Arizona Chickens

[Mikey D]

Howdy Peepers!

Breed question for all Y'all.

Background:

The peepers are around 9 weeks old. Due to inheriting a bunch from my neighbor (we initially split the order so they were pseudo siblings anyway) I have Buff orps and Rhode Island Reds. When we initially split the order the peepers were marked from Ideal and she took the 2 RIR's and I the 3 buff orps.

As they grew, my orps exhibited different characteristics - Two of their combs came in red in the second week & they were quite friendly. The third stayed neutral colored and didn't want anything to do with humans.

Now I have all 5 running around together and her two RIR's look like the buff orp with the neutral comb. I think we got them mixed up from the get go. I thought from their size (the red combed ones are bigger than the neutral ones) that the ones with the red combs were Buff Orps as they are supposed to be larger than the RIR's

Question:
Do RIR's combs typically redden quite early? If so I have the friendliest RIR's and the least friendly Buff Orps (which would be typical for any birds in my flock anyway) know to mankind.

Hope ya'll had a merry Christmas!

Mikey

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Got any pictures Mikey?

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

My wife's romaine lettuce went to seed this week.  I was wondering why it had shot up so tall all of a sudden, nearly doubling in size.  She informed me today it's almost ready to harvest the seeds.  We can replant a lot more next season for free!  Woohoo!  We've been saving the seeds from our other fruit and vegetables, too.  Who knows how much is heirloom versus hybrids, but we can find out next time.  I've killed nearly all the vegetables I've ever planted, so I'm completely useless there.  I can't even get my aquaponics garden to grow, or the cilantro in the pot in the window, or...  It's all died.  I apparently have my Mom's black thumb when it comes to that stuff.

Gallo, I still drool over that aquaponics setup you have going.  If I had enough land to do it, I would have built that last year.  It was such an amazing setup.  I really want to do a big ol' hoop house, too, but that hasn't worked out either.  Time, I need more time in every single day.  Oh, and land.  Lots more land!


On the good side of life, I canned four pints of pineapple chunks and then made a pineapple habanero salsa that I canned this morning.  It smells so good!  I can't wait to poor some of a cube of cream cheese and dig in with a cracker...  Yumm...  I'm making some sour cream and onion dip today, too.  We have friends coming over Thursday for both their birthdays and my wife's birthday.  Sounds like a couple of great appetizers to me.  Oh, the pineapple came out to about 50c per pint, while the salsa was 67c per pint.  Compare that at $1.33 for the quart, to the retail price of over $9.00 at Costco and it came out ridiculously cheep, even if you add buying the brand new jars!  Just a couple hours of my life to do.

You have a pool, there you go. You fish pond, a little tweaking of you filtering system, change the thin-a-nabob, put the thingy there and then move the what-da-call it over and re-hook it up and you have Aqua Pond with floating islands of veggies all with a green house cover. Of course you no longer can go swimming, and if you wanted to get the pool back you would have to have the intire filtering system replaced and the cleaning! But it could be done, I made a very quick sketch of a plant raft. The out side would be sealed air tight, it is basically like the flooring live box I made. That worked so would this.

I can just picture it, on a hot summer day, looking at the inviting water, but you can not go in. Then of course the day comes you have to go in for regular maintenance, in to the water filled with hungry fish. No worry, they can't bit.... :/ Then the hair on your legs become dinner........ And you feel the stinging tug as one after another tries to ..... Well I hope you get the picture. When I was a kid we had fish we feed, and you could not go in the water without getting nailed. My brother had a friend up to the lake place, he, of course know all about the fish. He wore a tight suit and a tee shirt, his friend wore a baggy trunks..... We had to go out and get him from the floating dock. He refunded to go back in.

 

[Mikey D]

Got any pictures Mikey?

That'd make it too easy Gallo!

I'll get some tomorrow in the daylight.

 

[Timskins]

Howdy Peepers!

Breed question for all Y'all.

Background:

The peepers are around 9 weeks old. Due to inheriting a bunch from my neighbor (we initially split the order so they were pseudo siblings anyway) I have Buff orps and Rhode Island Reds. When we initially split the order the peepers were marked from Ideal and she took the 2 RIR's and I the 3 buff orps.

As they grew, my orps exhibited different characteristics - Two of their combs came in red in the second week & they were quite friendly. The third stayed neutral colored and didn't want anything to do with humans.

Now I have all 5 running around together and her two RIR's look like the buff orp with the neutral comb. I think we got them mixed up from the get go. I thought from their size (the red combed ones are bigger than the neutral ones) that the ones with the red combs were Buff Orps as they are supposed to be larger than the RIR's

Question:
Do RIR's combs typically redden quite early? If so I have the friendliest RIR's and the least friendly Buff Orps (which would be typical for any birds in my flock anyway) know to mankind.

Hope ya'll had a merry Christmas!

Mikey

Are your RIR's not red and your buffs not...buff(golden/yellow)? Should have a pretty discernible color between the two.

 

[offgridhermit]

Does anyone want 2 light brahma roosters?

I would take them if we lived closer. I'm north of St Johns.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

Just before Christmas one of my circuit breakers gave it up. The electrician fixed it today. I had watched videos on YouTube and waited to call the electrician. The instructions called for screw driver and a tester. I have no idea where my tester is, but what got me was the big "be sure to kill the power!" Worming you will die! Painfully.

