyone has brewing equipment let us know..

 

[City farm]

Oleander replacement:   Desertmarcy is right, AZ rosewood is a great choice.  Hopbush will work as well.  Tecoma stans is a great flowering shrub...it does freeze back (if you get freezes) but comes back with a vengeance in the spring.  Pomegranate can also grow in shrub form.  I've had a hard time growing this one, but pineapple guava is another one with pretty flowers and edible fruit.  Bee bush is also a cool shrub (Alyosia gra..something), flowers all spring and summer, smells like honey and attracts tons of bees and yellow finches, but it is a medium sized, airy shrub, and when it does get tall, it's lanky (at least in my yard).  You can always do a hedge of something boring, like the hopbush, and plant a native vine such as  AZ passionflower vine  or queen's wreath to spice it up with some flowers. 


My black copper marans has a swollen crop.  I noticed it on Saturday afternoon (huge baseball size).  It's still swollen in the mornings.  I had pulled some of the long "stringers" of grass creeping  into the garden and I'm guessing she ate one...there's not much else she could have gotten into.  She's eating and acting fine, so far.  I've read up on the impacted/sour crop...should I try to vomit her even if it doesn't smell nasty yet, or just hope for this to pass?  

Oh boy, love your ideas on the plants.. Everyone tank you for all of your fabulous ideas..

I would try to remove some of what is in her crop..

 

[City farm]

[COLOR=FF0000]TICK CHECK!!![/COLOR]

It's that time of year again.  For the past four years since I've had chickens in AZ I've had poultry tick outbreaks that I've first discovered in mid-August.  This year was no exception.  I found five adults two nights ago and then three last night.  These ticks hide for most of their lives and are difficult to detect.  They emerge from their crevices right at dusk and feed for about the first 30 minutes following sunset (depending on how quickly they can locate a bird).  After feeding for about 15 minutes they drop off the chickens and then crawl back into their crevices until they need to feed again.  Unless you look carefully around the roosts within that 30-minute window of time, you may never know your birds are being savaged by them.  If they go untreated, you can quickly have thousands of ticks feeding on your chickens.  They're relatively common in AZ and transported by wild birds.  If your coop is under a tree where wild birds roost or if wild birds visit your coop and run, you will be at higher risk.  My coop is located directly under a large eucalyptus, where all kinds of birds roost at night.  I'll be doing a thorough coop cleaning and then spraying down the roosts with Orange Guard today.   FWIW, every year that I've posted a similar warning, at least one other person here in AZ has also found ticks, so it's worth a few minutes of examination.

Gallo you are always a weath of information.. We so miss your fabulous photos & stories.., thank you ..