Arizona Chickens

[Demosthine]

Does everyone keep strictly to the 10ft per chicken in the run 4ft per in the coop? Our coop is big enough to have 10-11 chickens but our run only 6-7. Since the girls are primarily free range during the day would keeping 10 with a run that size be horrible to do to them? Our next batch of chicks will only be 3 birds but I know down the line I'll want another small batch. Will I have to convince my bf to let me build on to the run before I go past the 7 bird mark?

Our coop is 32 square feet, and like you, I let mine free-range on about 4,000 square feet of grass yard. Since they are only in there for roosting at night, it has been plenty adequate for up the 17 chickens we had at the time. We were downsized slightly after one died this summer and two were given to friends that recently started up with chickens, but with enough roosting space, it's worked beautifully. That's only about 2 square feet per chicken, but it seems completely comfortable for them. I have a 15 square foot brooder on my porch for the smaller girls, but by about 4 to 6 weeks, they get shuffled out with the large girls and all has gone well.

I have to enclose the side yard this weekend to lock them in to their 6'x20' area. I have to lay down my winter seed this weekend and must keep my clan as far away from those seeds as possible. They are like precision laser-guided missiles when it comes to finding food in my yard. They won't be happy about it and it's a bit smaller than I like, but I don't have any other choices. I think this is a great time to start a batch of broilers, too, since they'll be in confinement for the first few weeks while the grass sprouts anyway.


Oh, and before I forget, does anyone have extra large heat-shrink poultry bags they could spare three to five of? I need to process my turkeys at the end of the month to the middle of next month and I don't have any bags or vacuum sealers large enough. I don't want to order a large box of them. Thanks in advance!

 

[Twinklin]

Our coop is 32 square feet, and like you, I let mine free-range on about 4,000 square feet of grass yard. Since they are only in there for roosting at night, it has been plenty adequate for up the 17 chickens we had at the time. We were downsized slightly after one died this summer and two were given to friends that recently started up with chickens, but with enough roosting space, it's worked beautifully. That's only about 2 square feet per chicken, but it seems completely comfortable for them. I have a 15 square foot brooder on my porch for the smaller girls, but by about 4 to 6 weeks, they get shuffled out with the large girls and all has gone well.

I have to enclose the side yard this weekend to lock them in to their 6'x20' area. I have to lay down my winter seed this weekend and must keep my clan as far away from those seeds as possible. They are like precision laser-guided missiles when it comes to finding food in my yard. They won't be happy about it and it's a bit smaller than I like, but I don't have any other choices. I think this is a great time to start a batch of broilers, too, since they'll be in confinement for the first few weeks while the grass sprouts anyway.


Oh, and before I forget, does anyone have extra large heat-shrink poultry bags they could spare three to five of? I need to process my turkeys at the end of the month to the middle of next month and I don't have any bags or vacuum sealers large enough. I don't want to order a large box of them. Thanks in advance!

Thanks. I think I'll do 2 batches of 3 chicks. One group in the next month and then I'll wait another 6 months to get the last 3. That will give us 10 total, assuming we don't lose any along the way. With 10 birds they'll have just over 4sq ft per in the coop and a little over 6 sq ft per in the run which they'll only be confined to the run when I go out for a bit which isn't often and they'll have the coop and the run available to them. Otherwise they'll be free ranging. Things might change in the next 6 months too. We may be able to build on more to the run by then.

Now I just have to wait until one of the hatcheries that allows small orders has a couple of my top breeds available. It looks like MPC will be offering hatching eggs for some of the breeds I want at the end of this month so hopefully they'll also have day olds around that time too.

 

[kacklinkelly]

Another great book that is always my go-to when canning is Preserving Summer's Bounty, although I am not sure how much they accommodate for higher altitudes since I have never had to worry about that. I agree canning acidic foods is so much easier.
http://www.amazon.com/Preserving-Su...950&sr=1-1&keywords=preserving+summers+bounty

Thanks kacklinkelly for the info. What other store did you get your RIR from? I wasn't aware of any others in the Valley who sell chicks. No matter the mix I end up with I will definitely have fun! Is your BO's significantly larger than the RIR?

