Arizona Chickens

[LilnAz]

Hi friends. I am new to chickens. My 3 month old girls live in a coop with sand. As I have cleaned and scooped I have added sand to the top. It's worked out great. I find sand very easy to use and clean, no smell either. Because the girls trample over their droppings I cannot get all of it up but the majority. My question is do I need to replace sand every few months or can I wash it down without any concerns? Or continue what I am doing?
Thanks for all the great pictures, posts and help.

 

[City farm]

Both of my geese latex today ones about a year old the other is definitely older

Will you post up a photo of the different egg size?

 

[City farm]

 
 x 2   We almost ended up with chicks when we went last week to the Tractor Supply in Coolidge!!!!  

oh nooooo... LOL I just oredered 8 Isbar chicks and a dozen Isbar hatching eggs. Someone stop me  

Awesome... I tried a few times to post up their egg color, still not working..

 

[City farm]

Hi friends. I am new to chickens. My 3 month old girls live in a coop with sand. As I have cleaned and scooped I have added sand to the top. It's worked out great. I find sand very easy to use and clean, no smell either. Because the girls trample over their droppings I cannot get all of it up but the majority. My question is do I need to replace sand every few months or can I wash it down without any concerns? Or continue what I am doing?
Thanks for all the great pictures, posts and help.

I like the sand as well.. Sometimes their poo is a bit like liquid, so I would remove all every once and a while.. But I guess if you rince well and there is no smell, it might be ok??

 

[lacymorgan]

Awesome... I tried a few times to post up their egg color, still not working..

Yes I kept checking hoping to see them. Ty for trying

 

[lacymorgan]

Waiting for diapers to arrive in the mail! NEVER thought I'd be wrestling a chicken to put a diaper on it....

I have never heard of a diaper for chickens you are going to have to post a photo.

 

[dofnup]

The barred rocks love my shoulder but honestly I think it was more of a "save me the big scary chickens are trying to peck me again" type of thing. They fly onto my back if I'm bent over and they are on the roost.

I have a dog that is not chicken friendly. He killed 13 buff orpington chicks and so I have to keep him penned up. My daughter is moving out hopefully to go to college so he should go with her. He hates being penned and is now a barker. He's the one that turned aggressive. But my daughters and I are working on training him and taking him out for walks.

Oh, man....around the time when my previous flock had dwindled down to 4, we adopted a little dog. We figured he was a Chihuahua/terrier mix. He was the sweetest little guy ... then he killed 2 of my chickens. Or rather, killed one and maimed the other so badly we had to put her down. I felt so bad because after the first one died, it did not even occur to us that it had been him, duh, would've saved the other one if it had.

My father-in-law is a farmer in Idaho and he took him for us. The dog is now super happy, he gets to hunt and eat groundhogs all day.

We joke that this may be the first case ever of a dog ACTUALLY GOING TO LIVE AT A FARM UP NORTH

If anyone ever asks our kids where the dog went, they're gonna think he died and we lied to them about it

tl;dr terriers have wicked prey drive

 

[aviddamy]

Dogs are fun aren't they? haha. She wants me to keep him while she goes to college, but my husband can't stand being woken up every day by his barking. Its annoying, but I just deal with it. I go outside, feed everyone, swich animals around and let him out. He gets about an hour or two outside of his kennel a day. I wish I could do more, but I can't leave him out there unsupervised. To kill the chicks he literally ripped sheet metal to make a way into the coop.

Oh well, what we are doing at the moment is working except for the barking. A glass of water in the face seems to be working with that. He hates water! The things we do for our kids...

 

[SLacoss]

I have found a cheap electric fence around the coop very effective for keeping my dog away.

 

[aviddamy]

That would likely work with him too. He's really smart. I just don't have the knowledge to set one up. Guess that will be a future project.