Arizona Chickens

[Twinklin]

twinklin, great job on the yard. it passed through my brain that it might be oleander, but i brushed it aside because i really wanted it to be bamboo, lol. plus my oleander has flowers dropping everywhere and your yard looked so clean - freshly raked i suppose?? cute little dog too.

Thanks...Yeah, freshly raked. Since the chickens spend all day under the bushes scratching they end up kicking all the leaves, flowers and most of the rocks out from under the bushes into the grass so then it's pretty easy to rake them up. I'm slowly trying to get rid of the rocks under the bushes to make it easier to keep under them clean. The other side of the yard by the pool is a nightmare between the oleanders and the large eucalyptus we have over there. We need to invest in a really good blower, the one we have now barely moves the leaves and raking or sweeping the leaves on the rocks does no good, just buries the leaves in the rocks and makes them harder to clean up.

 

[Demosthine]

wow, so sorry about your accident. hope everyone is feeling fine by now. it amazes me that people dont know the rules around school buses, those should be on the driving tests, or on the news or something. there are so many in these big cities and people need to know. i have seen drivers stop while only the lights are blinking, no need for that - on the other hand, i have seen the stop arm out and drivers across the street still driving, even tho there is not a median. for a bus stop means stop, not matter what side of the road.. *sorry for the mini rant. they didnt find you at fault did they?? cuz its totally the doofus in front of you.

Nobody was cited for anything because the Officer did not have a clear enough story from everybody to determine fault. Supposedly, the first driver admitted to the Officer that it was his fault and that he shouldn't have stopped. He's changing his story and saying both he and the driver behind him were fully stopped when we hit the second car. Hopefully, the Officer logged the first driver's admission of guilt in the police report. That will help a lot.

My wife is still beat up. She's going through therapy and the chiropractor for her arm, back and neck. She's itching to drive again, but I haven't got the rental car yet because I think she needs to heal some first, plus find out if she has any anxiety driving. She hates not having her car, but if she can't turn all the way to check blind spots or use her left arm correctly, I don't think she needs to be driving yet. It's definitely an inconvenience for everybody, but at least she's not in the hospital still, or worse!

Thanks. Unfortunately it's Oleander. We've been a here a year and luckily haven't had any issues with it as far as poisoning goes. Hopefully we never will. I did a lot of research on it before we got chickens and found that birds are not as sensitive to the plant as humans and dogs. The girls hang out under it all day and so far nothing bad has happened. My dog isn't one to eat stuff off the ground so he's been ok with it too. I love the bushes because they're great for privacy and are beautiful but I'm always paranoid about them. It would be impossible to get rid of all of them too. Our entire back yard is lined with them. The ones on the side the chickens are on, the grass side of the yard, are nice and full you can see in these pics, they're like 15+ ft tall...

I've done a lot of landscaping, trimming, watering, and plumbing outside, and a ton of painting and stuff inside. The entire inside of the house was painted dark dark brown. The bedrooms are grey still which I'll get to fixing eventually but the main part of the house is much livelier and brighter.

We've been in the same situation for the last two and a half years. Twenty foot oleanders line my entire side and back fences. Man, they sure do make a lot of waste, between the flowers and the speedy growth from the new chutes! I can never keep up with it all. Fortunately, there have been absolutely no illnesses or poisonings from them. We've had two dogs in the yard for over a year, plus two dozen chickens, three turkeys, two rabbits and half the kids in the neighborhood over. My Baby Girl was out there playing in the yard from about six months old and never posed a problem. I think that like much of America's views including raw milk and unprocessed eggs, it's demonized for the complete morons who are so brain dead that they'd eat their own poop. Did you hear that it's a violation of federal law to transport raw milk across state lines. The FDA is even raiding dairy farms to confiscate and destroy their raw milk supply, plus incarcerating their owners! Check out this article and video. Great summation of the current situation. I mean, have you looked at warning labels on commercial products nowadays? "Do not put any person in washing machine." Or the warning on Peanut M&Ms saying "This product may contain peanuts."

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After reading up on it, everything supports the claims that plants that are poisonous to animals will taste sour or gross to the animal, causing them to avoid them unless they are literally dying of starvation. As that'll never be the case with any of our animals, it's a moot point. I catch my clan pecking around in the flowers and leaves all the time. They are searching for bugs and such underneath, rather than going for the oleanders. The layer of dead foliage that these plants drop is downright amazing, and a great attraction for all sorts of bugs.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

TWINKLIN: Shih Tzu? Seems several BYC members have them. Min has been trying to make friends with my chickens. This new batch of 5 seems to be more receptive to the idea. But! They do not understand dog (the butt sniffing thing).

