Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

I know huh?!  I wondered the same thing and did a bit of reading.  Here's what the Desert Museum had to say:

 

By spending most of its life underground, the western blind snake has no need for visual acuity. While not entirely blind, it does have vestigial eyes thought to be capable of seeing light only. If disturbed, it will writhe and wiggle its tail to focus attention here instead of on the head. Preyed upon by a wide variety of animals, including birds, mammals, snakes, fish and even spiders, the western blind snake is a specialist in its culinary desires: ants and termites along with their eggs, pupae, and larvae. Millipedes and centipedes are also occasionally eaten. When searching for food, a western blind snake will hunt until it finds an ant pheromone trail and follow it back to the nest to consume the residents. The smooth, tightly overlapping scales provide protection against the bites and stings of ants. This small serpent shares a feature with the much larger boas and pythons—the remains of a pelvic girdle and femur, complete with a tiny spur! A secretive, nocturnal snake, the blind snake lays up to 7 eggs in mid summer.
 

At just 7 eggs a year it would be pretty difficult to grow any numbers.  One thing I didn't mention is how these things move.  They're a bit wild, wiggling like crazy, EVERYTHING must love eating these guys.  It's no wonder we don't commonly see them (aside from being fossorial).  I'm surprised this one escaped the chickens.

Yeah I figured, but it does not hurt to ask.. We all really appreciate your time in finding the answer & valuable information...

 

[City farm]

Yes we order online then pick it up at a nursery called BAKERS.. It is in phx..

Go to phoenixorganicfeed.com the list of all of the products is there..

So just for the record City, are you buying already fermented feed? Or are you talking about the organic feed you buy that you ferment yourself? I think this is what littlechiken is confused about.

Oh, thank you for catching that.. Been trying to catch up on all the posts today..
We buy the feed that is a powder form. 4 cups of feed, then add water to a plastic bucket with a ventilatin hole in the lid...the water it is about 2inches above the feed.. Once you are done mixing.. along with some Apple cider vinegar 1-2 teaspoons & about 1 cup of old feed.. I serve it up by the next day.. By the 3rd day it is really fermented.. Then start all over... Sometimes I do not add apple cider.. Just depends.. It is really easy..

 

[desertmarcy]

Wow, that is a lt of flys... Never thought to feed them flys.. Have you tried to start a meal worm colony??

They were from multiple fly traps that I left laying out in the sun for months and months---finally got tired of looking at them all and dumped all the contents in a 5-gal bucket. Very dry and no smell at that point. Then I kept adding to it. Sometimes it takes me a while to get around to things. I am really sorry I fed them to the chickens, tapeworms are hard to get rid of. I have too many chickens for meal worms to make a dent in their diet. Down to about 115 adults now, but I've been hatching for a couple of months and don't even know how many chicks I have, probably 2-3 hundred, I'm guessing. Pretty soon I'll be going through them and culling some out. I held back some males I wouldn't have otherwise kept because I want to learn how to caponize. If my kits ever get here from China. For extra animal protein for the chickens, my property generates a large # of mice and packrats.

 

[pipemum]

Is arbico fly eleminator something you spread out or ???? I will look it up, yes keep us posted... I have been off for a few weeks.. Just catching up..
We might have roasted marshmallow's Saturday night.. I will post Saturday around lunch if we do.. Hope some of ya can make it..

Yes, the fly eliminators are small predatory wasps. They come in a plastic baggie with some sawdust and lots of pupae. You are supposed to wait till a certain number of wasps have hatched out, and then the pupae are ready to be spread in the fly areas--compost piles, dung piles, etc. I have one bag that isn't ready to spread because the wasps just aren't hatching, I'll take a picture of the pupa.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Ooops...I don't think I followed the directions right, I missed the part about waiting for some to hatch. I wonder why the wait, maybe because they're less vulnerable?

 

[a little chiken]

So just for the record City, are you buying already fermented feed? Or are you talking about the organic feed you buy that you ferment yourself? I think this is what littlechiken is confused about.

its exactly what I am confused about.

 

[desertmarcy]

Ooops...I don't think I followed the directions right, I missed the part about waiting for some to hatch. I wonder why the wait, maybe because they're less vulnerable?

The wild birds will eat the pupae before they hatch. There are a couple of good videos about how to spread them on Spalding Lab's website.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Hey guys, how long does a hen have to be broody before I could put a couple of chicks under her? I don't have time for her to hatch eggs but I could give her a couple of babies to raise. She's awfully committed the wooden eggs she's sitting on. Been five days now.

Three weeks; anything less is a gamble that she will kill the chicks.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
burning the roots is BAD; you risked poisoning anyone who inhaled the smoke!!! Oleander is SUPER, SUPER toxic!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
It's hard. Thank you.