Arizona Chickens

[pipemum]

So you like Kellogg's? I've bought a few bags of the organic garden soil (can't beat the price!) but it is so woody! The Tucson Mnts are low elevation desert mnts and still hot as h***, and I'm in the foothills which means no real temp difference, but my soil is basically...rock and caliche with more rock thrown in! I think the coconut product is coconut coir? I have a block in my shed...I'll have to remember to use it. Hydroponics and aquaponics is fascinating, but at this point is too cost and time prohibitive for me. I think in my new garden space, I'm going to build one new raised bed, and then dig a "waffle garden" to use for a season or two.

Back to chickens--there is a huge pack of coyotes hanging around the wash out back. There have always been coyotes around, but the packs seems to move in and out of the area. This pack seems to be settling in. Between limited day hours and the constant presence of coyotes, my chickens have been coop-bound lately.

 

[desertmarcy]

desertmarcy Cheryl seems to be going broody again, I might need eggs from you, of i can't break her. Anyone planing a trip to andfro? What fertile eggs do you have?

I am not selling fertile eggs right now. All fertile eggs are going in my incubator and fertility is unfortunately very low! The males are not doing their jobs. As an aside, I usually don't sell fertile eggs anyway, only chicks or started birds.

 

[desertmarcy]

So you like Kellogg's? I've bought a few bags of the organic garden soil (can't beat the price!) but it is so woody! The Tucson Mnts are low elevation desert mnts and still hot as h***, and I'm in the foothills which means no real temp difference, but my soil is basically...rock and caliche with more rock thrown in! I think the coconut product is coconut coir? I have a block in my shed...I'll have to remember to use it. Hydroponics and aquaponics is fascinating, but at this point is too cost and time prohibitive for me. I think in my new garden space, I'm going to build one new raised bed, and then dig a "waffle garden" to use for a season or two.

Back to chickens--there is a huge pack of coyotes hanging around the wash out back. There have always been coyotes around, but the packs seems to move in and out of the area. This pack seems to be settling in. Between limited day hours and the constant presence of coyotes, my chickens have been coop-bound lately.

Yes, my soil is the same way plus clay. I use the coconut coir with gypsum mixed in for starting seeds only. It is too expensive for wide spread use. My garden is all in ground. I did basically the same thing you did, dug down 18" (now I know I don't have to go that deep for vegetables) but I sifted the dirt that came out through 1/4" screen and mixed it back in with organic material. So about 50% organic material. I also add sulfur and gypsum. Our intense heat burns up the nitrogen in the soil so you have to replace every year. I've been composting my pen cleanings and have some ready, I think...but haven't had the time to dig it out and mix in the garden soil. When I first started my garden, everything grew like gang busters. Over time, I started to have problems with root knot nematodes. I've tried various things to keep them under control, but it is a constant battle. I am running out of things to do with all the rock that comes out of the earth here!

What is a waffle garden?

 

[pipemum]

Waffle garden is a sunken garden, dug in 1x1 or 2x2' squares.

After a little more reading, I'll be doing the more typical sunken garden, not little squares. I don't want to have to maintain squares!

What happens if I use only partially composted run cleanings as a bottom layer in either a raised bed or sunken garden? It's primarily rice hulls, pine shavings, and of course, chicken droppings. But a much smaller portion of droppings compared to rice hulls.

 

[pipemum]

I looked up my question regarding partially composted run materials (mine are rice hulls, pine shavings, and chicken manure). The rice hulls and shavings (bulk of my chicken compost bin) have a super high carbon to nitrogen ratio, so I'd need to increase my nitrogen materials--manure, green stuff, coffee grounds. Can do!

Back to chickens--my 4 pullets still have not laid an egg. Australorps and buff orpingtons. They are about 7.5-8 months now!! Well, I can't wait to complain about being over-burdened with eggs at some point!

 

[DesertChic]

I've gotten all of my Cornish Xs from Ideal. They are the only hatchery I've found that will do smaller orders while still having VERY reasonable shipping costs. They are in Texas...which isn't TOO far away. My only issue is that they put in a ton of "packing peanuts," so my order of 10 will usually arrive as an order of 17-20 chicks.

Garden talk: in ground or raised beds? I've had great success with raised beds, horrible results with in-ground (dug down over 12", native soil replaced with amended garden soil). Plus, digging down the Tucson Mnt foothills soil is very difficult, even with a jackhammer (and I usually only have a pick axe and my strong back doing the work). How about y'all?

Definitely raised beds at my house. Not only does it save my back from having to bend over to do all that weeding, but it keeps the veggie predators from consuming my crops. Besides, my home is built on what used to be a rock quarry. I've got more rock than dirt, and what dirt I have is nearly sterile. I used metal cattle troughs filled with compost, stacked tires filled with compost, and straw bale gardening. I've met with great success with all three....until June when the heat gets so intense that the plants just start to dry out. I'm planning on some kind of screening and maybe a greenhouse setup this year using shade cloth.

 

[Born2blove]

... one other Idea too is

Pet Club and Mesa Feed Barn have chicks usually but. ...
they are hatchery stock, and maybe you can ask them to special order a couple chicks for you when they order some other chicks for themselves. you could ask if you could pre pay for them in advance. That might be another option since those two are here locally in Mesa.

@beckyhsinglsc
Didn't you have a local Ace hardware that did special orders of hatchery chicks?

Goodluck with all the ideas!

Thanks
I call Pet Club, they took my phone on thier list, they will order some more chick next 2 weeks, they will call me for what i want to order.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Thanks
I call Pet Club, they took my phone on thier list, they will order some more chick next 2 weeks, they will call me for what i want to order.

Good to know! Do you know which hatchery they order from?

 

[Annalog]

Yesterday, Arrowroot took the two 9 day old chicks out into the Silkie pen for the day. Both chicks had to hop/fly up one 8 inch cement block step to get out of the coop. We moved the chick waterer and feeder outside for the day and filled the regular waterer with stones so that the chicks could not drown. The other three Silkies seemed to mostly ignore the chicks. At sunset, the chicks could not seem to navigate the three steps to get back into the coop so I held Arrowroot while DH scooped up the chicks and put them in the coop. I then put Arrowroot in. She gave me the evil eye and then went to the chicks. We encouraged the other three Silkies to go in and closed the pop door. Today Arrowroot kept the chicks inside.

 

[DesertChic]

Yesterday, Arrowroot took the two 9 day old chicks out into the Silkie pen for the day. Both chicks had to hop/fly up one 8 inch cement block step to get out of the coop. We moved the chick waterer and feeder outside for the day and filled the regular waterer with stones so that the chicks could not drown. The other three Silkies seemed to mostly ignore the chicks. At sunset, the chicks could not seem to navigate the three steps to get back into the coop so I held Arrowroot while DH scooped up the chicks and put them in the coop. I then put Arrowroot in. She gave me the evil eye and then went to the chicks. We encouraged the other three Silkies to go in and closed the pop door. Today Arrowroot kept the chicks inside.

She sounds like such a good momma! I admit it...I'm a little envious of you getting to witness all of this. I'm happy for you, but envious too.

How positively charming! Even though my Silkie pullet has some neurological problems, I'm holding out hope that she'll still have some broody tendencies that I'll get to indulge, even if I don't choose to breed her.