Arizona Chickens

[K9Dave]

Hi @Bobby Basham, long time no see! Your run is looking great. I went out this morning in the pick em up truck, with full intentions of buying a load of wood for a henhouse project of my own. Got a little sidetracked and came home with rose bushes and a couple fruit trees, and no wood. Ah well, there is always next weekend!

How've you been Cyborg? I was thinking about you the other day. I've been getting to ride (motorcycle) lot lately. How's your oil dropper (HD lol) doing?

 

[cgmaster]

My single comb white "cockerel" just crowed for the first time! 5 times in a row!!! i thought he was a he from the very beginning.

 

[City farm]

Finally, all 9 of my chickens are laying!!!  The tiny EE chick that came in with my last batch of packing peanuts with the meat chickens laid a tiny blue egg yesterday.  I really lucked out with her--as a packing peanut, she was probably supposed to be male (all the other were), and instead, I was sent a female with gorgeous black and white feathers with a beautiful lacy pattern, and a BLUE egg.  Woohoo. Thank you, Ideal.    

And, with the worming meds, I can't eat any of the eggs!!!!!!!  I have a bunch in the fridge, pre-medicine,  that I just can't make myself eat either...I read that there's a SMALL chance of a worm ending up in the egg, and I think I might just fall over dead and never eat eggs again if I cracked one open to find a worm inside.   

How is everyone's garden coming along?  Mine, well, I did it--demolished my garden space and moved the dogs in.  Now I have to whole backyard to work with and beautify.  It was surprisingly easy to destroy 7 years worth of improvements, and pretty freaking depressing.  But it will be worth it, eventually. 

I've planted a golden dorsett apple and Anna's apple so far.  I plan on adding a dwarf peach and lemon and red grapefruit, also both dwarf varieties. 

Oh photo's please?? It's god to hear from you..I'm excited about your orchard of tree's...

 

[City farm]

I had the privilege of meeting with [@=/u/153810/City-farm]@City farm[/@]


And [@=/u/292476/houdiniduck]@houdiniduck[/@] tonight!

...

.......and of course I was greeted by city farms duck's as I came down the sidewalk, lol!


What was strange was that the EE was sired by a non true to breed BCM, and the chick looks like a BCM chick!

To make things stranger, the white leghorn has a few tiny black pepper specks with feathered feet! Ooh my!

I won't be buying off Craigslist any more! ....I ended up with 2 roos instead of hens and they are not bred to sop standards! I really don't like when somebody tells me something and I'm not getting what it I'm told it's supposed to be!.. Well now that I read BYC and talk with other members, gratefully I'm learning quite a bit and still have more to learn.

There are good sellers and bad sellers on Craigslist. Heck, I sell on Craigslist and I know another show breeder here in town who does as well. But it is Buyer Beware. YOU are responsible for knowing the birds and what to look for and what to ask when you buy from CL. As far as bred to SOP standards, the vast majority of chickens out there are not. It is a small minority of chicken keepers who are interested in that and showing. We, the few, try to educate others as to the joys of working with well-bred birds. It costs no more to feed them. Some people are just interested in egg production and that is fine too.

Are you referring to Black Copper Marans that you got off CL? How old were they when you got them? If they were young, some people are not good at telling the sex of a young bird. Black Copper Marans are still a young breed for the U.S. They were only admitted to the SOP in 2010!  Compare that to some of our old American Class breeds. Barred Rock admitted in 1874, White Rock in 1888, Rhode Island Red in 1904! There has been over a century of time of selective breeding in those birds. Marans are new, they are not "there" yet. The vast majority of BCM offspring are going to be culls. Just remember there are a lot of chicken propagaters out there and very few real chicken breeders. It takes decades of experience to become the latter.

I have to admit, I was in baby chicken, AUGHhhhh, the other day.. I love raising chicks to give to a family... It brings such joy.. So yes I went way over board, TOTALLY.. Chicken math set in.. In my mind I am thinking, 1/2 will be boy's.. So get a few extra!! Yeah right..
The FBCM, legs are not all slate.. Or they don't have as many feathers as the chicks from moms3cuties, not that I even want any Marans, what was I thinking???
Then I got home and remembered how sweet and gentile ours were.. Plus a dark egg.. Ya can't beat that.. I guess we will see.. We still don't have ant layers, soon, very soon..

 

[City farm]

First two chicks to hatch out are a white and a brown naked neck

 

[City farm]

Anybody have tips on hatching my eggs? last year my great grandpa tried to hatch some from my silkies with some of his ams and jersey giants in his incubator NONE of my eggs hatched 1 pipped but didnt hatch. How could i improve their fertility?

