Arizona Chickens

[MandyFitch]

Twinklin, are you sure those are flea bites? My vet says there aren't fleas here but we get eaten alive by these tiny little gnat like things that a lot of people complain about. We also have a serious mosquito problem. There has to be a remedy but **** if I can find one. They even bite me when I'm slathered in DEET. I think the evil little buggers are immune.

As for the ants, we did manage to get rid of them at the rental we lived in last year. They were AWFUL. I will see if my husband remembers what we used.

 

[Twinklin]

Twinklin, are you sure those are flea bites? My vet says there aren't fleas here but we get eaten alive by these tiny little gnat like things that a lot of people complain about. We also have a serious mosquito problem. There has to be a remedy but **** if I can find one. They even bite me when I'm slathered in DEET. I think the evil little buggers are immune.

As for the ants, we did manage to get rid of them at the rental we lived in last year. They were AWFUL. I will see if my husband remembers what we used.

maybe they're not fleas. I assumed they were because i don't see them usually so they are very very small. When we were building in the grass we had a sheet of plywood down and there were tiny little bugs that made their way onto it and when we went to touch them they would hop like a flea. We just assumed those were what were eating us alive.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I put my first 2 chicks in the coop/run at 3 or 4 weeks, and my second set of chicks in the run at 1 week old.  It was May and plenty warm enough.  I don't know what I'd do now as the nights are a bit nippy...but I'll figure it out as I'm picking up some meat chicks on Friday.  I don't like chicks in the house--they are loud, smelly, and dusty--and my house is too tiny.    Maybe I'll do one week in the house, one week in the garage (also tiny) and then give the broilers a boot outside at 3 weeks. 

I'm building a broiler pen and it's challenging.  I'm trying to use free pallets and stuff from my yard for a zero cost coop, but I also want it to look nice.  I'm trying to get some corrugated plasticboard (plastic cardboard) and you know what fits the bill?  The political signs all over the place (actually got the idea from the Salatin site).  I called the City and they said to wait until the end of the month and they might have some signs for me. 

Are chicks easy to give away?  I'd like to incubate some hatching eggs with my daughter in the spring, but as I mention frequently, I have very limited coop space. 

My parents are looking at some small acreage in Eagar, and I'm already planning their garden and fruit orchard.  They won't do livestock since they like to travel, but I'm hoping to convince them of at least some chickens...

NOTE: your spell checker is working........
I'm building
1- a BROILER pen? Or 2- a Brooder Pen?
Totally different. I love spell checker it makes for very interesting reading, keeps the reader alert.
I, all to often do not proof read, especially at night

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:

They could be flea beetles, which are common around here. They are tiny and they jump like fleas. They like plants in the mustard family (they are chomping on my bok choy seedlings as I type and ignoring the nearby radishes, which were supposed to be a trap crop for them). Not sure if they'd be in a grass lawn. Flea beetles wouldn't be chomping people. Just plants.

Edited to add: Most of the bites I get come from mosquitos or ants. Usually the tiny, red ants that are nearly invisible when they are on my skin.

 

[pipemum]

Broiler pen, lkd. I'm picking up a few broiler chicks on Friday, and they have a brooder. Well, they have a rubbermaid tote to call home for a bit, but I still have to make them an outside home. I have as many pallets as I want, 2-6x4 sections of wire fence, scraps of lumbar, 2-6x2' sheets of corrugated tin, and a roll of chicken wire to make their home. I might have to buy a hinge or two, but I'm hoping that's all I'll have to purchase. It's going to be an A-frame type thing. I don't think it'll be permanent because this might be a one-time thing, but it still has to be safe and look decent. They'll get some free range in my garden, same as my regular chickens.

desertmarcy, the bobcat is so beautiful! But yeah, wouldn't want her stalking around my house!

 

[Twinklin]

They could be flea beetles, which are common around here. They are tiny and they jump like fleas. They like plants in the mustard family (they are chomping on my bok choy seedlings as I type and ignoring the nearby radishes, which were supposed to be a trap crop for them). Not sure if they'd be in a grass lawn. Flea beetles wouldn't be chomping people. Just plants.

Edited to add: Most of the bites I get come from mosquitos or ants. Usually the tiny, red ants that are nearly invisible when they are on my skin.

i just looked up flea beetles but they look much larger than the teensy things we have jumping through the lawn. These are so small you can only see them on light surfaces if you look very closely. Maybe they're a mite of some kind. I don't know if mites jump or bite. I check the girls often and they show no signs of eggs or bugs and the coop shows no signs of mites inside. It's a mystery. I haven't spent much time in the grass since I laid down the most recent coating of DE hopefully it helped.

 

[Fuzzybird]

Twinklin, I also thought it wasn't fleas. Altho we have some fleas crop up in certain homes that have dogs or cats come in from the east, carring them, Arizona isn't all that common for fleas.
I will let everyone know if the guinea fowl go for the ants. I guess sence I think turkeys are beautiful I like the look of the guines but than I have seen pictures of them. Guinea fowl are not chickens. More like very small Emu's. In the same family anyway.
That is some very beautiful pictures of the Bobcat and Kit. WOW!!

 

[flower]

Fuzzybird I raised guineas when I had more land. First I had the usual pearl grey type. Four of them, decades ago and they were raised with the chickens and I had not problem but as as I can remember they were all female. Their eggs were very even and have harder shells than chickens but they tasted the same to me.

Later I sent for eggs for the buff dotted type because they are touted as being more docile and you can determine sex by the coloration of the chicks. I hatched out an even number of males and females and they coupled up and with their mate. One day I made the mistake of letting the guineas out at the same time as the chicken flock and they had not been raised together. A power fight ensued between the main rooster in each flock and by the time I caught one of them I thought that they would die just from being so excited. Do birds have heart attacks ? It sure looked like it to me !!!

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I scored some wood, may be able to get more. I wonder what I can do with it. Dose anyone have a suggestion, maybe some one that understands balance in Coq au Vining,
(Picture in my truck with no flash, kind of dark, but ......)

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DESERTMARCY, you are both very lucky....... AND unlucky to have a bobcat at your door like that. That IS very worrying to have one that close and un-afraid like that. She has a cub, maybe that is why. She is beautiful, you really have reason to be conflicted. If I remember right it was explained to me that in Arizona and most of the western states you have fences to keep things out, not to keep things in.

I have you called Fish & Game. Some areas they are very few, other places to many. We have mess-up predictors natural density or populations. Might think about calling them of a spotting. At White Tanks on the West side of Phoenix there are mountain lions, they are watched closely, and natural game is monitored. Stumped people and no game is very dangerous situation. The Fish & Game might even know about the game situation were you are. If there is a shortage you may have to change from code yellow (caution) to Orange (danger alert) or even red (danger!). It is even Possable there is a group studying bobcats in Tucson.

I called in a siting of a Golden Eagle or a juvenile Bald Eagle, they gave me the locale Birders. They were excited to know of a siting, time, and location.

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Fleas can be brought in many ways. One landing in the desert will die eventually. They need water. Lawns are a wonderful place for them to live. They have to have blood as well. When fleas get on animals they travel to the eyes, nose, and anal area to get water. We do not have fleas in the desert because it is a hostel environment, but we can soften it for them.
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That is interesting about mustard plants, I have mustard leaves, I love it, and collard.

 

[flower]

I hear wood ashes are good for soil enrichment.