Mckenzie I can't wait for the day to hold my own eggs. Won't be until about March or April though.

Flower no worries! Man, from SoCal to the mountains of AZ can be a shock. I moved to the desert from the fertile, grow anything Central California. I was bound and determined to figure out how to have a vegetable garden here and up until my major hiccup I was pretty darn successful. I will get back there one of these days!

Sorry for delay, have been enjoying the beautiful weather and cleaning up the yard. I got the RIR from Petfood Depot on Cave creek road & Coral Gables. Another source for chicks/turkeys depending where you live is on 32nd street and North of Greenway= Western Ranchman. I buy my feed and supplies from them. They are very friendly and knowledgeable. My BO is larger than my RIR. But Red always lays the biggest egg. So Funny. Did you go to Pratts on Friday? I have to catch.

 

[kacklinkelly]

Does everyone keep strictly to the 10ft per chicken in the run 4ft per in the coop? Our coop is big enough to have 10-11 chickens but our run only 6-7. Since the girls are primarily free range during the day would keeping 10 with a run that size be horrible to do to them? Our next batch of chicks will only be 3 birds but I know down the line I'll want another small batch. Will I have to convince my bf to let me build on to the run before I go past the 7 bird mark?

Our chicken tractor provides 40 square feet for our 3 girls. With the extras that have to go in for food/water/oyster shells, I wouldn't want any more hens in there. our girls are very friendly and am hoping they stay that way. I'm concerned about the issues I've read about when chickens don't have enough room. They have about 16 square feet in their coop. So far it works out just fine. Don't get me wrong, chicken math is driving me crazy. I just have to build another tractor or coop/run.

 

[nwebber]

Our "peeps" lol

After 13 weeks of constant love, attention and praying that we got all girls... The truth has happened!!! Grace is not the beautiful girl we were hoping she was but a rooster who chose this week to speak up and clearly and let us know he was not a she. This absolutely breaks my heart knowing I need to rehome him. We can't have him waking the neighbors or us for that matter. The other two I have a feeling will go through a bit if a sad phase and I'm worried that this may delay their egg laying.

He is going to a friend of mine, where she has plenty of other farm animals to keep him happy, but I'm still broken up about it. My husband keeps saying I'm too attached to them and I mostly agree but I just can't get enough of them.

These three are a team and I will miss him dearly. Grace will be renamed with his new family and will et pics and updates from my friend on his well being which makes me hap hap happy!!! .

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[Twinklin]

Our chicken tractor provides 40 square feet for our 3 girls. With the extras that have to go in for food/water/oyster shells, I wouldn't want any more hens in there. our girls are very friendly and am hoping they stay that way. I'm concerned about the issues I've read about when chickens don't have enough room. They have about 16 square feet in their coop. So far it works out just fine. Don't get me wrong, chicken math is driving me crazy. I just have to build another tractor or coop/run.

Are yours confined to the tractor all day? The reason I'm considering giving them less than 10 sq ft is because they free range most of the day. I just got a part time job but took the 4am-9am shift 4 days a week. The girls typically hop up on the roosts for bed around 6pm right now and I had been letting them out to range at 8:00am. Once I start my new job I'll be opening the door to the run before I leave at 3:30am. They'll then have access to the coop and run until 9:30 when I get home where they'll then be let out into the yard until they go to bed.

currently they are
coop only from 6:00pm-8:00am (cooped up in the coop for 14 hours)
free range 8:00am-6:00pm (free range for 10 hours)

once i start my new job
coop only from 6:00pm-3:30am (cooped up in the coop for 9 1/2 hours)
coop and run from 3:30am-9:30am (currently they don't get access to the run until 8am)
free range from 9:30am-6pm (free range for 8 1/2 hours, losing 1 1/2 hours of free range time because of my new job)

I guess I'll get the first group of 3 which will bump me to 7 chickens and we'll see how they do with just under 10 sq ft per bird in the run those few hours before they're let out to range. If I feel they'd need more space those 6 hours they're confined to it while I'm at work I'll either expand the run or not get more birds. I'm not concerned with having 10 in our coop because they'll have over 4 sq ft each on the floor alone, Once they spread out up on the roosts they have plenty of space. It's also 7ft high so I could add a loft for more floor space.

