Arizona Chickens

[Twinklin]

Finally overseeded with rye grass today. We had a debate to lock up the chickens until it takes hold or to not lock up the chickens. We decided to get an extra small bag of seed and attempt it leaving the chickens out and spot seed where they destroy it most. The last time we seeded we had a million wild birds in the yard eating the seed, the chickens keep the wild birds away but they scratch the ground up a lot more than the wild birds. We figure 4 chickens scratching and eating seed is the lesser of 2 evils vs 100 wild birds.

 

[desertmarcy]

Oh man great thing for you if they make it!!! I have tried like5-7 times.. With no luck.

1 from the exotic nursery in East Mesa $37.00 plus gas & time.. Died a few months later..
Then 3 week old starters from a friend.. 3 plants.. Ugh!!!
THEN seeds from D.H. He got them from his friend, that got them from his family in Dominican Republic..
Out of 3; 1 started.. I was so upset... I left tem out for some selfish chicken... By accident... So pease
don't let me bring you dwn.. I just, for some reason can not get them to make it to a year.. If I did I would
share all the seeds with just about every single one of our neighbors.. Plus I would go & trim their tree for harvest..
That is just a drem as of now... Please keep us posted..

The guy who helps his son run EcoGro in Tucson is a friend of mine and told me how best to start them. He uses coco peat and coco chips. From the coconut tree. He is a major distributor of those products. Apparently coco is the magic ingredient in seed starting and succulent growing. Throw away your peat and other commercial potting soil. I planted almost 200 seeds. 1/2 regular and 1/2 hybrids (supposed to grow bushier, and be more productive). The seeds were not expensive on eBay. The coco products were the most expensive part. I hope they grow. I'm starting them indoors but as soon as they sprout, I need to move them into my greenhouse since there is not enough light in my sunroom-wanna-be.

 

[desertmarcy]

Oh yes, keep us posted on how this turns out. It seems that they need to be protected well from the cold here in our climate, at least when starting out. A LOT of us here on the AZ thread have tried to grow them over the years and, as far as I know, only mclevinson from Gilbert had any luck at getting the trees started and surviving a winter. She did well enough though that she sent seeds around to all of us from one end of the state to the other. I really want to try again and I think I would try getting it as close to the house as I could to help moderate the cold temps.

They will come back after a freeze as long as the roots are protected. If my Mexican lime and my Limequat are any indication, they would come back stronger after a freeze! Those two trees froze back completely to the ground this past winter and now they are both bigger than they were last year. No fruit, though.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote: Hey, I know those guys! I also have their coco fiber (I've been starting seeds with it). That's great news about them coming back after a freeze too, now I'm inspired to try again. My Bearss lime froze pretty bad too last winter, but it grew less than I had hoped and didn't produce any fruit.

 

[City farm]

 Well, down here on the border, life is starting to change. Summer antics have finally quelled down and the season is changing as well. My birds are all molting. Getting a winter coat ready? 1st. time mind you.  Anyhow, I have been getting 6-7 eggs a day with all chickens laying now.  But today, no eggs. WTH???  And ofcourse, its when I just got more feed and supplies bought. sheeesh.  There's gratitude for ya!  The family and I are getting ready for Dia de los Muertos festivities. We will visit my wife's grandparents graves and do the deed. (Tequila, flowers, calaveras, songs) should be fun.  The kids are finally getting into it and not freaking out. Wife is happy about that. Culture and all!!!  Hope everybody is well and if you are in the area, feel free to look us up. Look out, the holidays are fast upon us all.....

Oh yes holiday.. Very nice time to visit with your neighbors, friends & possibly family...?
What is Dia de ls Muetos festivities..?
Tequila is on sale at food city this week. Gold & the other I think it is normally $12+.. With coupon $6? Our neighbor mentioned it.
I call it te-killya...

 

[City farm]

I have seven new baby chicks!  A 50% hatch rate.  Not great, not awful.

Broody girl was still sitting firmly on the unhatched eggs.  In the meantime the chicks were starting to get feisty in the nest box.  Since it was two days past the hatching date and no new chicks had appeared in a while, I pulled the chicks out of the nest box and let them loose on the floor of the coop/run.  Then I pulled the remaining eggs out from under the broody.  (They were all duds.)  She still sat there.  I finally managed to pull her out of the box and plunked her down on the floor of the coop next to the chicks, who were already starting to run all over the place.  Broody girl snapped into momma-hen mode and immediately started showing the chicks how to forage for stuff in the deep litter.  Awww... I'm so proud of her.  Looks like she's going to be a good mom. 

Downside of having the broody raise the chicks in the coop/run:  it's hard to avoid stepping on the chicks!  Already had one get under foot and partly stepped on.  Ouch.  Good thing the coop has deep litter.  The chick just sank down into the litter.  For a minute I thought I might have to cull it, but it gathered its wits and was moving around with the other chicks a few minutes later.  By the end of the day I couldn't tell which one it was.  I think it's going to be fine, but I'll keep an eye out for weird limps.

