Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

Wow.. What camera& soft ware? Girl you are a fabulous photographer!!

 

[City farm]

i absolutely love your yard, from what i can see anyway. is that bamboo? how did you get it to grow??? i planted bamboo along my south wall and all died within a month also, that dead tree looks awesome. great art, with or without chickens on it.

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... The ones on the pool side aren't as nice. The previous owner did nothing with the landscape here. We had to rip out 8 trees and get the drip and sprinkler system working. Every month when bulk trash comes I have a huge pile of dead stuff to take out and we've been here almost a year lol. Some day it will all be pretty and then we'll move hahaha. This is the condition it was in when we moved in... 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.

Looks like you did a lot of work.. Thank you for posting photos.. I love that you took before photos.. It is fun to see what it use to look like..

 

[City farm]

My husband went to the feed store on his day off to replace a bantam chick ( we figured out the heat light was not hot enough because we started the chicks in the taller brooder this time which meant lamp was too high). I come home from work and there are not one but another two chicks in the brooder and a baby tortoise in the living room...I look on the printer and I see the HOA rules that say as long as thy are pets we can have them. In a week I went from 4 to 10 chickens plus a turkey. I think I created a monster! (He claimed the turkey and leghorn as his already to the argument of the kids) I guess he figures they don't count if they are bantams or chicks either! I had wanted to wait and hatch a few in the incubator in my classroom, but now that would give me way to many chicks to handle.

Boy your husband sounds like mine.. He tries to claim my pets all the time.. Then he will go off and claim the boys pets..
When are you doing the incubator?

 

[City farm]

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

Hey there girl,
We have some dearest friends that go there a few times a year.. Andy & Eva.. Their dad owned the photography shop there..
It is now vacant & they have been working on getting it redy to rent.. Yeah please let us know when you are down this way..
You will have to pop on over for a cup of tea..

 

[City farm]

Quote:

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.

Love the photo...

 

[City farm]

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

Awhee, those hats and together and the cup cake.. How In the world did you get those cuties to be still! Oh wait I forgot to see if there was a candle lit..

 

[City farm]

if anyone in the area is interested in working on the aloha project, or you already are, i have 2 cockerels and one really great looking pullet that i am looking to rehome soon. the girl is showing the most white of any aloha pullet i've ever raised and she has yellow legs, i dont think she will be as big as a sussex but she's amazing. the boys are both good looking candidates with really nice color, yellow legs and good body type. i was breeding for yellow legs this go around, and unfortunately have to put it all on hold for now. i dont want these to go to waste tho so if you will use them in your program PM me.

Girl your hens are beautiful.. They went to a 5 acre area out in apache junction... Oh & thank you for dinner! I love your moms pink layer!! I won't
mention my rooster that you have.

 

[Twinklin]

Looks like you did a lot of work.. Thank you for posting photos.. I love that you took before photos.. It is fun to see what it use to look like..

Thanks! It has been a ton of work but I love doing that kind of stuff. For another comparison this is that same section of wall on the back of the house. The pic I took when we moved in and then a pic I took late spring.





And to give a little comparison to what I did inside

This


is now


and


is now


the foyer now has a different light fixture and the sunroom now has the rest of it's furniture. When I say everything was painted a dark dark brown I wasn't kidding lol. The living room and kitchen were brown too. And dark colors like that are not the easiest to paint over. It took me almost 2 weeks of going in there during the day before we moved in and painting non stop. A few days of it was the stenciling on the walls and little detail stuff though. Sorry I like to show off pictures of stuff because I don't have any friends or family out here to see all the work I've done

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Twinkling: love your colors. My family dose not believe in colors, only earth pastel, and shads of white. My daughter painted my bed room a crimson red I love it. The first thing I heard was I should paint it white. Ya, sure that is going to happen. I used to do murals, I did an entryway mural of a bull elk in a mountain clearing. The family I did it for called me some time later thanking me. Their house was built on the side of a small mountain, and other houses next to them were moving down the mountain. The new owners fell in love with my mural and did not oh ave the house checked for soundness. That was not required in those days.

Your design is so free and relaxed, gives a good feeling.

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

Wow.. What camera& soft ware? Girl you are a fabulous photographer!!

I used my point and shoot Canon Powershot Elph. The software is befunky.com. I only use the free version but you can upgrade for a cost.