I'm warring a Kota Doria Sarai, my Nom de plume, just in case anyone wondered the strange name. The translation is ruffly, "fabric or weave of Kota".
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We are really messed up with our knowledge of food. Now Warning Labeling is very interesting. Every year Law Suit Lawyers hold a contest for the stupidest Law Suit resulting with a working label. I have several favorites, on baby strollers "remove baby before folding" and still my favorite Warning is on a 3/4 horse industrial drill, "do not use as dental tool". This means literally someone out there, looked at his 2/3 horse industrial drill and tried to do dental work, possibly did not work out well. http://www.mlaw.org/_pages/pastwinners.htm is one of the web sites if you wish to see more like "A brass fishing lure with a three-pronged hook on the end warns: “Harmful if swallowed"

There is also the Darwin Awards, I have the CD's or I used to have them. This will give you nightmares. It has 2 categories, 1) Urban legend, and not true but to good to leave out. 2) documented and verified 3) honorably mentioned. To qualify you have to voluntarily remove your self from the gene pool in order to improve our chances of survival. Those not qualified are, mentally disabled and children.

{Story's of the man that enjoyed throwing things on the highway off an overpass. He pushed off the top of the overpass a large chunk of concrete debris with rebar sticking out of it. It was so heavy he had to get on the railing for leverage. When he let it go, the rebar caught his pants and took it with it on to a passing car. He did survive, sort of, but can no longer have children after reconstructive surgery. Therefore qualify s.} Urban legend is the guy that supper glued his hand to the rump of a rhino.

 

[Twinklin]

TWINKLIN: Shih Tzu? Seems several BYC members have them. Min has been trying to make friends with my chickens. This new batch of 5 seems to be more receptive to the idea. But! They do not understand dog (the butt sniffing thing).

I'm warring a Kota Doria Sarai, my Nom de plume, just in case anyone wondered the strange name. The translation is ruffly, "fabric or weave of Kota".

Aww cute pooch. Yep mine is a shih tzu. He's my little old man, he's 10y/o. That pic is one where I hadn't given him a haircut for a long time he usually looks like....

 

[kpgoldstar]

Hi everybody!
I just joined BYC today. I am in Lake Havasu and we have been looking to add backyard chickens for quite some time. I think we are finally ready to take the plunge! We have been looking at coop designs and pretty much decided which route we want to take. We think we want to start with 4 hens, Rhode Island Reds. I raised chickens growing up, showing them in 4H, selling eggs in my neighborhood. Now we just have to get the coop built, order chicks and we are on our way! Any advice in keeping them safe during the grueling summers is welcome. We have lived here for 24 years so we are accustomed to the heat and hope with some special care, our hens will be able to do the same. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you on this forum.
Kristine

 

[nwebber]

Anyone have an idea yet what breed my beautiful Grace is yet?

 

[heidisue]

Hi Ch

Hi everybody!
I just joined BYC today. I am in Lake Havasu and we have been looking to add backyard chickens for quite some time. I think we are finally ready to take the plunge! We have been looking at coop designs and pretty much decided which route we want to take. We think we want to start with 4 hens, Rhode Island Reds. I raised chickens growing up, showing them in 4H, selling eggs in my neighborhood. Now we just have to get the coop built, order chicks and we are on our way! Any advice in keeping them safe during the grueling summers is welcome. We have lived here for 24 years so we are accustomed to the heat and hope with some special care, our hens will be able to do the same. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you on this forum.
Kristine

Hi Kristine I know you saw my coop and there are some great ones on here! I have bantams, which I figured would help with the heat - but most people have standards that do just fine. Shade and ventilation seems key. I've seen great misting systems too. I put a shallow pan of cool water on super hot days and they will stand in it.

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

Aww cute pooch. Yep mine is a shih tzu. He's my little old man, he's 10y/o. That pic is one where I hadn't given him a haircut for a long time he usually looks like....

How cute are both of your Shih Tzu's LKD and Twinklin. Here are my 2 who will be 6 years old in December and January:

Murphy



Miley

 

[aliciasimon]

I live in Chandler and was very worried about my chickens this summer (got them as babies in early May). In June we had days reaching 117 I was very worried about them. They would pant a lot. Ugh. We provided them with lots of shade and water. I put ice blocks under the coop for them which they seemed to love. They nestled against it and pecked at the water. They would sometimes get on top of the ice block.
All 6 chickens made it just fine through the summer. Big Red laid her first egg last weekend!!!

 

[Twinklin]

Hi everybody!
I just joined BYC today. I am in Lake Havasu and we have been looking to add backyard chickens for quite some time. I think we are finally ready to take the plunge! We have been looking at coop designs and pretty much decided which route we want to take. We think we want to start with 4 hens, Rhode Island Reds. I raised chickens growing up, showing them in 4H, selling eggs in my neighborhood. Now we just have to get the coop built, order chicks and we are on our way! Any advice in keeping them safe during the grueling summers is welcome. We have lived here for 24 years so we are accustomed to the heat and hope with some special care, our hens will be able to do the same. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you on this forum.
Kristine

welcome! We have 4 standard large foul chickens and they did just fine in the heat here in Scottsdale. They were in the run for about a month during the summer, I used a tarp to make shade and fed one of those snake hose misters (I think the one we got was called the Orbit Viper or Cobra or something like that) in through the top so there was a constant cool mist coming in. Then I started letting them free range all day and they hung out in the bushes most of the day for shade and I would set the mister up somewhere in a shady spot and they'd come out and forage in it. My BSL also learned to stand in the drinking water bowl to cool off. On really hot days I'd freeze bottles of water and put them in their water bowl.