Arizona Chickens

[roostereggs]

I have enjoyed following your updates about the 'chicken bra' and happy you have had success with that!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Thanks for the bender link; I"ll have to look into them. I have one of the smaller ones to bend 10' conduit into 4x4 hoops for row covers. Would love to have a metal frame greenhouse; my hoop coop is PVC but I figure at some point it's going to deteriorate and need replaced

I think the same people who sell the small benders sell the larger ones too (I think they might have a patent). If you're interested, here are the plans the hoop-bender company supplies to make the hoop houses. They're so easy to follow, anyone could build it. Hopefully the pvc will give you years of service before needing replacement. One thing I wish I had done was watch for people removing their chain-link fencing and salvaging top rails. In the year before I built mine, we had three different people on our block remove their chain-link fences and haul the materials off to the dump. It would have cut the price of the project considerably. Also, if you decide to build one 12' in diameter, I can lend you my bender. It would give me an excuse to come up and get some of those BOs you're working on.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:

We need to keep in mind that how coyotes act around us will change over time. Behind our block walls here in the center of the city we went for more than three years without an incident while we watched our neighbor's flocks being decimated by coyotes. For some time their probing of our property, as indicated by the digging along the apron of the run, occurred exclusively at night and the coop defenses held. Once they started coming in broad day light they were more successful, since I was free-ranging. The second attack happened mid-morning, with the coyote grabbing the chicken right there directly in front of me. As ChickTucson noted, they are everywhere in Tucson. This does seem to be a relatively new explosion. I was pretty gobsmacked when I was running an errand last year in my old neighborhood near 4th ave. and 5th st. and encountered a coyote. I lived there for 10 years and never saw one in the neighborhood. In the past year I've seen them everywhere at all times of day (of course I'm paying more attention now too). I know a lot of chicken people here in Tucson and I think that most of them who have had chickens longer than a year have had coyote incidents.

The increasingly aggressive incursions in to human space seems to be a feature of their biology and follows a troubling pattern. Here is an excellent study that explains the issues of the coyote-human interactions well. After analyzing a number of attacks in suburban settings, the authors suggest a clear progression of increasing hostility with coyote interactions:

Quote:
Think about what stage your neighborhood coyotes are at right now and anticipate escalation. Things that once held them at bay, e.g. dogs, walls, fences, human activity, will be decreasingly effective. We should soon be seeing further changes as the reproductive season gets in full swing and energy requirements increase.

 

[desertmarcy]

Some recent winter garden pictures.

Hi Gallo,
Are you going to grow the sweet potatoes aquaponically or in the ground? Last time I planted sweets was from potatoes I brought back from an Amish farm/neighbor of my brother in PA. They were the best sweets ever! Great flavor, and I had no problem with wire worms or splitting. I would have saved some for the next year, but that would have been last year, and I did not plant a summer garden. This year, my brother bought some from that same farm and shipped me a flat rate box full of them. I have not started them yet since I thought it is too early. They love hot weather, and recommendation is to plant slips between May 1 and June 1 here in Tucson. I have always just cut off the top half of the potato, not the whole potato, and then sprouted like you are doing in water. The slips come from the top half anyway, not the bottom, and the roots come out just the same. That way we can eat the other half of the potato

So you do not think it is too soon to get slips going? Still 3 months away from planting for me and I don't remember how long it takes to get the slips.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

I'm only to here (way behind in posts), but my unfortunate and repeated experience with coyotes is that plentiful food, high wall, big dogs, living in a cookie-cutter subdivision is NOT even one small bit of a deterrent to a coyote.  A secure coop is, but I have doubts about the all-hallowed hardware cloth and a determined animal now. 

I'll have to figure out where the photo is, but I saw something  on Facebook that might prevent coyote from clambering over a wall--it was a pvc pipe set up to roll to prevent a dog (or coyote) from getting purchase over the fence. A roll bar.  Genius.  However, an electrified wire strand might be just as cheap and less "ugly"--I haven't done the pricing yet. 


I've been working on securing the meat coop yet again, and can see no way any animal can chew or dig in. But of course, I thought that the first 2 times.  I dunno. 

check on if you can use an electric fence. I tried it and had to take it down. How stupid.......... I had kids jumping over my wall, braking into my house and stealing beer, and a neighbor wanting to kill my Great Dane because Willy would stand and look over the wall and watch him when he was in his yard. I fixed the kids with a bar on my doors, but they were still jumping my wall. As for Willy.. The hot wire should fix.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Hi Gallo,
Are you going to grow the sweet potatoes aquaponically or in the ground? Last time I planted sweets was from potatoes I brought back from an Amish farm/neighbor of my brother in PA. They were the best sweets ever! Great flavor, and I had no problem with wire worms or splitting. I would have saved some for the next year, but that would have been last year, and I did not plant a summer garden. This year, my brother bought some from that same farm and shipped me a flat rate box full of them. I have not started them yet since I thought it is too early. They love hot weather, and recommendation is to plant slips between May 1 and June 1 here in Tucson. I have always just cut off the top half of the potato, not the whole potato, and then sprouted like you are doing in water. The slips come from the top half anyway, not the bottom, and the roots come out just the same. That way we can eat the other half of the potato

So you do not think it is too soon to get slips going? Still 3 months away from planting for me and I don't remember how long it takes to get the slips.

