Arizona Chickens

[Macboat]

I'm starting to think MPC sent me a roo polish chick. It already has what looks to be wattles coming in. I'm new to the breed but even I think that's a bit iffy at just over 3 weeks. I still love seeing Bunny and River together. Teeniest chick and monster chick.

So cute!!!! What is he?

 

[Macboat]

Funny story
So we hadn't been getting eggs for a couple days (only one hen is laying) we weren't worried because our hen doesn't always lay. But then I found an egg in the middle of the yard, little weird right? I just figured maybe it was a big birds egg. So its been five days without eggs, I've looked through the whole coop and run, nothing. I woke up early yesterday to slaughter another meat chicken, so im up at like 5:30 sitting on the porch waiting for the water to boil.
I have three dogs, one of which is a hound dog that lives outside. So I call my hound and she doesn't come, I don't pay any mind, sometimes it takes her a minute to get from the edge of the front yard to the back. But then I hear a sound coming from the coop. I look over and what do I see? I see my hound happily trotting out of the coop with an egg in her mouth! She had dug a hole under the porch where I couldn't see and was getting in there and stealing the eggs!!! I call her and she comes and I grab the egg out of her mouth, its not even cracked.
So now the porch has blocks all around the bottom and if the eggs ever go missing again, I know just who to look a

Great story! Glad you caught her!

 

[Twinklin]

So cute!!!! What is he?

Thanks. Silver laced polish. I'm still gonna hope it's a girl

 

[K9Dave]

We just add water that has no chlorine.. We start to give them their feed by day 2-3.. Sometime we add ACV.. But not always.. We are out of F.F. Right now, using up what Desert Marcy uses..

What part of the valley ??

We're open right now. Wife works at 7th ave and Camelback.

 

[Macboat]

Thanks. Silver laced polish. I'm still gonna hope it's a girl

Sorry, she......lol... I had thought in chicken world all things beautiful is a he.

 

[a little chiken]

fencing off my broodies worked

so far 2 chicks have successfully hatched to my blk ameraucana. I am very excited. now about 35 more eggs and about 3 weeks differences in ages on the rest of the eggs. next year any broody will be separated with the eggs I want to put under her instead of letting her get eggs from all the coop. ah well live and learn.

 

[Syl in Tucson]

Wild birds...I love them. I put out food in a spot where the dogs and chickens don't bother them. Occasionally I see sparrows in with the chickens, but its ok with me.
I enjoy watching the doves, sparrows, hummingbirds, an occasional pigeon. Last year we had herons. That was weird. Haven't had ducks for awhile, but its happened.
I know, I know...parasites, diseases, the boogeyman, hawks, owls, global warming. But I enjoy the wild birds.
I forgot to mention the mama squirrel and her babies !!... Lol
We have a good time.
My cousin once warned me about taking in stray dogs and children."They'll ruin your house!" They did. But they enhanced my life.

 

[K9Dave]

Wild birds...I love them. I put out food in a spot where the dogs and chickens don't bother them. Occasionally I see sparrows in with the chickens, but its ok with me.
I enjoy watching the doves, sparrows, hummingbirds, an occasional pigeon. Last year we had herons. That was weird. Haven't had ducks for awhile, but its happened.
I know, I know...parasites, diseases, the boogeyman, hawks, owls, global warming. But I enjoy the wild birds.
I forgot to mention the mama squirrel and her babies !!... Lol
We have a good time.
My cousin once warned me about taking in stray dogs and children."They'll ruin your house!" They did. But they enhanced my life.

Yeh I don't put much into all that stuff either. Life's too short to worry me. I provide all kinds of parasitic treatment to curb anything but people free range all over and do fine.

 

[Demosthine]

Guess I just expect Honesty and for a sales person to know what they are doing. sigh. If I need to get chicks again, I'll ask here first. sigh........ Thank you so much for your info. This forum has the best people and information. I get so much mixed info. A guy at DH work said do not put a mister, it will make them sick, another said do not put a fan, it will make them sick, another said we will infest our house with scorpions and rattle snakes, another said farm fresh eggs will make you sick. I told DH to ignore them and I'll go by what the people here say.

I personally never heard of anyone getting sick from a fresh egg and I was raised on fresh eggs and milk.... it was when people started eating eggs from filthy poultry farms that they started getting sick.

There is a certain level of truth to practically every wives tale you hear, but the truth is always in the details. Yes, using misters and/or fans can make them sick because of the environmental conditions that it can create. If a mister is used heavily and low to the ground, creating bedding that is constantly moist, it can start to grow molds and be more conducive to certain diseases. Similarly, any animal that is always exposed to the moving air of a fan can be unable to properly regulate their body temperature, which can cause various diseases and illnesses. And farm fresh eggs can make you sick, if the eggs are laid in dirty nesting boxes, stored dirty, and/or not washed properly prior to being used. If you use cold water to wash them, it makes the contents shrink and draws in the bacteria that is on the outside of the shell. If you aren't cooking it correctly or eating them raw, that can make you sick. But again, each of these are a possibility based on specific circumstances and ultimately involve bad animal husbandry. Personally, I never recommend anyone ignores the people who make these types of comments, but instead encourage everyone to re-educate them and help stop the propagation of misinformation. That's the biggest problem that us homesteaders have, misinformation.

