Arizona Chickens

[carnivore]

Oh, I'm so glad you posted that! I'll definitely monitor those feet. I'm like carnivore's situation where it seems to be completely drying out in the fluffy layer every day, but not so much the bottom, original dirt layer. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated about my results and I'm so interested in how it works for others in the heat and the long run. I really want this to work too. It has changed their behavior so much from how it was when the winter sod failed in June and they had mostly hard-pack soil to work with.

Yeah, I'm very close to the Santa Cruz river, and my soil is very sandy. Drainage is not a problem!

 

[desertmarcy]

For right now, keeping it wet enough is a problem. Rain won't be a deal breaker either, because most of the run has tarps on the roof for shade.
Humidity might become a problem, will keep an eye out for problems, and maybe have to cut back on the watering?
Is anybody having problems with those little ants, and if so, how do you deal with them?

I don't usually have a problem with those little ants, however last year, they were coming into a turkey pen, under the fence. They were after the spilled feed. I put down DE really heavily all along the fence line and it stopped them. I have also been told Nutrisweet will kill ants. Think about that, all you people who drink diet soda. Sprinkle it around the ant hill.

 

[a little chiken]

Someone approached my wife yesterday at church to inquire if our flock was okay. apparently he saw a coyote running down the street with a chicken in its mouth. I can only recon that the Brahma that I found in the alley was from the same flock and had flown over the wall to escape the coyote.

I have an electric fence going around my coop and one crazy dog on patrol. I have little worry the coyote will get into my coop. If my dog cannot get in there then the coyote will have less luck.

As for misters, I use a single one in the back part of the run where I never put food. I have used it sparingly in an attempt to acclimatise them to the heat-only a few hours in afternoon when over 105. Next week it will be when over 106 and 107 the next.

so sorry for the person losing chickens but glad you saved that one and yours are safe from the coyote.

 

[a little chiken]

ok so I have only tried straw but I hated that for a bedding in my pen. I use potting soil in my dirt baths because my chickens are just on dirt and its hard. Where their coops are last year during the monsoons they got flooded out in the one coop I had last year. No chickens got hurt or too wet as they have many roosts to get on and we used straw to help them until it dried out (which was very fast). I have lots of hay remaining from the goats what they dont like so I am thinking of adding that to that Kellogs mulch and some shavings? what is the consensus? My biggest concern is my silkie pen, they do not roost and I am worried about monsoon floods coming through. My property slants down so everything gets wet but it runs off quick. chickens are at the top of that. any ideas will be great.

 

[a little chiken]

I think this is funny but I hope I do not offend anyone. Sry If I do.





Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

SARAH PALIN: The chicken crossed the road because, gosh-darn it, he's a maverick!

BARACK OBAMA: Let me be perfectly clear, if the chickens like their eggs they can keep their eggs. No chicken will be required to cross the road to surrender her eggs. Period.

JOHN McCAIN: My friends, the chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: What difference at this point does it make why the chicken crossed the road?

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with that chicken.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white?

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he is acting by not taking on his current problems before adding any new problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross the road so badly. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

ANDERSON COOPER: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way the chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain, alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2014, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents and balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2014. This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

 

[jubilation]

While it's not that hot in my area, only in the low 90s on really hot days - I buy cheap cat litter boxes and fill them full of water and my hens love to go wading. They stand in it even though I have a lot of shade on my property and the coop is under a tree so the only time I see them acting hot and holding their wings out and panting is when they are laying.

 

[MagicChicken]

ok so I have only tried straw but I hated that for a bedding in my pen. I use potting soil in my dirt baths because my chickens are just on dirt and its hard. Where their coops are last year during the monsoons they got flooded out in the one coop I had last year. No chickens got hurt or too wet as they have many roosts to get on and we used straw to help them until it dried out (which was very fast). I have lots of hay remaining from the goats what they dont like so I am thinking of adding that to that Kellogs mulch and some shavings? what is the consensus? My biggest concern is my silkie pen, they do not roost and I am worried about monsoon floods coming through. My property slants down so everything gets wet but it runs off quick. chickens are at the top of that. any ideas will be great.

You could give the silkies a platform low enough for them to hop up on but high enough to get them out of the floodwater. Or put a mound of compost or something in there, so they have a hill to climb and get away from the water. I'm assuming they don't normally roost because it's hard for them to see the roost through all those feathers. Something low with a gradual rise should get them to safety. In my yard they would only have to get 6-8 inches off the ground to be out of most of the flooding. Your mileage may vary.

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
For right now, keeping it wet enough is a problem. Rain won't be a deal breaker either, because most of the run has tarps on the roof for shade.
Humidity might become a problem, will keep an eye out for problems, and maybe have to cut back on the watering?
Is anybody having problems with those little ants, and if so, how do you deal with them?

Those little ants are all over the floors of my coops/runs. I deal with ants by ignoring them as long as they aren't bothering the birds or the feed or me. I figure they are cleaning up a lot of organic matter. When they get to creepy-alien-invasion proportions I sprinkle the coop/run liberally with DE. It doesn't stop the ants for long but it makes me feel better.

Last year ants got into my feeders and the only way I could keep them out was by hanging the feeders. A few weeks ago I was horrified, because I found ants all over one of the hanging feeders and thought they had figured out how to get down the chain from the ceiling. Was relieved to discover that one of the portable roosts had gotten moved, and was touching the hanging feeder in one spot, and that is where the ants were climbing into the feeder. That was an easy fix. All I had to do was remove everything that was touching the hanging feeders.

So far I haven't had the ants kill any chickens. I've been lucky. I stop hatching early because there is no way for me to keep ants out of my brooder, and they could potentially kill the chicks. This spring I had moved all but the four youngest chicks into a grow-out pen. I noticed that those four chicks broke their routine and started sleeping in a strange corner of the brooder for the last couple of nights they were in it. After I moved them to the grow-out pen I realized that a nearby anthill had expanded into the brooder. The anthill opened into the brooder near the corner where the chicks had originally slept. Got those babies out just in time.

 

[mnabity]

What is it with this "practice" laying? A few of mine are doing that. Pretty egg! Pretty hen too, what breed or is she a mix?

The practice laying I think is them getting things figured out in the week or so before they begin laying. Mine that are at 20 weeks are doing it. The one that just laid her first eg did it for 2 days before laying. Thank you so much! She us a pure bred Speckled Sussex. I've wanted one for 5 years and finally found a breeder just 4 blocks from me. I have another one but she doesn't have as much white. I've read they get more white on them after each molt. She is very sweet and rides on my shoulder while I do morning chores, unless I put out watermelon then she goes crazy over that. She even knows her name and plays fetch with a small cat toy I bring out.

I think this is funny but I hope I do not offend anyone. Sry If I do.

I didn't want to quote the whole thing since it's long but that was so funny! I love it thank you for posting. ETA-because autocorrect is awful!

 

[mnabity]

Pretty egg!  Pretty hen too, what breed or is she a mix?

Here is a better picture of her coloring in the sunlight. You can see the deep mahogany and black accents on her.