Arizona Chickens

[Macboat]

You know what, I'll bet those were escargot!  Helix aspersa (brown garden snail) were brought over during the gold rush and spread everywhere.  They are here in Tucson, Mesquite Valley Growers is crawling with them.  I'd guess Phoenix has them too.  If I had a bunch, I'd eat them, they were dang good when I used to get them in New Orleans.  Wonder why they never caught on here?   I'm reminded of how delicious crawfish are in the deep south and everyone gets excited when crawfish season comes along, but most of us in growing up in MI would have never imagined eating them.  Again, dang good stuff.  I'll bet it was hilarious watching the ducks tear into those snails!


It's raining cats and dogs out there!  

Crayfish is one of my favorite, thinking of them makes my mouth watering. I like to eat at papadoux but they are so far from where I live.

 

[K9Dave]

Hi~! Welcome to BYC, it's a great place to learn all about keeping chickens and also to meet friends.

Our first flock is about 10 months old right now, so I'm a newbie too, but we let ours free range during the day with supervision and put them in a coop at night.

We have had some losses to a bobcat and also to our own dog, but we don't live in a  town, we live in a wilderness area.

Prevention is so important, it will save you much heartache. do as much as you can to protect them, because EVERTYHING likes chicken.

Chickens poop. A lot. Haha! Seriously, they do.

We built a coop and run that would accommodate double the amount of chickens we have right now to account for more chickens later, but we still built another smaller coop and are now working on another even bigger one. I can never explain chicken math, but just build bigger than you think you will need. You won't be sorry.

We don't clip wings, because we want ours to be able to get away from predators if possible, we have a light breed that can fly fairly easily. I've seen them fly 20-30 ft high into a tree. Being in town, you might consider it so they can't get out of your yard. I guess it depends on breed and how high your fence is.

I don't have any experience yet with mixing different ages, so no help there.

Welcome to the group. You'll be glad you joined THIS group. So much knowledge here.

I started with a coop AND run but am down to just a run now. I decided to switch because I wanted more air flow. I read that they do all of their stress recovery at night and the coop didn't have very good ventilation.

There is no right way I think. They'll chime in I'm sure but there are elaborate coops, some just let them best/roost/free range naturally. Depends on where you live too. I live in the city and have basically no predator problem to speak of. I have a couple of covers over the run for shade and for cover come night fall when that big Great Horned Owl I've seen is out hunting.

They have food available all the time and have found for me that Fermenting Feed is the best thing sinced sliced bread for the chickens.

They are DEF happier free ranging. They just want to be free to do what they want. That's in a perfect world. Everything does like chicken so they need some protection. Being a renter we just have a temp set up so I have to be creative for now.

We have 8 Pullets. Buff Orpington, White Leghorn, Easter Egger, Light Brahma and Delawares.

 

[K9Dave]

If anyone is interested, I'm giving away a chicken coop. It's disassembled and ready to go. All the new owner would need is some screws.

 

[chicksurreal]

Welcome to the group. You'll be glad you joined THIS group. So much knowledge here.

I started with a coop AND run but am down to just a run now. I decided to switch because I wanted more air flow. I read that they do all of their stress recovery at night and the coop didn't have very good ventilation.

There is no right way I think. They'll chime in I'm sure but there are elaborate coops, some just let them best/roost/free range naturally. Depends on where you live too. I live in the city and have basically no predator problem to speak of. I have a couple of covers over the run for shade and for cover come night fall when that big Great Horned Owl I've seen is out hunting.

They have food available all the time and have found for me that Fermenting Feed is the best thing sinced sliced bread for the chickens.

They are DEF happier free ranging. They just want to be free to do what they want. That's in a perfect world. Everything does like chicken so they need some protection. Being a renter we just have a temp set up so I have to be creative for now.

We have 8 Pullets. Buff Orpington, White Leghorn, Easter Egger, Light Brahma and Delawares.

We added more ventilation to our coop this year, I think it helps. Our chickens will roost in the run if we let them. It's a covered run and very secure, but I'm paranoid about something getting them at night, so we make them go in the coop.

 

[K9Dave]

We added more ventilation to our coop this year, I think it helps. Our chickens will roost in the run if we let them. It's a covered run and very secure, but I'm paranoid about something getting them at night, so we make them go in the coop.

Aww. Don't be a Chicken. Haha. Couldn't resist.

Apparently you need a fortress in some areas to keep the predators out and barely anything at all in others. I have seen one cat around my house that wasn't ours and everytime I see it anywhere near the property I have my dog chase it off in hopes that it chooses other meals. I have been very late before to put them away at night and they've never had any issues.

 

[chicksurreal]

Aww. Don't be a Chicken. Haha. Couldn't resist.

Apparently you need a fortress in some areas to keep the predators out and barely anything at all in others. I have seen one cat around my house that wasn't ours and everytime I see it anywhere near the property I have my dog chase it off in hopes that it chooses other meals. I have been very late before to put them away at night and they've never had any issues.

Lol!

Sometimes we wait until after dark, like last night it was about 9:00 P.M. before they went into the coop (the poor things had to be woken up to go to bed), but we put them in the run before dark. If we don't, they roost in the trees.

I wish we didn't have so many predators out here, but we're in the group that needs a fortress. We have dogs, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, bobcats, mountain lions, owls, hawks... the list just goes on and on.

 

[a little chiken]

Hey ladies I have read many posts on here but still have many questions.... I am a newbie and not sure if I went about my chickeness in the right way haha


When you free range your hens do you lock them up at night or let them be? (I live on 2.5a in chandler)

How big of a coop do they really need???

Man do mine seem to poop a lot!!! does that mean I feed them too much?

Do you cut the wing so they don't fly over the fence?

is there a way to mix chicks and hens together and have them be friendly?

I have many more but this is a start hahaha

I got 5 2yr old brocks
and 4 chicks brocks

I do not have free range chickens. I have a roo in my duck run and a 6ft fence but he does not fly over.

 

[a little chiken]

If anyone is interested, I'm giving away a chicken coop. It's disassembled and ready to go. All the new owner would need is some screws.

If I could figure out how to get it I would take it. I need easy to assemble coops for when we move and can get our perm ones up.

 

[K9Dave]

If I could figure out how to get it I would take it. I need easy to assemble coops for when we move and can get our perm ones up.

How bout repurposing this? Lol

 

[City farm]

It might have been birds but I'm sure it was snails.  They have been a scourge in my garden.  I do strictly organic so no poisons.  Baits only work so well and I usually hand pick them.  I can tell when I let them go too long, I get my plants eaten.

I don't know what kind of snails they were where I lived in California, big brown ones. California "escargot"! I do know my little brother would troll the neighborhood with his little red wagon, and would fill it up with snails in less than half an hour. Took the wagon out in the backyard where we had 4 or 5 Pekin ducks. It was kind of disgusting how fast the ducks could clean out that wagon! (Don't stand too close, or you'd get splattered with snail juice)!

Good to know. Don't like snail juice..