Arizona Chickens

[Stynch]

Our first 3-egg day! Blackie is our rockstar - she has laid 18 eggs in 19 days. The two "Leghorns" are evidently Leghorn Mutts and started laying over the weekend. I was hoping for white eggs from at least one of them, but I guess they are both mixed breed. Now, if Big Red, our 7-1/2 month old EE would start....... (and please lay something besides tan!!!)

 

[pipemum]

Pretty eggs Stynch! I love the tan, but hoping your Big Red lays blue or green for you!

I'm having chicken anxiety, or something! I've had a couple of dreams recently featuring the demise of my chickens. 1st one involved someone sneaking into the coop and wringing the necks of every single chicken. My daughter and I found them the strewn around the coop the next morning (in the dream). Last night's dream--I was homesteading in the forest somewhere, and the chickens, same ones I currently own, were flying around? Like, soaring flying, it was amazing. Anyway, hawks came and snatched up every chicken from the air and there was nothing I could do.

lkd, the honey looks so good. I love chewing on honeycomb. So...when I do that, chew on honeycomb, am I eating bee larvae? I've always wondered that, but I've never seen anything in there?

 

[Rezia]

My neighbor and I are going with our kids. How will we know you to say hi?

I was volunteering at the coop in Mesa. (the furthest one away) I don't think I saw you, but I might've...

 

[Demosthine]

For anyone interested, I am putting together an order for McMurray's Hatchery. I'm getting some turkeys. Minimum order is 15, so I'd love others to join in. The delivery should be in early April. Message me if you are interested.

 

[WestSideChicken]

So I did a silly thing... I gave in to my kids. We already have too many chickens and 6 plus a turkey in the grow out coop. We were at the store and they had tiny feather footed bantams. My daughter melted and we walked out with two. Problem? One died today. Now I have a single week old chick and no time to get back over to the store till at least Sat. To get it a friend. Is this one gonna die of loneliness? It just keeps crying. I thought about bringing one of the 2 month olds back in but I am afraid that would be bad? Help? I have never tried raising a solo chick.

 

[Demosthine]

Did you use 100% mesquite flour? If so, you need to mix it up. Here is the recipe I use. It is from Pearl, who runs the mesquite milling workshop in Cascabel along with her husband Daniel. We took pods out there to mill and have enough to last a long time. I keep it in the freezer.
Make a base of dry ingredients. You can double or triple. Mix well and store in airtight container:

 
1 cup mesquite flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (I use Redmond's since it is aluminum-free)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt.

When ready to make pancakes:
Mix together:
1 egg
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup buttermilk, sour milk or fresh milk made sour with a tablespoon of vinegar added

Add 1 cup of the dry mix to the liquids and whisk together until just moistened. Don't overmix or the pancakes will be tougher.
Add more milk to thin as needed. Cook on hot griddle and enjoy with your favorite syrup or toppings.

I owe you a thank you! Those were some of the best, most flavorable pancakes I've ever had! I'm not sure if I had the heat too low or too high, but they were browned on the outside and soft on the inside. But they wouldn't hold together completely when I flipped them.

Mesquite definitely changes the way you cook them and I'm gathering it's a bit more of an art than the websites explain.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Our first 3-egg day! Blackie is our rockstar - she has laid 18 eggs in 19 days. The two "Leghorns" are evidently Leghorn Mutts and started laying over the weekend. I was hoping for white eggs from at least one of them, but I guess they are both mixed breed. Now, if Big Red, our 7-1/2 month old EE would start....... (and please lay something besides tan!!!)

Who cares if they are all the same color?? They are gorgeous! I am feeling a tiny bit of regret that I got all the same breed. Mine are 8 weeks. If I had found out about AZ chickens before I took the plunge I'd have gotten a variety and from a breeder instead of feed store. Mine are all RIR's. I love them already but my eggs will be identical. A few years down the road I can branch out. For starters my little flock is perfect!

 

[our1stfarm]

Hello all!
Just wanted to introduce ourselves. We are Larry and Kristy and we are brand new to backyard chicken raising. We spent a few month researching chickens and building our coop and finally were able to buy our girls last weekend. We are starting with a Buff Orpington (Valentine), a Black Astralorp (Charlotte), and a white Americauna (Sugar).

This website has been invaluable and is where we got almost all of our information. We've spent hours on here so we figured it's time to give back and start participating!

A bit about our coop. After much researching we based our design on a picture we saw online. We've never really built anything so the process took quite a bit of time and had it's moments of frustration, but was an absolute blast!!
We ended up with a 4x3 raised enclosure and a 8x4 run. We used 2x2 for the framing and 1/2 inch hardware cloth for the wire. We were able to score some cedar roof shakes from mom who just had her house redone. The rest of the run is covered in shade cloth to keep the ladies nice and cool,
There are definitely a few things we would do differently next time, but overall we are really happy with our first coop, and so excited to have our small flock in backyard.
Looking forward to chatting with all our AZ BYC members and learning a lot along the way!!

Heres a few pics of the coop and the girls

 

[maryhysong]

Hello all!
Just wanted to introduce ourselves. We are Larry and Kristy and we are brand new to backyard chicken raising. We spent a few month researching chickens and building our coop and finally were able to buy our girls last weekend. We are starting with a Buff Orpington (Valentine), a Black Astralorp (Charlotte), and a white Americauna (Sugar).

nice looking little coop you have there!

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote: You have plenty of time to get more breeds! Also, your eggs won't be identical. Each chicken's egg will be a little different. If you pay attention to who is in the nest box and the egg that results, you'll be able to tell them apart. I have 4 brown egg layers and can tell exactly who's egg is who's.