I know I'm totally over thinking this, I just want to plan ahead for the next 6 months- 1 year so I know what I have to try to get permission from my bf to build in that time or know I need to seek professional help to try to get over the fact that I can't get any more chickens.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I know I'm totally over thinking this, I just want to plan ahead for the next 6 months- 1 year so I know what I have to try to get permission from my bf to build in that time or know I need to seek professional help to try to get over the fact that I can't get any more chickens.

I think it's good that you're thinking this through. Here's my take on space; I think that you have to plan for the most restrictive scenario. For example, we like to travel a lot which often means no one is here to let them out and put them up at night (and we usually don't have our house-sitter let them out). So, we try to have enough space that even when confined for several weeks on end, they're O.K. Right now it's about as crowded as ever with nine adult birds (very soon to be eight) in 200 square feet of combined run and coop space (~25 sq ft/bird).

I think that it's so very helpful to have a completely enclosed run; one that is covered and as strong at defending attacks as your coop. That way you don't have to worry about locking them up at night in the coop and letting them out to the run in the morning.

Also, your free-ranging schedule is very likely to change over the time you have chickens either due to a change in jobs or the inevitable predator attack. I used to free-range like you but once the coyotes found our property we had to stop. I only let them out when I'm outside and even that is no guarantee, in the last attack the coyote jumped the wall and grabbed a hen right in front of me. We got lucky in that we had three and a half good years of free-ranging before the coyotes found us and I was here to stop both attacks which surely limited the number of fatalities. We got much luckier than most folks I know here in Tucson. I think our 6' block wall helped because over the years we saw the coyotes take the less secluded and protected chickens in the neighborhood before they got around to discovering ours. I can tell you, that after reading this entire thread and talking with lots of other chicken raisers here in southern AZ, it is only a matter of time before a dog, coyote or bobcat finds your flock. Not that I'm advocating against free-ranging, because I do free-range, but once something like this happens, it has an impact on how you manage your flock. I think it's worthwhile considering the impact when you're in the planning stages.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

YAYYYYYY!!!!! Yes I DID make an awesome collage out of the 1541789 pics I took of an egg. It came out a little messy but for a first egg it was a decent size and perfect shape and a beautiful pinkish light brown with lots of white speckling. I think I'm going to blow it out and preserve it.

Yay! Congratulations. That first egg is so exciting.

 

[kpgoldstar]

YAYYYYYY!!!!! [COLOR=333333]Yes I DID make an awesome collage out of the 1541789 pics I took of an egg. It came out a little messy but for a first egg it was a decent size and perfect shape and a beautiful pinkish light brown with lots of white speckling. I think I'm going to blow it out and preserve it.[/COLOR]

Awesome! I can't wait!!!

 

[kpgoldstar]

Sorry for delay, have been enjoying the beautiful weather and cleaning up the yard.  I got the RIR from Petfood Depot on Cave creek road & Coral Gables.  Another source for chicks/turkeys depending where you live is on 32nd street and North of Greenway= Western Ranchman.  I buy my feed and supplies from them.  They are very friendly and knowledgeable.  My BO is larger than my RIR.  But Red always lays the biggest egg.  So Funny. Did you go to Pratts on Friday?  I have to catch.  

I posted a few pages back about my Pratts fiasco. We will be getting RIR's from the El Mirage store tomorrow. They will be 2 weeks old already. That's not exactly what I was planning but it's OK.