Well I told the guy the brand and amps. He unscrewed the box cover, removed the cover, popped out the fuse, loosened the screw, popped out the wire, slipped the wire into the new breaker, snapped it back in. NOTE! He did not switch of the panel, nore did he test it to. Be sure it was dead. Tomorrow I am going to Home Depot and pick up some switches, it is an old box and the rule is when 1 goes others will fallow. Pay some one?

 

[kpgoldstar]

Non-chicken related: as promised, me in my new rainbow bodysuit. Hello, everyone! Not the best picture, I know. I'll work up to some poses.


The Big Sky feed is amazing. Smells so fresh and delicious. I only have 6 layers, and one bag lasts me from one order until the next. I do FF as well. This last order, I bought the Big Sky broiler starter. Also great, also feed that FF to the little chicks from day one. For both layer feed and broiler feed, I use 5-gallon buckets. I do next to nothing to maintain it. For many months, I used a small one gallon jug to ferment the layer feed in, but I had to add food every 2 days...not too labor intensive, lol, but the 5-gallon bucket was an easy switch.

kp, the new run looks great! Yeah, I know it was answered already about the grit, but it was me that foolishly bought grit! And I have a yardfull of sand and dirt! I guess if one is used to thick, grassy, loamy-soiled yards with nary a pebble or speck of sand in sight, they'd be incredulous that we don't provide grit for our chickens.

My broiler chicks are all doing well. I have one little black runt that I expected to die, but he's still hanging in and seems healthy, but so small. I still don't expect him to make it. All the chicks are so happy with the mama hen. I hope I'll always have a broody to raise the meaty chicks--it's so much easier!!!!

Congrats on the chicks, lkd.

Sorry about the dog attack, westside, how devastating!

Pipe, you are one funny girl! That suit is just over the top. So unlike the solids we saw which are stealthy and sneaky. This one is flashy and belligerent! it screams, "Look at me!"

How much is a 50 lb bag of the layer? Are you in the buying co-op? Once my girls switch to layer I would be interested in adding to the order, but I would not be able to "take my turn" at picking up. Does the pickup person store it all and others come and pick up their order?

My 6 qt bucket I use for FF lasts about 4-5 days for my girls. It is a tad tedious, and as they get bigger and eat more, I will likely need to move to a bigger container. How long does your 5 gallon bucket last now before you have to refresh? For just your 6 layers?

Thanks for the kudos on the run extension! Both hubby and son are skilled carpenters, but we couldn't have built the pre-fab for the price we paid for it, so I'm glad I made that decision to start with. Plus, the one we got was American made with high quality wood and trims. I really only wanted a hardware cloth covered extension but my son is go big or go home, so of course I got the trussed roof. He was only disappointed that they don't match in color!

Yeah, the grit scolder lives where if she finds any particle in her soil that she can actually feel it is usually a piece of plastic. Oh! and if there are any rocks it is because they put them there!! Hahaha!!!! I live in the land of rocks, lady! No worries about grit here. And it was because I read that you'd felt duped that I knew I didn't need to buy it no matter how cheap anyone says it is. So thank you for sharing your experience! You should see my girls' crops after devouring their ff, they look ready to burst! I think my dirt and rocks are doing the job.

Glad to hear about the meaties! I am rooting for the little guy! I hope it makes it.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Well, after a very late start with the winter garden this year, we've been churning out magnificent heads of lettuce. It's a bit to keep up with since I have to remember to start new plants every week, but well worth the effort.

Jealous, Jealous and even more Jealous. What a beautiful set-up you have. Your pictures are amazing and I can imagine it is even more so in person! I just LOVE seeing a field of green! You probably saw my measly patch of lettuce that my hoodlums are constantly flying over the fence to dessicate. I inspire to be you. You may remember that I came onto this thread and was the one whose garden was destroyed by the sewer workers. It's been probably 6 years since my spirit broke and I couldn't plant. I am happy to say I've harvested plenty of lettuce and beets so far this winter and I managed to save 5 of 22 tomato plants from in that nasty freeze we had last month. I am on my way back!

You have obviously spent many hours creating this little heaven on earth. It is well worth all your efforts. Thanks for sharing.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Announcing, the return of the BYC Arizona thread seed box!




I started this along with BYC member, constance about two years ago. We put in all of our extra seed packets, packets that were expired and seeds collected from plants that we grew. It started with a few hundred packets of seeds. The idea was to promote gardening in AZ and to share seeds from plants we found to do well in our climate and to promote interactions among our community. The only requirement in getting the seed box is that you have to help get it to the next person. You can take what you want/need and add whatever you can, no one will know. It zig-zagged across the state and finally made it back home to me. I was disappointed that there weren't any seeds in it beyond what I sent, but I was thrilled that so many people out there planted seeds from plants that I grew. It was great hearing from some of you. It was also fun to follow it's journey from member to member. I think it was a success and I think we should give it another go. Start collecting your seeds! This time I hope everyone that gets the box signs it with their BYC username. Squeekyballs drew the rooster and the box art was done by azpenguin. Laree even signed the BYC sticker.

I have a plethora of seeds to add to that box! Some not even expired! I would totally be in.