Arizona Chickens

[Twinklin]

This is the one I have also and even though it only does 10 eggs at a time I usually only do the 7 BUT they are always great!!

We could not figure out how to fit the 10th egg. The first ring fits 6 eggs, then the second piece goes on which seems to fit 3 and we balanced one more on the top but it wouldn't close with it standing on end. Ours didnt come with a manual so I had to look up how to use it online Is it ok to lay the 10th egg down on the top? I was afriad to because you have to poke the holes in the eggs and i thought it would mess things up.

 

[jubilation]

Here in Chino it has been nice in the daytime but really cold at night and we've had some rain. It rains up here when it doesn't rain in the valley or Tucson. My hens have laid great all winter long even though we've had some temperatures in the teens and 20s. I only have 6 hens left after the dog attack but looking to get some more in April, need about 5 more and a rooster. I get about a half a dozen every day, sometimes a little less. I have a couple of the bigger hens that consistently lay jumbo, and I mean jumbo eggs. The rest lay anywhere from large to extra large. Great egg size for the smaller buff orpingtons.

 

[Stynch]

@Stynch and anyone else sick or having surgery...sending healing thoughts your way!

Thanks for all the well-wishes. I had a bit of a hiccup during the surgery. When the surgeon was tapping the socket into the pelvis, my pelvic bone broke. He put a place behind the pelvis and screwed it all together. Surgery ended up lasting 4 hours instead of about 1 hour. Now the recovery begins!!

 

[Twinklin]

It was SOOOO nice today. Spent some time outside in the garden with the ladies. Eleanor is 3 eggs in 3 days now... even before her crop issues started she didn't lay like that, she was about 2 times a week, I'm so proud of her and so happy the crop bra is working.

 

[FeatherPugs]

We could not figure out how to fit the 10th egg. The first ring fits 6 eggs, then the second piece goes on which seems to fit 3 and we balanced one more on the top but it wouldn't close with it standing on end. Ours didnt come with a manual so I had to look up how to use it online Is it ok to lay the 10th egg down on the top? I was afriad to because you have to poke the holes in the eggs and i thought it would mess things up.

The initial ring I have will hold seven with one in the middle. I've never tried the other ring for more that the first layer. With just the two of us and it takes no time at all to make them - I just haven't tried. I am interested in trying the poached eggs though.

 

[MaddBaggins]

I've had good luck with hardboiling our girls eggs. I always go 20minutes from cold water, in a small saucepan.

 

[City farm]

After months of waiting we finally got our new chicks, about two weeks ago! They are becoming quite the little social butterflies. We got 12 straight run chicks. 3 Spangled Russian Orloffs, 3 French Black Copper Marans (c1-c2 bloodline), 6 Blue Ameraucanas. They are all adorkable chicks, but I have to say my favorite chicks so far are the Orloffs. They are the sweetest little cuddle bugs. (I hope no one minds that this post is going to be photo heavy...if so I apologize. I am just so excited about these little guys.) We used to have a rather large chicken tractor our 4 previous hens lived in, but after the coyote attack we built a more substantial coop/run. We have desert at the back of our house and sadly people like to dumb their trash back there. We were walking a few months back and found wood fencing someone just tossed away. It was quite a distance from our house, but I managed to convince my husband to help me lug it through the desert and into our backyard. (I'm sure our neighbors thought we were insane.) I only got one cholla in my foot during the whole process. Great success! I wished to use the wood to make our new coop/run. I wanted it to look like a little run down shanty shack... This was the pile someone just dumped (Seriously some people!) But one person's trash is another's treasure. I'm all about salvaging materials, plus for a little extra work it was free. This is what we ended up with. I am not through with the decorations yet, but it is coming along decently. Well, for two inept people I think we did alright. I call it the Unruly Hen. I will eventually have a little chicken sized hitching post outside, and there is a sign post not shown I have made too. Now for some pictures of the little ones, they are so cute. This is our tiniest of the 12, hopefully a pullet. I have named it Nimbus. The middle sized Spangled Russian Orloff. There are three so I named them K, G, and B...get it? This is G. This is the largest of our French Copper Black Marans ( I love the fuzzy legs) Am I silly for thinking this is a cockerel? The other two don't have nearly the comb, wattles, or the size of this little one. This is one of the little Blue Ameraucanas. They are very pretty, though not as friendly as the others. I only plan to keep 6, at the most, out of the 12, even if there are more than 6 pullets. I am not keeping any of the cockerels. My neighbors loved our 4 hens before and are excited about these new birds, but I don't think they would welcome a rooster, neither will my husband for that matter. I'm thinking one of the Orloffs is a cockerel. That one and the French Black Copper Maran are the only ones I have my suspicions about so far. I will be giving the little cockerels away when I am positive they are male. If any one would be interested in taking any of them that would be great! I will also be selling (inexpensively) most of the Blue Ameraucana pullets at some point, once I figure out which one or two I want to keep. If anyone would be interested in any of them in the weeks to come feel free to PM me. All the chicks are handled every single day and are accustomed to our dog and cats. I hope I didn't bother anyone with the overload of pictures. I just think they are all so cute, and having gone a few months without chickens I was going through some serious withdrawal!

Wow great find!! Love their new home as well.. We all have been dreadfully sick around here.. Got to catch up..

 

[City farm]

Hi All, just checking in... Still have chickens and all is well in Morristown.

 

[City farm]

Greetings Arizona folk. I am here at the suggestion of someone from Tucson here in another thread. So many posts will take forever to run through them. Can anyone suggest a good local breeder around Tucson for a couple silver wyandottes and a few barred rocks. Also will be looking for a rooster to "take care of the ladies" so to speak. If none of the above anything that is good meat & egg production would be splendid. I will bookmark this thread and try to keep up with it as I don't get out much (extremely shy in real life but obviously not online). Look forward to hearing from people, in particular those in Tucson directly.

So glad you have joined in!! Do you have chickens now, if so what breed?
Great place to start here on B.Y.C.

 

[City farm]

It worked! The crop bra worked! Eleanor has been wearing it for about 3 weeks now. I leave her in it all the time, and just make sure it's not rubbing her or making her uncomfortable. She has had a pendulous crop almost her entire life. She's about 10 months. She had her first sour crop issue at only ~4 months old. That's when I realized she had pendulous crop. No matter how persistent I was at keeping her cleared out she never got the elasticity back in her crop and around 6 months started having sour crop more regularly. She laid for almost a month starting at 6 months before the sour crop stopped letting her get the nutrients she needed and caused her to have stress due to quarantine and all the other nonsense I put her through trying to keep her healthy. Well this morning I was VERY happy to find this little beauty in the nest box. As sad as I was initially that she wasn't a blue laying EE I was sooo ecstatic to see her beautiful cream egg in the box this morning.

Great news Twinklin! I know many on here are of the opinion that sick or chronically challenged birds should be culled, but everyone and their reasons for keeping chickens is different. I commend you for learning so much about Eleanor's condition and figuring out a way for her to stay with your small family flock and lead a somewhat normal happy chicken life. And she rewarded you! Congratulations!

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