Arizona Chickens

[Demosthine]

Oh yes we are praying for a speedy recovery..
On the matter of prickly pear, someone said they use a potato peeler? Now that you have talked about it we are inspired..
Did you boil water & dip them in quick to take off the outer part? If you posted up earlier I did not read.. We have family in
town from England.. We only read a few post.. So I hope I did not miss to much..

Now about the wine bottles, I bet if you ask your local bar to save the bottles & corks you would be doing them a service..
Plus reusing rather than sending to a land fill.. ...
Glad you guys are doing ok..

Oh, oh, my Olive Garden!

For the wine, I soak them overnight to soften the glochids and clean off the dirt and contaminants. I'll give them a quick brushing before blending them. They go straight in to the fine mesh strainer bag and the fermenting bucket from there.

For jams, I soak and wash them the same way, but then I slice them in half. The skin peels easily and I separate the seed into boiling water. once thoroughly simmered, it gets strained and added to the meat. The seed pulp is discarded to the clan and the rest is processed as normal.

 

[City farm]

okay change that.... The two little Bantams didn't even make it through the night (I tried explaining to the kids you don't pick out the tiniest little runts from a batch, but they did) So we went back to the store again and came home with three instead of two (not sure how I got talked into that) a little yellow, a black with white wing tips, and a chipmunk but without the usual EE chick look, so I have no idea what they are. I will post pics, but my computer bogs down every time time I try.  We also ended up bringing home a tan and white turkey with the understanding that it will eventually end up being dinner. I still said no to the duck...not ready for that venture yet. My husband gets home from his business trip today and is gonna have a fit! he knew I was going to replace my sweet Buff... but now we went from 4 almost mature pullets that should start laying soon, 5 new chicks and a turkey. The run is big enough, but He will have to expand the coop (they refuse to leave the run to free range, if you get near them at all they run back. They became paranoid like that after we lost Butterball. My biggest question is once the chicks are done being in the brooder, how long do I need to quarantine them before I can integrate them in with the 4 older ones?
Oh and I have kept my garden seedlings up where the chickens couldn't get them and the dang wild birds destroyed everything, so I need a new plan for planting my vegetable garden this season. Maybe I'll do the cheating thing and go buy bigger starters from the nursery, instead of starting everything from seeds.

Ya know it is funny how we all get so excited about those cute furry chicks.. Plus we can't say no to our sweet kids.. All though,
our boys don't like our rooster.. They still think it is weird we even have chickens.. Their friends think it is neat..

I do believe there is information about integration of your flock is avalible here on the BYC fourums..
I know some of my friends do not keep them separated for the duration.. I have kept some for the duration & some not..
Hope this helps..

 

[City farm]

okay change that.... The two little Bantams didn't even make it through the night (I tried explaining to the kids you don't pick out the tiniest little runts from a batch, but they did) So we went back to the store again and came home with three instead of two (not sure how I got talked into that) a little yellow, a black with white wing tips, and a chipmunk but without the usual EE chick look, so I have no idea what they are. I will post pics, but my computer bogs down every time time I try.  We also ended up bringing home a tan and white turkey with the understanding that it will eventually end up being dinner. I still said no to the duck...not ready for that venture yet. My husband gets home from his business trip today and is gonna have a fit! he knew I was going to replace my sweet Buff... but now we went from 4 almost mature pullets that should start laying soon, 5 new chicks and a turkey. The run is big enough, but He will have to expand the coop (they refuse to leave the run to free range, if you get near them at all they run back. They became paranoid like that after we lost Butterball. My biggest question is once the chicks are done being in the brooder, how long do I need to quarantine them before I can integrate them in with the 4 older ones?
Oh and I have kept my garden seedlings up where the chickens couldn't get them and the dang wild birds destroyed everything, so I need a new plan for planting my vegetable garden this season. Maybe I'll do the cheating thing and go buy bigger starters from the nursery, instead of starting everything from seeds.

Oh and on the garden, ya I totally want to cheat to.... We seriously have like 300 seed packets.. So buying a plant
is such a crime.. Augh! Once I see the plant it is hard to resist.. Instant garden.. Plus I planted about 175 seeds in the
last two months.. Only about 50 seedlings have made it.. The 112' days made it difficult for those seedlings to survive..

 

[City farm]

Oh yes we are praying for a speedy recovery..
On the matter of prickly pear, someone said they use a potato peeler? Now that you have talked about it we are inspired..
Did you boil water & dip them in quick to take off the outer part? If you posted up earlier I did not read.. We have family in
town from England.. We only read a few post.. So I hope I did not miss to much..

Now about the wine bottles, I bet if you ask your local bar to save the bottles & corks you would be doing them a service..
Plus reusing rather than sending to a land fill.. ...
Glad you guys are doing ok..

Oh, oh, my Olive Garden!

For the wine, I soak them overnight to soften the glochids and clean off the dirt and contaminants. I'll give them a quick brushing before blending them. They go straight in to the fine mesh strainer bag and the fermenting bucket from there.

For jams, I soak and wash them the same way, but then I slice them in half. The skin peels easily and I separate the seed into boiling water. once thoroughly simmered, it gets strained and added to the meat. The seed pulp is discarded to the clan and the rest is processed as normal.

Thank you for your info.. You & your family do fun things.. We love reading about it..

 

[Arizonachicken]

If anyone out there is looking for some young chickies, I have some! Here's what I have:

EE rooster-5 months old
Buff Orpington pullet-2 1/2 months old
White Rock Pullet-2 1/2 months old
EE pullet 2 1/2 months old
Silver laced Wyandotte hen-1 year
PM me if you're interested!

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Wow, what a beautiful day here in Tempe.. I have been giving our flock wheat grass.. Does anyone else do that?

I guess I am, I have a mixture of grasses, they eat it as fast as I grow it. I have just seeded again, this time I'm going to wait longer before letting them eat all of it. I think some one is using hydroponics on BYC to gr ow it. Can't remember who.

 

[pipemum]

Demosthine, glad to hear you and your wife are okay after the accident. Glochids are the worst, careful picking on windy days, those things can get airborne too. Good idea about the wax strips! Definitely going to pack some in the hiking bag.

I'm so so so tempted to buy the orloff desertmarcy has for sale. They have all of my favorite features in chickens, color, cheeks, etc. But i have the perfect number of chickens right now. Sigh.

 

[maryhysong]

Well the first section of my new chicken house is almost ready for occupancy. This 8x12 section will house the layer flock. All that is left to do now is to fix the nipple water bucket and hang it and build any oystershell holder. And actually I am moving birds around as soon as I get that water bucket hung up! Pictures today on my blog (link in sig line) include my recycled nest boxes and a very simple door/gate latch.

 

[Twinklin]

I think we're really close to our first egg. My BSL has had the very red large comb and wattles for a while and has been squatting for about a week. The nest boxes show signs someone has been exploring them. Today the girls have been spending a lot of time in the coop even though it's cooler, sunny, breezy, and beautiful outside. Normally they spend the days in the bushes in the shade. I can't see any reason for them to be hanging out in the coop unless Ony went in to check out the boxes again and since they go everywhere together the others followed her. I'm hoping later today or tomorrow. *crosses fingers*

 

[Demosthine]

One of the ladies on Arizona Backyard farmers has two mixed breed turkeys for $20 each. They are four months old, so I think it's a great deal, but it's in San Tan Valley, about 60 miles from me. I would snag them in a heartbeat if they were closer.