I agree that if you're going to eat the potatoes, then plant them later, they'll do much better in the warmer temps and have a better start. I'm hoping to get an early start for the desert tortoises so that there will be plenty of foliage when they emerge. If I wait until May-June the plants don't have enough time to get large enough to easily survive the foraging of the tortoises unless I protect them. The early season cooler temperatures do slow the plants down, but unless we get a good hard freeze, they'll continue to grow all year. I have a planter made from loosely stacked bricks that has some sweet potato vines growing right now, still clinging to life from last year.

When the vines from the potatoes in the jars get long enough, I'll take cuttings and root those cuttings before I transplant them outside. I am going to try to grow some aquaponically, I think they'll do exceptionally well. I'm hoping that the warmer water will help with the early season. Most will be in dirt though. Last year we had a shaded moist area where the vines were growing and all along the vines at the nodes were single potatoes, half in the soil and half exposed. It was pretty cool and easy to harvest early season without damaging the plant.

I have a funny sweet potato story. When I first grew them here in AZ I built a small 2' L X 3' W X 16" H planter made from loosely stacked cement blocks, planted them inside and put them on a drip. Planted at the edge of the garden I had hoped to direct the vines into the hard packed area of the yard. It was nearly impossible to keep it from going into the main garden area without great vigilance and it took up most the main area of my back yard. When I went to harvest them I was surprised to discover that the potatoes had completely replaced all the soil in the planter. I had a cube of sweet potatoes interlocked together in the shape of the planter. I wish I had taken a picture of that.

 

[LadyKotaDoria]

gallo del cielo sweet potato greens are wonderful. Another win win plant, you have the sweet potato and the levels. They are not related to potato's or the nightshade family.
Quote......
NutritionData's
Opinion loss:
Optimum health:
Weight gain:
The good: This food is low in Saturated Fat, and very low in Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Niacin and Phosphorus, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium, Potassium and Manganese.

The bad: This food is very high in Sodium, and a large portion of the calories in this food come from sugars.

We though food away that is eaten in other country's..... Partly because we do not know and largely because we eat only pretty looking food and food with a pretty name.

 

[mclevinson]

Hi All! Did you miss me? I have some very hopeful news to share.

There is a new Bill in Arizona which would make it possible for anyone, in any Town or City within Arizona to raise chickens.

Every Town or City could limit the number of chickens, and decide whether roosters would be allowed - but they would be prohibited from making it impossible to keep at least hens.

This is SB1151
Fowl Regulation - Prohibition
Nicknamed: Homegrown Freedom Act

Sponsored by Senator David Farnsworth (R) Mesa
Co-Sponsored by 21 other members of House and Senate

PLEASE HELP!

Facebook group Backyard Farmers United is driving this. Please ask to join, like the page, there are downloads with links to our Senators and House Members with their contact information. I personally have called every one of the co-sponsors to thank them for their support and have found it to be a very uplifting and enjoyable experience.

I am now calling the non-supporters.

HOW MANY OF YOU REMEMBER WHEN I GOT DE-CHICKENED? How many others do we all know who have been denied the right to produce eggs in their own backyard? Let's help each other get back on track.

I have missed you guys very much, but it made me sad to stay on BYC when I was deprived of my beautiful chookies. I'd like to come back.

Meg
The MacLevinson
[email protected]
480 560-0331

AKA "McFly"

 

[LindaMurphy]

I hate when ANYONE tells you what you can and can not do on your own property. That is why I won't live in an HOA. I will add my name to that list and pass it around with my FB friends.

 

[pipemum]

We need to keep in mind that how coyotes act around us will change over time. Behind our block walls here in the center of the city we went for more than three years without an incident while we watched our neighbor's flocks being decimated by coyotes. For some time their probing of our property, as indicated by the digging along the apron of the run, occurred exclusively at night and the coop defenses held. Once they started coming in broad day light they were more successful, since I was free-ranging. The second attack happened mid-morning, with the coyote grabbing the chicken right there directly in front of me. As ChickTucson noted, they are everywhere in Tucson. This does seem to be a relatively new explosion. I was pretty gobsmacked when I was running an errand last year in my old neighborhood near 4th ave. and 5th st. and encountered a coyote. I lived there for 10 years and never saw one in the neighborhood. In the past year I've seen them everywhere at all times of day (of course I'm paying more attention now too). I know a lot of chicken people here in Tucson and I think that most of them who have had chickens longer than a year have had coyote incidents.

The increasingly aggressive incursions in to human space seems to be a feature of their biology and follows a troubling pattern. Here is an excellent study that explains the issues of the coyote-human interactions well. After analyzing a number of attacks in suburban settings, the authors suggest a clear progression of increasing hostility with coyote interactions:

Interesting. I trail run early mornings and hear coyotes around me frequently. Just doing their thing, not threatening me or anything, usually running away from me. I've never once been threatened or felt the least bit intimidated (except when a pack is full on calling out...all those yips and yowls and barks sometimes sound like babies crying and weird stuff going on and gives me the willies). I don't take a dog out with me though I feel safer with one (safer from humans) I worry that he/she might be attacked (coyotes, not humans, lol). Me, I kinda laugh at the image of a coyote attacking big ol' me, seems preposterous, but maybe I should get a little thing of pepper spray for my runs...and feel safer from random human lurker and aggressive coyote. From what I've observed, my neighborhood is at 3/4 on the escalation list posted.

LKD, I'll check into the legality of using electric wire on the fence. I won't have to go far for the answer.