Arizona Chickens

[Demosthine]

Don't forget to factor in water costs! I'm guessing that those are HUGE here. I dunno, maybe water costs are another federal subsidy? Given the relatively low productivity of desert soil, I'll bet cows here have a greater than 1-acre per feed ratio, and I'm guessing it'll take more than cow and chicken poop to keep the soil fertile enough to keep producing pasture crops.

I do think a properly managed farm can rake in the bucks, especially located near a big metropolis like Phoenix. Folks have the money to pay for quality meat/dairy/produce.

I've posted this video before, but controlled pasturing appears to overcome a huge amount of the misconceptions about dessert and grasslands that we tend to believe. In the video, Allan Savory discusses his endeavors to regenerate the grasslands that died off from the devastating extermination of the elephants. He has some downright amazing photos of the differences in dessert regions before and during his program. If I heard and remember the video correctly, the only thing they provided was a water source for the animals. And perhaps your idea of pastured crops differs slightly than mine. Mostly, it's just a large assortment of grasses for the cattle and poultry to graze on. With the excellent pasture and ample cow patties comes lots of insects for the chickens protein. I definitely have more research to do, but my years worth of reading points me to the K.I.S.S. method.

 

[Demosthine]

Hay, piping in on H2o,
Does anyone have the water treatment that is piped into your main line from H2o???
We just got it installed yesterday.. I am so totally excited..no more smelling the chlorine or chemicals when we showere or
when we do dish's by hand.. We have a home that was built in the 5o's.. We are the dish washer..
The manufacture is called h2o concepts..

I don't know about that system, but I can tell you Peoria has a minimal water treatment plan. They do not add flouride to the water and the chlorine content is extremely small. We do run reverse osmosis for our drinking water, though. From the documents we got from the bi-annual water testing, we have some excellent water, albeit a bit hard, from our city.

 

[mckenzy]

Red combs, they've been very vocal, they're nearly 28 weeks old. What's the hold up, ladies! Maybe I'll start an egg laying pool.

When are these chicks gonna lay!?

 

[tsuninight]

Work has been keeping me swamped, and I've missed so much! BUT I wanted to update. I rec'd my first two eggs. I think by the same chicken. One yesterday and one the day before. They are both little brown eggs. Yesterday I thought one of my chickens was having a meltdown they were being so loud mid day. Today if I hear it I'm going to go find out which one is laying eggs (providing of course my theory is right) lol. I have to admit though I was pretty dang thrilled about my first eggs. Breakfast, pest control, weed control, garbage disposals, funny and cute to boot. Most useful pets ever! lol

 

[City farm]

Work has been keeping me swamped, and I've missed so much!  BUT I wanted to update. I rec'd my first two eggs.   I think by the same chicken.  One yesterday and one the day before.  They are both little brown eggs.  Yesterday I thought one of my chickens was having a meltdown they were being so loud mid day.  Today if I hear it I'm going to go find out which one is laying eggs (providing of course my theory is right) lol.  I have to admit though I was pretty dang thrilled about my first eggs.  Breakfast, pest control, weed control, garbage disposals, funny and cute to boot.  Most useful pets ever! lol

Hay, you got that right.. Cloud not of said it better
CONGRADULATIONS

 

[City farm]

Red combs, they've been very vocal, they're nearly 28 weeks old. What's the hold up, ladies! Maybe I'll start an egg laying pool.

When are these chicks gonna lay!?

Ha,! Soon, very soon...
Same here we have one that is going on a week of fire red comb.. I added oyster shell about 1 week ago. They are eating it up quick..
Our blk cooper Marans have started laying.. Small so far.. Getting bigger by the week.. Not as dark as I had hoped for, however they have
best personalities..

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Work has been keeping me swamped, and I've missed so much! BUT I wanted to update. I rec'd my first two eggs. I think by the same chicken. One yesterday and one the day before. They are both little brown eggs. Yesterday I thought one of my chickens was having a meltdown they were being so loud mid day. Today if I hear it I'm going to go find out which one is laying eggs (providing of course my theory is right) lol. I have to admit though I was pretty dang thrilled about my first eggs. Breakfast, pest control, weed control, garbage disposals, funny and cute to boot. Most useful pets ever! lol

Congratulations and welcome to the egg club. Truly, one of the great gifts in life.

 

[pipemum]

Really? My black copper marans has the dullest personality of the group. My EEs have the most colorful personality, sadly though, just one EE now. Followed by the barred rocks, and then the kooky Polish mixes--I think they are just kooky because they can't see (time for another head trim). Of course the RIR rooster has decided be to become Mr. Friendly this week. Then the marans--dull, boring, just a blah chicken. Maybe she'll at least lay a DARK egg.

congrats on the eggs, tsuninight.

No idea, mckenzy! Soon, right?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

pastrymama, your poor chicks! Yuck!

LKD, I wish they'd eat ants too. I'm having such a hard time this year with leaf cutter ants. They've killed a bunch of plants, and now are working on more! The leaf cutters laugh at DE, party in the dust. I don't want to use poison because of all the other good stuff around, plus the main ant mound is in the wash, where even more wildlife abound. I still vividly remember when I was a kid, my grandma sprayed for ants. The next day, all the baby quail that she used to feed were lying on her patio, twitching and dying what looked like a terrible, painful death.

About DE and bees--I do use DE to control flies around the coop. I spread it on the ground, no vegetation around. Bees shouldn't be affected by the DE, right? I've read they are quite sensitive to it.

My rooster, the one destined for butchering this weekend, is suddenly being such a friendly guy. Following me around while I water the garden, getting soaked in the spray, chasing rivulets of water, begging for grubs. He must be trying to get on my good side.

Oh the leaf cutters!

I found that DE was effective in one of three colonies that I treated, but I think it was only effective in the one because it was applied before they emerged in the spring. I suspect that it's more effective on fresh exoskeletons. Once they're older though, they seems impervious.

We have some old aspen logs that we keep for carpenter bees that are located right next to the most troublesome ant colony. The poor things would emerge from the log for the first time, fall to the ground and get covered in the DE. As far as I could tell, none survive that experience.

That quail experience must have traumatic.


Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that one of my Russian Orloffs is a rooster. Of course he's acting just like yours; he's my best yard buddy now!

 

[Fuzzybird]

Really? My black copper marans has the dullest personality of the group. My EEs have the most colorful personality, sadly though, just one EE now. Followed by the barred rocks, and then the kooky Polish mixes--I think they are just kooky because they can't see (time for another head trim). Of course the RIR rooster has decided be to become Mr. Friendly this week. Then the marans--dull, boring, just a blah chicken. Maybe she'll at least lay a DARK egg.

congrats on the eggs, tsuninight.

No idea, mckenzy! Soon, right?

I have to agree with you pipemum. Marans in my experience also are dull, boring, dumb, spooks easy and don't come when called. The only cool thing is the dark eggs. Maybe they are more production than pet type chicken.