Arizona Chickens

[Mikey D]

So this is pretty silly how much I miss those cluckers.

I keep hearing noises & thinking it's them.

12 days to new peepers.

 

[Angelray]

Mikey D....hang in there I know it must be hard as hell!

MagicChicken...I did the same thing once! Felt like I was in the twilight zone...stinks when age catches up to us!!

Good morning all! Today's gonna be a great day....there's a half day at school (since I'm a teacher that means half day for me too) so we are getting started on our 2nd coop for the meaties! Hope ya'll have a good one too!!

 

[pipemum]

Mikey D, less than 2 weeks!

Last night, I did decide to leave the meaties in the pen all night. I was out there, spreading DE around the perimeter of the pen, and I'd peek in through the blankets I had covering the pen to make sure ants weren't getting in, and each time the light hit them, chicks would peep a bit and run over to food and water. Piggies. Anyway, they attracted a visitor. As I bent over, something lightly brushed my hair and then hit the edge of the reed fencing just above me. I popped up, and it was an owl!

This morning, doing my chores, there was a pack of coyotes out in the wash making a ton of noise. A pack further away started up, and sometimes their vocalizations freak me out--sounded just like a group of kids playing in a park. A bit later, it a pup was either getting severely reprimanded, or they snatched a small dog out of a yard.

Finally, I had logged on only to say that one of my barred rocks laid an egg yesterday! Woohoo. A tiny one. I imagine there must have been a fight over the nest box, because the EE, who hasn't missed a day in 9 days, hadn't laid yesterday. This morning, she was in there first thing, and laid her biggest, greenest egg yet. She usually doesn't lay till after 10am, so a 6:15am arrival is super early for her!

The "huge" egg is the one on the left, new egg, and egg from the other day. The EE's egg this morning fills out the slot in the carton (I usually buy large eggs, not jumbo or xl). I have a postal scale, it might be fun to see the difference between those two eggs. I haven't bought eggs in 2 weeks...okay, that's not that unusual, but woohoo! I'm down to...hmm, each egg I've received is probably still worth at least $75!!

 

[pipemum]

I wonder if a ring of sulfur powder would work to keep the ants out of certain areas, without harming gardens and soil?

I will try that on the outside of my fence line. I have some sulfur powder in my shed.

 

[Demosthine]

Yeah, the fermented feed helped out immensely with the poop. It is much more stable now and there seems to be a separation between pooping and peeing. Sometimes it comes out complete liquid and other times, they drop a nice hard glob. The quantity went down and it all breaks down in to the yard much, much faster and nicer. The smell is dramatically decreased, too.

Still no eggs yet, since they are all still moulting. Boy, we've gotta stock up for next year's moult. This is crazy! But hey, with winter coming up, they should be egg laying machines again!


On a side note, we are picking up four roosters this afternoon for the crock pot. I don't know what breeds or anything, but the photos looked reasonably large. If you're interested in one for breeding purposes or for the flock, message me and let me know. Otherwise, they'll go to Camp Freezer on Saturday or Sunday.

 

[pipemum]

I've been wondering how to go about picking up Craigslist rooster for the stewpot. When you pick them up, do you keep them quarantined for a couple of days and then butcher? Butcher the day you get them? Do you ask the previous owners about diet?

 

[Twinklin]

I started my girls on fermented feed today. I checked it when I got home from work and it smelled like beer so I assumed it was doing it's thing. I used pellets to make it. I gave them a few scoops of it and we'll see how much they go through in a day. The 2 egg layers took to it instantly. The other 2 girls who aren't laying yet held off but have been exploring it. It seems Phillie loves it and I may have to watch her so she doesn't explode. I don't think she's stopped eating it since I put it out. I need to find another container to do it with the huge bag of scratch I have. I rarely give them scratch because I want them to eat good stuff. Hopefully with it fermented I'll feel better about giving it to them a couple times a week instead of the couple times a month I do now.

 

[Demosthine]

I've been wondering how to go about picking up Craigslist rooster for the stewpot. When you pick them up, do you keep them quarantined for a couple of days and then butcher? Butcher the day you get them? Do you ask the previous owners about diet?

I figure that by the point I get them and they are alive, they can't be any more contaminated than what we'd buy at the store anyway, so their diet isn't a huge concern for me. Overall, the four roosters will probably be a single meal for us and won't contribute to a large part of our diet. They will be quarantined in my garage-turned-shop until Monday. I'll feed them until Sunday midday and then take all of the food and water, in order to have an empty stomach and bladder. A friend wants to come over and watch, maybe even help out, so we'll process them on Monday. He's a true city boy from Los Angeles County who has absolutely no idea about any of this until him and I started discussing things about a year ago. Now, his entire world has changed and he has gone the natural, healthy route. His wife talked about many of the same things I did, but he generally didn't take to it until I reaffirmed most of her beliefs.

Anyway, yeah, the hardest part about the Craig's List chickens is how fast people pick them up and how they are flagged even faster for violating the posting terms. There are some truly pathetic flagging-addicts on there that must spend their entire day doing it. Personally, unless it's illegal or creepy (Massage Therapist for Females Only), I don't care too much what gets posted. He said this one was up a total of about 60-seconds before it got deleted. Just by luck, I had noticed it and EMailed him in time.

 

[desertmarcy]

I figure that by the point I get them and they are alive, they can't be any more contaminated than what we'd buy at the store anyway, so their diet isn't a huge concern for me. Overall, the four roosters will probably be a single meal for us and won't contribute to a large part of our diet. They will be quarantined in my garage-turned-shop until Monday. I'll feed them until Sunday midday and then take all of the food and water, in order to have an empty stomach and bladder. A friend wants to come over and watch, maybe even help out, so we'll process them on Monday. He's a true city boy from Los Angeles County who has absolutely no idea about any of this until him and I started discussing things about a year ago. Now, his entire world has changed and he has gone the natural, healthy route. His wife talked about many of the same things I did, but he generally didn't take to it until I reaffirmed most of her beliefs.

Anyway, yeah, the hardest part about the Craig's List chickens is how fast people pick them up and how they are flagged even faster for violating the posting terms. There are some truly pathetic flagging-addicts on there that must spend their entire day doing it. Personally, unless it's illegal or creepy (Massage Therapist for Females Only), I don't care too much what gets posted. He said this one was up a total of about 60-seconds before it got deleted. Just by luck, I had noticed it and EMailed him in time.

Just curious why the ads are being flagged. Craigslist says "legal sales of agricultural livestock okay" right after Farm and Garden.

 

[Demosthine]

Animals are not permitted in the "Free" section, and that's where they are always found when someone is just giving them away. So it technically violates the terms of that section. However, in the "Pets" and "Farm and Garden" sections, a purchase or re-homing fee is required, so if you offer them for free there, then it's technically violating those terms, too. Instead of allowing the owners to try to find respectable homes for these animals, instead of just being abandoned, the Flagging Police have the ads removed. It's completely back-arsewards and stupid.