Arizona Chickens

[kpgoldstar]

It's a perfectly good question for a new chick owner to ask. Grit works in the gizzard to grind their food. It's usually just small or tiny pebbles that they eat, construction sand might be a bit too fine, depending on what it is. You can buy grit specifically for chickens or you could simply get a shovelful of dirt from your yard and put it in a shallow dish for them.

My sand is fairly course as can be seen in the pic below. I have watched youtube vids of people cleaning their sand coop and it is super fine, like California beach sand. Mine has lots of small pebbles and is the kind used to level ground before laying brick or pavers.
Someone else told me to wait until 5 weeks on the dried mealworms and 7 weeks on kitchen scraps.
Thanks again for your help!
Kristine

 

[MandyFitch]

Someone else told me to wait until 5 weeks on the dried mealworms and 7 weeks on kitchen scraps.
Thanks again for your help!
Kristine

I'm giving some kitchen scraps to my five week olds but if you do that, be sure to chop into little pieces. I thought I was going to have to do the Heimlich maneuver on one of my chicks after she downed a large piece of apple. She finally managed to bring it up but I was freaking out for a minute there. (All she did was eat it again, whole.... Whatever.)

 

[MandyFitch]

Hey guys,

I just posted a general educational question about determining gender before the actual crowing / egg laying proof. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/829916/can-we-talk-about-sex

Would you guys chime in if you've got something to share? Thanks!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

My sand is fairly course as can be seen in the pic below. I have watched youtube vids of people cleaning their sand coop and it is super fine, like California beach sand. Mine has lots of small pebbles and is the kind used to level ground before laying brick or pavers.
Someone else told me to wait until 5 weeks on the dried mealworms and 7 weeks on kitchen scraps.
Thanks again for your help!
Kristine

That looks good. I feed my chicks live mealworms on day 2 and have never had a problem.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

So I've never seen a silkie in person but I heard they are larger than many bantams. I also read a lot of advice about mixing bantams and LF. I've read lots of posts of people successfully mixing them into larger flocks. Would having a single silkie with 6 LF be a bad idea? I'm assuming when mixing LF and bantams you should probably have several bantams so they can band together. Am I wrong? A silkie is one of the birds on my list but I'm not really a bantam fan otherwise so if I got one it would be the only bantam. My RIR is really small though so maybe they could be buddies. Grrrrr I hate being so limited on space, I need to move to a farm lol

My silkies who are not in breeding pens mix with my largefowl, and ducks and geese. The silkies are usually at the top of the pecking order. I've certainly seen a silkie take on largefowl barred rock, langshan, orpington, brahma, etc. when the larger bird was "in their space." The geese did take umbrage to baby chicks, but those were barred rock chicks.

Bantams vary in size from tiny serama (12-16 oz) to malay and shamo at 32-44 oz. Silkies are 28-36 oz.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Sebrights are 6 oz larger than serama. Dutch are a bit smaller than sebrights, and modern games are the same size as the sebrights.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: I saw that too. I think he actually has Dominiques, though. They have a rose comb and a longer tail. BRs have a single comb and shorter tails.

Rose comb prevents it being a rock. But rock tails are pretty long/full. I've no experience with dominiques.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Here it is:

3​

BAP BLACK AUST PULLETS

$2.61​

$7.83
3​

236P IDEAL 236 PULLETS

$2.51​

$7.53
3​

BFP BUFF ORPINGTON PULLETS

$2.61​

$7.83
3​

SFP SALMON FAVEROLLE PULLETS

$3.26​

$9.78
3​

CKMP CUCKOO MARAN PULLETS

$3.26​

$9.78
4​

SLWP SIL WYANDOTTE PULLETS

$2.61​

$10.44
4​

GLWP GOLD WYANDOTTE PULLETS

$2.85​

$11.40
3​

AMERP AMERAUCANA PULLETS

$2.85​

$8.55
2​

NHP NEW HAMP RED PULLETS

$2.61​

$5.22
28​

9​

Sub-total:​

$78.36​

2 of the silver and 2 of the gold wyandottes are for Shannon my neighbor. She also is getting 2 of the New Hampshire Reds as well. The rest are Papa's!

BTW - I forgot to order males. I'd like a protective roo that will not attack grandchildren.

Any suggestions?

Faverolles are supposed to be very mellow. Reds have a reputation for aggression. I've heard it both ways with marans and ameraucanas. I've never heard anything bad about australorps and aggressions; I think orpingtons are pretty much the same. My wyandotte is a bit nippy. All in all, it really comes down to the individual rooster.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
Enabler! I am already starting to load a tray with chocolate (dun) partridge silkie eggs And have blue X duns to go out and collect if I want to wade in irrigation water. Everywhere else they are either brooding their own or not laying

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Oh, this morning I had the chickens out while I was doing my morning chores. Watered the dogs, came back into the garden area, and the chickens were under Big Red (this big red table I have). Something caught my eye, it was a hawk flying out from my palo verde tree--must have been checking out the chickens. I'm pretty sure it was only a cooper's hawk, which seems way too small to be going after a chicken! We have a couple of pairs that hang out around here. Maybe my little bantam Polish/silkie mixes were looking particularly appetizing this morning.

We live off a natural wash, and have tons of coyotes and several bobcats roaming through. So far, no issues with coyotes jumping over the wrought iron fence, but we have seen them staring in. We have 3 big dogs, so that might be a deterrent (we also have 1 small dog, a tasty coyote treat). I've found a couple of small dogs in the wash, partially eaten, so I know it happens. A bobcat will probably be the most likely thing to get my chickens. Their coop and run is predator-proof, but one of these days a bobcat is going to slink in while they are roaming in the garden and snatch one away. I'm out in the yard a lot, but not always, and even so, I've heard many stories of a bobcat getting chickens with the owner mere feet away.

Cooper's are THE chicken hawk. Yes, they will go after your birds, even the large ones--if the bird is too heavy to fly off with, they will eat it where they kill it. And will keep coming back for meals until it is all gone.