Arizona Chickens

[City farm]

 "As of yet"  

Well, I'm ex-Navy. We had a saying, "if it doesn't move, paint it". I'll catch her napping one of these days.

Ya all "R" funny...

 

[City farm]

I would love any oak seeds or mulberry and possibly willow for my new place. I cannot have too many cottonwoods as I am allergic to them. ugh,.

We have a volunteer mulberry, never harvested for seeds.. Although we eat the fruits.. It decided to pick a spot up against our wall. It will have to go soon.. If it produces fruit I will save you some..

 

[carnivore]

Anyone try to grow barley?? Maybe if the season is right here??

Quote from another BYC member..
We have never grown barley for brewing purposes, but we did plant a field in it to graze lambs on during the winter of 2011.  That year was the worst one-year dry spell on record in Texas, and we had a total of just shy of 7 inches of rain on our place that whole year.  Our "normal" average annual rainfall is supposed to be around 19 or 20 inches.  Barley is widely known as the most drought resistant of all the cereal grains commercially grown in the U.S., but in Arizona I think I would be more worried about the heat than the dryness.  Winter grain crops usually have a tough time with hot weather.  Either way your project sounds like a fun learning experience.  Good luck!

Never tried barley, but buckwheat does pretty well (under shade cloth).

 

[City farm]

I know not everybody on this list is able to have a roo in their flock, due to being within town limits or having neighbors within a close proximity. Some of you may have no interest in having roos even if you could. But some of you DO own roos and wouldnt have it any other way, haha! . I want to hear your stories! Everybody who has had roos has had at least one crazy one that sticks out in their memory.

For me, i had this one white Silky roo that was the reincarnated Tasmanian devil from the old Warner Bros cartoons. Oh he looked normal enough, but he could instantly turn into a Buzz-Saw of epic proportions when he deemed something a threat to his flock of 3 hens. This made egg collecting a REAL chore, let me tell you! It had it's benefits at times though. Like the one time the flock was free ranging and a wild dove flew through the yard very low and fast, being chased by a hawk. The roo gives his alarm call of an airborne predator, and the hens all run and waddle-scurry to the nearest cover they can find. The dove miscalculated and hit the chain link fence around the coop and exploded into a bunch of feathers & bird parts, with the hawk right behind it. The silky roo, was on that hawk like white on rice! Literally, LOL, he charged him with all his hackle feathers standing on end and full on attacked the dazed hawk who was still trying to recover from colliding with the fence. The roo was beating the snot out of that hawk, when my dog finally intervened and grabbed the hawk like it was her long lost squeaky toy and started crunching on it and thrashing it too. Then, the roo attacked the dog! This roo was like the Chuck Norris of roos, I am tellin ya! Now, my dogs are trained to completely ignore chickens, so she wouldnt defend herself against the roo, she just ran away from him too. I was standing there watching this all unfold, it was incredible to have witnessed this firsthand. 

Another time while the flock was free ranging, a feral housecat had wandered into my yard looking for a quick meal when the roo attacked that cat! I was inside my house, working on the computer when i heard this bloodcurdling feline squealling and hollering from the front yard. Since, I dont own a cat, this was news to me, LOL. My dogs were going nuts, barking and making those "keening noises", trying to convey to you that they want this more than anything they have ever wanted! And so I went outside to investigate. The roo had this cat cornered between the coops and the cat was spitting and hissing and its body posture was all curved up on the defensive & that roo wasnt playing around either. His hackle feathers standing on end made him look like some sort of demonically possessed mutant Eagle-thing. He kept rushing the cat with his signature flogging attacks on it. My dogs were usually quick to dispatch a predator, as that's what they are trained to do, and I have a "zero tolerance" policy for predators upon my land. But somehow this cat cashed in one of his nine lives and made an impossible leap, up and over the coops to the nearby dead tree, where it climbed all the way to the top!  It stayed there for many hours and I finally went to bed, leaving my dogs patrolling outdoors. It was a cold night, and I think the dogs eventually came back in the house to warm up, and the cat made a break a for it, never to be seen around these parts again. 

Great times.. Love your story.. The only time my DH re-tells is when our German Shepard was out front helping us protect the flock, while we enjoyed our beautiful weather, a neighbor came by to give our German Shepard some love'n..huh, Clark Kent senior was like, " there is no way you will be pet'n my dog" off he went from zero to fifteen miles per hour.. Our dearest neighbor had no idea what hit him..

 

[City farm]

Hey guys! How is everyone? I've been on vacation for the last month, went back east with my grandparents. Well I was gone my chicken became free range! My mom didn't know how they were getting out, so she just, let them go The dogs don't bother them, well, the little one tries to chase them, but the chickens are about twice her size, so she never really scares them haha. I still have all the fencing up, with just a little gate thing so they can get out easier. We're moving soon so I didn't bother trying to fix wherever they were getting out of, plus, they like getting to run around the whole yard!

Spoiled little brats, bet they ate a lot of your bugs..

 

[K9Dave]

Great times.. Love your story.. The only time my DH re-tells is when our German Shepard was out front helping us protect the flock, while we enjoyed our beautiful weather, a neighbor came by to give our German Shepard some love'n..huh, Clark Kent senior was like, " there is no way you will be pet'n my dog" off he went from zero to fifteen miles per hour.. Our dearest neighbor had no idea what hit him..

Hilariuos. My little Pullets have been sparring a lot since it cooled down a little in the mornings.

 

[jubilation]

Does everyone on the Arizona forum all live in the Tucson area? I think I've only noticed only one person that lives in the Prescott area but everyone else lives in southern Arizona. No offense to anyone and I'm not complaining but sounds like a SACC - Southern Arizona Chicken Click.

 

[K9Dave]

Does everyone on the Arizona forum all live in the Tucson area?  I think I've only noticed only one person that lives in the Prescott area but everyone else lives in southern Arizona.  No offense to anyone and I'm not complaining but sounds like a SACC - Southern Arizona Chicken Click.

Phoenix here but would rather be up there. How much cooler is it there?

 

[Macboat]

I took this picture when grocery shopping, the egg color caught my eyes, they don't look real. My camera didn't capture the real color, they were like brick red, very bright. Anybody know what chicken lay this color?

 

[jubilation]

A lot cooler and where I live I don't have to deal with any predators of any kind except for people letting their dogs run free. We are in the middle to up 80's up here with a cool breeze blowing all the time and no misters or cooling devices for my chickens.