How many Roos to hen's? A jersey giant is to large to mount a silkie..in my opion

 

[Bobby Basham]

The music will be so low that you'd have to practically stand upon any speaker enclosure out there. I mean low as close to a whisper. My back yard is completely surrounded by a brick wall which will cut back on any sound projection. --BB

 

[City farm]

Hey, I'm still around...How YOU be these days??? I'm moving like a snail on my project(s), and keep getting cold feet along the way. I finally got to working on my run after a gazillion drawing modifications. What once started out like this... Turned into something completely different... It started out with a single 4x4 post and branched out like a waggon wheel. This is just the skeleton and it has four 8x8 sections with the 4th section divided in half to leave more footage for the chickens and a 4x8 ft patio for chicken TV. All the lower panels are constructed as one piece and slide into fence/deck brackets and are screened with hardware cloth that extend out about 18 inches. Even though you can see the four areas, it is all open, so you gotta watch your step right now, unless I decide to go with a deep litter method. There is still over 15 feet of space all around so there will be plenty of room for some garden beds. The patio will be screened off from the rest of the run. The large opening in the center will be the door/gate. The entire run is only 5 feet tall as to not protrude above the 5 ft wall. HOA (Home Owners Assassination) does not want any structures seen from the street and may be offensive to neighbors. Five of my neighbors say go for it, since I offered them free eggs. This is one of my lower panels, unscreened and not secured yet. There will be vertical braces for the top section as you can see the brackets attached on the underside of the top bracket. I got alittle fancy and added some pavers, park bench and back wooden railing on the deck. The structure itself is finished, for the most part. Just need to build a door for that entrance in the center and finish screening the top half. I have enough hardware cloth to even do the entire roof, but need to add some support to keep it from sagging. There is sand in there which I'm debating about keeping. This all constructed of pressure-treated wood and is not supposed to rot, but I was disappointed about how many pieces were crooked and bowed. Since this is about 20 feet from the house, I have access to external AC outlets and water faucets, so I can run some PVC a few inches underground to the run. I'm thinking about a watering system, sound system (I heard chickens like NPR Radio and Classical music), and maybe some type of solar power for different things. I guess I gave you a bit much, but that's just me being verbose and doing essays. I hope everyone on the board is doing well these days. Your posts are informative and entertaining. --BB Bobby Basham Tucson, Arizona P.S. The coop design is continually being modified, and I have yet to build a brooder. I also have to take into consideration budget for feed, supplies, medical etc. Maybe it's alittle overboard for a few hens, but I'm looking for a nice project already in place when I decided to retire.

It look's like, to me, that you are building a room for different decor.. Those chickens will be happy in their dinning room( with a chandelier), then their sleeping quarters(with puffy pillows), and finally a staging area for human's to spoil them..(tons of threats) There are windows for viewing then take dust bath's, another area for hatching out chick's, boy oh boy, can't wait till it's done.. They do love classical music.. So do our dog's.. That is what they are listening to right now."

 

[City farm]

Thanks for the well wishes. Tomorrow is move out day and all of the animals that we need to re-home were spoken for quickly from friends and neighbors

I do however need help finding Penny the kitten we got from Jennifer here on the forum.

She hangs out in the chicken coop with the rabbits and babies No Problem. She loves to climb trees and she follows me and the dogs when we go walking. She runs from bush to bush. Pretty funny. She is an outside cat but I let her hang out inside sometimes.

If anyone wants or knows anyone that may want her let me know please. I thought another friend was taking her but that plan failed so that's why it's so last minute.

Agh, what a sweety, Our kitty follows us too! I think, that our neighbors think we are like the animal whisper, or something..let us know when your are in Tempe.. Pop on over for evening tea.

 

[Bobby Basham]

It look's like, to me, that you are building a room for different decor.. Those chickens will be happy in their dinning room( with a chandelier), then their sleeping quarters(with puffy pillows), and finally a staging area for human's to spoil them..(tons of threats)
There are windows for viewing then take dust bath's, another area for hatching out chick's, boy oh boy, can't wait till it's done.. They do love classical music.. So do our dog's.. That is what they are listening to right now."

Thanks, City Farm.

Even though you see alot of posts and boards along the base, it is actually one big space. Those bottom boards mimick the top boards and are for structural support but give the illusion that there are four separate areas.You just have to watch your step right now navigating through it. Just looking at it, you can see how it could be divided into separate areas with a few more pieces of wood and some screening. If I go the deep litter method route, those boards will be covered, making a seamless connection. --BB