Arizona Chickens

[carnivore]

Girls heading to see what I am doing.

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Hey CF, first pic isn't loading, either on my phone or my desktop. What have you done?

 

[City farm]

Girls heading to see what I am doing.

[URL=https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/6437729/width/200/height/400%5B/IMG]https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/6437729/width/200/height/400[/IMG[/URL] Moma hen width: 200px; height: 113px">
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Hey CF, first pic isn't loading, either on my phone or my desktop. [B]What have you done?[/B]
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I wish I knew.. I will try to repost later..

 

[City farm]

Her feet are fully feathered.

That is soo cool.. Our brahma is still laying.. All though her egg is a bit weird.. It has a funky shape to it.. Like a ring around the smaller end.. Or like a bump/ring.. It also has speckles.. Love the speckles

 

[Sill]

Hi all, it seems I only come here when I have a question, sorry. Love the stories about foster children, really melted my heart about the young marine. I read the thread every day, I don't always have time to join in.

My broody hatchery RIR finally got over her hormones and seems to be back to normal. A week straight of putting her on the roost and out of the nest box after dark seems to have broken her. She still wants to sleep in the nest box but all broody behavior is gone and she is not nesting during the day. Now I have another one that is acting weird. It started yesterday morning when I went to feed breakfast. Lemon didn't come to the food trough and stood like a statue in one place in the run all by herself.

Then when I let them out after work they were all climbing at the door to get out which is normal. After being on the lawn for a while, there was a fruckus and when I looked over poor Lemon was being pecked by the formerly broody hen who then grabbed her by the neck and tried to mount her. JEEZ, from being broody to trying to become the rooster??

Then another hen went after the broody one. For the next couple of hours Lemon avoided the other 3 completely. She didn't eat any of the snacks I put out and hid in the run while everyone else munched on grass and dug for bugs in the dirt. She does appear to have thinning feathers on her head or she's been pecked. She's always been the smallest of the 4. They went to bed fine together, but this morning I could tell Lemon was just a little off. Again she didn't head straight for breakfast like they always do.

They are 9 months old and have been together since chicks. Up until now we've never seen any signs at all of pecking order. They've all gotten along just famously and no one has tried to become top hen. There has never been any pecking or struggles of any kind.

Could they just now be starting to establish order? They have been laying since February. Could it be the heat and they are irritated? Yesterday was one of the coolest days in a long time, only 102 and cloudy all day. Lemon made a pretty watery poop yesterday afternoon and they are on FF so they are usually more solid. I've only been getting 2 eggs a day for a while now. I know the broody wasn't laying and I know they slow down in summer. How would I know if she was egg bound?
Thanks in advance for all your help! You guys are the best!

Another "rooster" hen! Mine is still trying to crow, but yesterday she laid her first egg in weeks. Weird hormones.
It seems late to be establishing a pecking order. If there is something wrong with Lemon then they probably know it and are pecking the weakest one. Sorry I don't know about egg binding.

That is soo cool.. Our brahma is still laying.. All though her egg is a bit weird.. It has a funky shape to it.. Like a ring around the smaller end.. Or like a bump/ring.. It also has speckles.. Love the speckles

One of my red sex links lays speckled eggs, love them!

 

[Syl in Tucson]

Worked hard all day. Yard and house FULL of teenagers and a couple big tough Marines. A good time was had by all and some work actually got done. No stitches needed, but we ended the day with some skinned knees from RUNNING from chickens and falling. One scraped up face from taking a tumble from my orange tree. One cat bite.(Ive had that cat for 13 years and he has never bitten anybody!) Several chewed on shoes(free range bunnies). One hammered thumb. Assorted cuts from hardware cloth and I treated several blisters. The mess today was MUCH bigger than the mess from yesterday and I dropped my Blackberry into the tilapia tank and now it won't take pictures again. Did I mention that I also have my grandkids here during the day..one thats living with me while her parents are deployed ?
Uh huh. I'm beat. Tomorrow is day three of the ongoing saga. I will take some pictures with a real camera and try to post when the dust settles. I'm a happy- kind of-tired

 

[K9Dave]

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My original coop/run thing wasn't completely working for me. It had no other shade than the cloth one we made a couple weeks ago. It started to rip. I decided to move it all to another part of the yard under some pine trees. I cannot believe how much cooler it was all day for them. I never even put the cloth cover back up after all was moved. It's not pretty but will suffice for now.

 

[K9Dave]

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My original coop/run thing wasn't completely working for me. It had no other shade than the cloth one we made a couple weeks ago. It started to rip. I decided to move it all to another part of the yard under some pine trees. I cannot believe how much cooler it was all day for them. I never even put the cloth cover back up after all was moved. It's not pretty but will suffice for now.

I'm no photographer but in learning that taking pics during the middle of the day is hard.

It's 24x5. Is that ok for 8 hens? I'll be putting boxes in for nests later after some adjustments.

 

[Syl in Tucson]

Looks pretty good Dave. As for nestboxes..my girls hate them. They've been using dog crates and cardoard boxes. Works for me. After a couple weeks I toss the box, replace the hay and that's it. And the dog crates are HUGE, so 5 or 6 hens nest in there at once. Not everybody is laying, but they all "practice" and enjoy their hen parties.

 

[carnivore]

Looks pretty good Dave. As for nestboxes..my girls hate them. They've been using dog crates and cardoard boxes. Works for me. After a couple weeks I toss the box, replace the hay and that's it. And the dog crates are HUGE, so 5 or 6 hens nest in there at once. Not everybody is laying, but they all "practice" and enjoy their hen parties.

I use milk crates.

 

[K9Dave]

Looks pretty good Dave. As for nestboxes..my girls hate them. They've been using dog crates and cardoard boxes. Works for me. After a couple weeks I toss the box, replace the hay and that's it. And the dog crates are HUGE, so 5 or 6 hens nest in there at once. Not everybody is laying, but they all "practice" and enjoy their hen parties.

thanks for the advice. I always have good cardboard boxes. Do they need a top or ?