The other birds didn't have a problem with the chicks.  They did have a problem with momma hen getting all puffy and in their faces when they tried to get near their feeder.  (I have the chick feeder under the hanging grown-up feeder for now.)  At one point the cockerel scuffed with momma, basically putting her in her place for being so aggressively defensive of the feeding area.  She took the chicks off to a corner after that, and everybody else got to eat.  I will have to watch the dynamics and make sure everyone is getting enough food.  Tomorrow I will make a special feeding area for the chicks that the big girls can't get into.  Today it wouldn't have done any good - the chicks stayed under momma most of the time.  In a day or two they will be more adventurous.  Soon they will appreciate a grownup-free area.  As long as momma hen remains nearby.

The cuteness factor is overwhelmingly distracting!

Yeah. Broody hen in my expierence seems to be a new chicken added to the flock.. Chickns don't seem to ave to much memory...
But they're good moma's.. They can hold their own.. Our broody felisha is up in the bantam coop. Not many of the other larger chickens
go up in there to lay.. I dare not move her, so it will have to just pay out the way nature intended..all though I spoil her.. About every other day
I will give her H2o & F.F... Spoiled brat... & at that time I check to see if there are more eggs. Or any changes.. I do like having a separate area
for the Moma & babies to feed..
Hope to hear how it goes for you

 

[heidisue]

Just wanted to share my amazing score yesterday--I got two used (from 2007) 800 gallon galvanized cisterns (4' dia X 6' tall) for $150.  The best part is they have metal bottoms so they can be moved from location to location.  They also had the lids and all the extra pieces to make it work.  We had to get them out of where they were located, which was an adventure, but totally worth it at $0.11 per gallon of water storage.  I'm very excited about watering my herb garden with rainwater. 

Wow! That is a great score

 

[City farm]

My little Basil, the Black Cooper Maran, is a roster! And even worse Angle may be a rooster as well. Would any one out there like a couple of roosters?
I'm looking for a good home for ether of them. They will have to go to camp freezer some day otherwise.

Oh that's a bummer hope you find a home..

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I listen to a ton of music. My taste is pretty varied. Everything from late 60's to now as long as its not country or polka or too much hip hop or top 40.

My daughter has been all over my music collection. Apple homesharing between computers is so awesome. I wish we had that when I was a kid. My dad got ****** if he caught me using his turntable. Now, my girl has complete access to my music and she can't screw it up.

Right....I remember those days...we too always have music going!! Always we have a cheap radio on the front patio, a cheap
radio on the back. One in the garage, one in my office out back, one hooked up to the T.V. In our room & living room.. Plus
the boys rooms.. Now all I want is someone to come and play at our BON FIRES... I bought a family gift last year.. Guess???
A portable iPod radio.. It goes threw soooooo many batteries.. So of course back to the front patio radio..

I have mostly fond memory's of the hi-fy, it raw alway playing something. My dad was varied then my mother. On summer she kept playing "itsy-bitty-yellow polka dotted bikini" over and over, I took it fishing with me. Someday, when the lake fills with silt, archaeologist will find it, if they can figure out what it is hd play it? What will they think? What picture will they have of us? Will they even know what a bikini is?
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Originally Posted by Gallo del Cielo

Just wanted to share my amazing score yesterday--I got two used (from 2007) 800 gallon galvanized cisterns (4' dia X 6' tall) for $150. The best part is they have metal bottoms so they can be moved from location to location. They also had the lids and all the extra pieces to make it work. We had to get them out of where they were located, which was an adventure, but totally worth it at $0.11 per gallon of water storage. I'm very excited about watering my herb garden with rainwater.

What a score, I have two 250 gal storage containers, I paid $100.00 each, that is really great.

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I got 2 eggs, the next day 1 egg, then 5 eggs, yesterday and to day 2 eggs. I feel so much better now thatI am starting to get eggs. One egg is Lucy's she lays very uniform eggs. As executed, the new eggs are more pointy and 3 of then are small to small medium. I think one of them will be laying large or extra large eggs. It took Lucy several weeks before she was laying 6 - 7 eggs a weekend uniform in size. The Buff Orpington I think should give me 3-4 eggs a week, I will have to chick. I am hoping to get 2 dozen eggs a week from my 5 girls, 6 if Clare decides to start laying an egg when she goes into the nest box.

 

[AZKat]

The best, most reliable method I've ever found for hard boiling fresh eggs is to steam cook them in a pressure cooker. I use my pressure canner for the job, and put the eggs in a little metal collander so they don't roll around and crack. 6 minutes at 6 pounds of pressure, and then let it release naturally. The shells slip right off, even if the egg is so fresh that it was warm when you put it in the steamer. I think that electric egg cookers work on a similar principle, but I'd rather not sink money into a single use appliance.