I can tell you that, personally, I have had eggs from my own backyard, that were not good when I cracked them open. I have no idea what caused it, but they were definitely not normal. I kept clean nesting boxes, collected them daily and stored them in the refrigerator. The several times it happened when I was making scrambled eggs, the yolk was very thick and didn't want to come out of the shell correctly. It was abundantly obvious to me that something was wrong, so I set aside the bowl I was using and started over. Others who are not as observant or knowledgeable could very easily eaten them and gotten sick. I think we've strayed so far from that era you mention about being raised on fresh eggs and milk, that it's become a big problem. We rely way too much on the "commercial industry" keeping us safe from our own foods that we don't recognize the problems anymore.

Anybody care to help me with fermented feed?

I have about a 3 gallon bucket and have it maybe a 1/4 of the way up the bucket. Then I splashed ACV and topped off with water to about 2" over the top of my feed. This has been going a week maybe. It has a film over it and spells pretty ripe. I have molded it before because I sealed the top. Now I just lay the lid on top.

Just want to make sure I'm doing it right.

Define "pretty ripe." It varies largely depending on the person. For me, it had a very sweet smell to it that many of us refer to as the sourdough bread smell. My ex-wife, however, thought it was one of the most putrid smells on God's green Earth. For the method I used, you want to ensure adequate air exchange, so leave the lid off completely. There's no reason to worry about any bugs that may get in to it, because it doesn't attract ants or anything. The ocassional fly or other insect that may get in and die can just be fed to the flock. After all, that's what they eat anyway, right?!? My favorite set of instructions and explanation is on the Natural Chicken Keeping blog.

I would do whatever you can to exclude the wild birds. They carry diseases and parasites that can be (will be) transmitted to your flock.

There is no way to truly exclude wild birds. Ultimately, your flock will always be exposed to diseases and parasites. Besides, it is good and healthy for all animals to be exposed to them, as it allows their immune systems to continually evolve and develop. Yes, it is possible for them to be passed from wild birds to the flock, but that can be through direct contact, from wild bird feces that falls out of the air through bird netting, or by you tracking feces from your yard to your coop on the bottom of your shoes. Excluding wild birds because of diseases and parasites is unnecessary and much more of a burden than it's worth. Remember the husbandry methods of our ancestors, plus the more holistic operated ranches in the world, such as PolyFace Farms. They free range their animals, intermingling with all of God's glorious environment and have little to no problems that the contemporary farmers and ranchers are having. Like @rhondita55 mentioned in her earlier post, most people began getting sick when we introduced our current Commercial Farming Operations (CFOs).

When you say you "throw scratch" - so you mean corn scratch grains? Or do you have something else you use. I'm very frugal with the scratch right now with the heat - it was my understanding scratch would increase the bird's body temp?? AND what do you put your fermented feed in? I was thinking some type of tray? Right now I have littles and bigs so I guess going to a flock feed would be better as the littles could wander into the bigs feeding area and I won't freak out that they are pecking at layer feed!! Thanks for the extra advice

There is still a huge debate raging about whether scratch will raise the body temperature of poultry. I've seen articles by authors with PhDs that push both sides of the answer. For me, it is more about maintaining the properly balanced diet than it is about the temperature, since I intentionally kept my yard as naturally agreeable to a cool environment as possible. It's absolutely amazing what a good layer of grass and some shade will do for the ambient temperature of your yard. That being said, scratch is very high in carbohydrates and is considered a "hot" feed because of the potential energy it has available through these carbs. Likewise, it is also higher in fat. Both of these can cause health issues in poultry, including the storing of large amounts of fat that can result in hens being egg-bound or unhealthy.

For feeding the fermented feed, I've used several methods and all worked well. For my chickens, I usually used a 9"x13" ceramic baking dish. It was heavy enough that it wouldn't move or get knocked over, but was non-reactive and therefore safe for putting the acidic feed in. For my turkeys, I used a painting tray from Home Depot and drilled two holes in it. At first, I mounted it to the edge of my brooder, but then moved it off the porch and attached it to my pool fence. This allowed me to raise or lower it depending on the height of the birds and their development. Both ways worked very, very well and I will continue to use them when I start my flocks again. Just make sure it is a non-reactive material, or you will start noticing problems in the container. Aluminum and galvanized steel feeding bowls, for instance, are not safe to use.

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[kevs-chickadees]

Wild birds...I love them. I put out food in a spot where the dogs and chickens don't bother them. Occasionally I see sparrows in with the chickens, but its ok with me.
I enjoy watching the doves, sparrows, hummingbirds, an occasional pigeon. Last year we had herons. That was weird. Haven't had ducks for awhile, but its happened.
I know, I know...parasites, diseases, the boogeyman, hawks, owls, global warming. But I enjoy the wild birds.
I forgot to mention the mama squirrel and her babies !!... Lol
We have a good time.
My cousin once warned me about taking in stray dogs and children."They'll ruin your house!" They did. But they enhanced my life.

Anyone with extra Owls, Hawks, and Falcons can send them my way! I would gladly take that problem over trying to protect everything else from the sparrows and cackles. I wouldn't mind them so much if all they ate were the chicken food.