Arizona Chickens

[Angelray]

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

Love your coop & welcome to BYC!

 

[our1stfarm]

nice looking little coop you have there!

Thank you!!!
So glad to be a part of the BYC community!

 

[Angelray]

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.

I have been told to put a mirror, ticking type clock & sm. stuffed animal with lonely chicks. Hope it helps... keep us posted!

 

[maryhysong]

I have been told to put a mirror, ticking type clock & sm. stuffed animal with lonely chicks. Hope it helps... keep us posted!

You might also try adding a feather duster tied in place with the feathers down, near but not too close to your heat lamp. That would give it a cozy warm spot like under a mamma hen.

 

[Bob's Henhouse]

our1stfarm. Cool coop, I like it. But, if you did do your research, will it hold up to chicken math?

 

[kpgoldstar]

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.

Yes, Becky I know that completely! My chicks each have their own markings and personality. I can tell them apart as chicks, looking forward to knowing the difference between my girls' eggs.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Finally! Some pics of my super fast-moving hoodlums! Impossible to catch on a phone camera, so I had to resort to the big camera. One problem with getting all the same breed from the feed store is they are getting more difficult to tell apart and the fact that I will have all the same colored eggs. It's not so hard to tell them apart when they are all together but by themselves, YIKES! I was such a newbie when I got these, next time will be different. They turned 8 weeks yesterday...
I am doing fermented feed, anyone think they are too fat? Normal for their age?

 

[kpgoldstar]

OK whatever was the problem they won't let me upload any more pics tonight. I have 3 more, gonna try in a new message.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

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? 

No you are not eating/crowing bee larvae. The honey is bee regurgitation, the wax is secretion from glands on the body of the bee. I think they have a half dozen or so. Small wafers of wax are p produced. The bee collects it and chows it to further proses it, and work is it into a perfect cell. The bee lives about 30 days, at each stage of their life they have a different job. They work themselves to death. I do not remember the order of life for them, but I believe it starts with nest duty, cleaning and feeding the larvae, then at some point they have pollen, nectar and water collection, then they have comb or wax building, and honey making, and hive cleaning and cooling/heating as needed. There are several very knowledge able bee as well as chicken people on BYC. Chickens, Bees, Gardens, baking, cooking, brewing, and other life confirming interests run together. I am sure somebody could jump in and elaborate on bees filling in what I missed, correcting where I was close, but not quite right, or just plain wrong.

My memory is in pictures and sometimes I can not glen everything and put it into words.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

welcome all the NEW EGGS. It is great to see so many new members. This is a very active site, mis a day or two and it will take that long to catch up. It is very active, full of good people.
have fun, looking forward to hearing more from you.

kpgoldstar: your girls look a lot like my youngsters. Mine are 8 to 11 weeks, starting to look more like chickens and their personalities are starting to show thru.

My 2 hens have been teaching the pullets a lot about hanging around the back door and demand treats.