Arizona Chickens

[heidisue]

I love the penny floor. Regardless of it's value now or in the future, it is quite beautiful. But on to a different topic: I FINALLY have my website up! YEAH! e Take a look if you have a chance: www.featheredreptilesfarm.weebly.com

Ya have to remember to type in the dot weebly before the dot com...
Let me know if you see any glitches.
I had fun putting it together. Now if I could just figure out how to make it appear on searches, all will be good.
I still want to make a page for poultry-relevant recipes

Marcia, your website looks great. I've done a lot of SEO (search engine optimization) work on my own sites (I've been a blogger for about 8 years now). My site, littlepeoplewealth.com, is well optimized. If you search for very frugal recipes, free amazon gift cards, or a slew of other terms you will find me on the front page, usually top 5 i was #2 for a long time, but i havent posted there for a while, which is a google no no. the site I have on here, pintsizefarm.com, is new so I haven't actively optimized it yet, but I am getting search traffic already. If you want some SEO help I can help out: tips, trade, or guest posts

If there are other website peeps interested I could head up a SEO group. They are fun, but work, so I don't know how many would like to do it. Its more for people who view their website as an extension of their business or to make money on its own. If anybody is interested let me know. The best group is 5-7.

 

[MandyFitch]

Hi all! I haven't been online most of the summer and it took me weeks (seriously!) to catch up with the posts

Had a run in with a hawk yesterday

didn't get anybody, but I will have to confine them to their run for a while now and they are not going to like that! The run is big enough (8' x 12' with the attached 8' x 4' coop), but they have gotten used to free ranging in our backyard during the day (the backyard is about 3/4 acre I would guess). I have 3 silkies, heard the commotion so I grabbed some treats and went outside, the hawk was sitting on the coop door (red tail) and didn't move until I was about 5 feet away! Two girls made it back into the coop/run and were huddled in the far corner. The third didn't make it in the coop so she flattened herself in a hole she made earlier and was not moving. They all appeared okay, as long as I don't have any heart/stress problems today!

SCARY! Glad it turned out okay.

Thanks for the condolences, guys. I feel terribly sure that under more experienced hands the little silkie would have made it.
(I keep telling myself it was a boy - is that bad?)

Here's another guilty secret. Next door, my neighbor and good friend has been free ranging her chickens for years. The coop isn't locked up at all. As much as I'm concerned about predators I keep thinking my chickens don't need to be fast, just faster than hers! Bad, bad mama.

 

[bcluff]

Hey everyone! Ive been off for so long! Im glad to hear everyone is doing well! I recently picked up 12 chickens and a black spanish turkey poult for my school coop. The chicks are a plethora of color and breeds! I know so far that there is a welsummer and some cochins. But there are two that are a blue color. The turkey is massive! Ill try to get some pictures up for you guys

 

[pipemum]

Just found my favorite chicken dead by my kid's playset. Separate part of the yard than where ahe was supposed to be--dogs. She must have flown ovwr the fence that separates the garden. No obvious injury but I'm sure it was my dogs. She's the loudest, most friendly chicken, the coop is practically silent without her.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I was at Pratt's today tp pick up Blue-Kote, and I know ticked quail eggs a, button and Gibson or Gamble Quail. I asked, I got about a dozen of them, any one ever hatched quail eggs? The Button Quil are way to small, I could not hold them in.

I will be looking up incubating quail....... I think I caught a contagious disorder.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

cbnovick, twinklin, beautiful birds. cbnovick, the coloring of the buffs is gorgeous. twinklin, you have a great yard!

I must have jumped the gun on the wry neck diagnosis. I bought $40 worth of vitamins and supplements after work and the bird was fine when I got home. Such a huge relief. Sonoran Silkies, I don't think it was heat stress, as her symptoms showed up yesterday morning--nice and cool. I don't know what was going on yesterday--she was twisting her neck along her back so awkwardly and frequently. Maybe she had a weird itch? I watched her for 15-30 minutes last night and didn't see a twitch or twist for her, and again, nothing this morning.

It was actually a bit chilly this morning! I love it! I'm already having to run 1/2 of my morning runs with a headlamp since it's so dark. The change always seems to happen so fast. One morning the sun is blazing and burning the next morning it's chilly and dark.

Sometimes it is the combination of heat/humidity that is or more concern than simply heat, and goodness knows its been humid the last few days. Also, we've noticed the mosquitoes out in massive force the few days, so maybe she had a bite she was trying to scratch?

Anyways, I'm glad she is doing fine

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

On the way home from work, my wife found a HUGE prickly pear cactus that has some beautifully ripe fruit! It is at a dentists office near our house, so I stopped in to ask if I could harvest them all. They agreed without hesitation! Now, to decide how many buckets I need to take with me... Thank you, love!

Oh, beautiful tuna, you have a date this weekend with jam, syrup and my wine fermentation buckets...

​

Prickley Pear wine? Sounds interesting!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

So my coop is just about done and I plan on putting the chicks outside this weekend. Any advice on helping them adjust to the heat of being outside and not a cool 78 degrees?

Consider taking them outside in the later afternoon/evening and bringing them back in after it starts to warm up. Add a couple of hours per day on how long you leave them out--keeping in mind that you should watch for heat stress.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Just found my favorite chicken dead by my kid's playset. Separate part of the yard than where ahe was supposed to be--dogs. She must have flown ovwr the fence that separates the garden. No obvious injury but I'm sure it was my dogs. She's the loudest, most friendly chicken, the coop is practically silent without her.

so sorry

 

[heidisue]

SCARY!  Glad it turned out okay. 

Thanks for the condolences, guys.  I feel terribly sure that under more experienced hands the little silkie would have made it.   
(I keep telling myself it was a boy - is that bad?)

Here's another guilty secret. Next door, my neighbor and good friend has been free ranging her chickens for years.  The coop isn't locked up at all.  As much as I'm concerned about predators I keep thinking my chickens don't need to be fast, just faster than hers!  Bad, bad mama. :/

Just found my favorite chicken dead by my kid's playset. Separate part of the yard than where ahe was supposed to be--dogs. She must have flown ovwr the fence that separates the garden. No obvious injury but I'm sure it was my dogs. She's the loudest, most friendly chicken, the coop is practically silent without her.

I was at Pratt's today tp pick up Blue-Kote, and I know ticked quail eggs a, button and Gibson or Gamble Quail. I asked, I got about a dozen of them, any one ever hatched quail eggs? The Button Quil are way to small, I could not hold them in.

I will be looking up incubating quail....... I think I caught a contagious disorder.

My neighbor allows hers to free range all the time too! She has had accidents though and I think her HUGE rooster helps (and she has larger birds).

Sorry pipemom

I've hatched thousands of quail LadyKota. Whacha need to know? I have not hatched buttons, with our other quail it worked out that the smaller the species the shorter the incubation time.