Arizona Chickens

[desertflock]

Whats the night time temp where you are and how many chicks? I can't imagine needing a lamp. If it is 90ish at night and they can huddle, I think they are fine. If it is 80is at night and less then 6 chicks you might need a lamp for just a few nights.

I love my brinsea echo brooder thing.....like an electric hen. Chicks climb under when cool and roost on top when not. No thinking needed. Maybe just a heating pad at one end of the brooder, maybe somehow lining the side.....so chicks can huddle around if night time temps are low??

Just check on them often, if they are piled on top of each other. It's too cool. If they are panting with wings open....too hot.

We are getting 15 chicks and our nighttime temp is in the 80's... I think I'd keep them inside no matter for a few days just to get them over the shipping stress. During the day is the big issue but if the waterers are frozen then maybe that would be fine for the babies? I will obviously be doing this with them when they are adults I just don't know if it's bad with the chicks.

Just got the note that they have shipped! We'll have them tomorrow or Wednesday!

 

[AZKat]

I always brood outside. As soon as they arrive, I put them outside on my covered patio. I have used both a rabbit cage and a large dog kennel, with the kennel I'd put wire or shade cloth so they could not escape.

For the first couple weeks, I use a heat lamp at night, I turn it on before bed and turn it off in the morning. I haven't had any problems, and the chicks seem less prone to get pasty butt.

 

[Sill]

@City farm Yes! I still have a sugar cane for you!

My son Still has 4 more sugar cane starts for sale, for $4 each!
We will be getting some more started This next week, if anybody else is interested. I will be trying to do some clumping bamboo as well.

Put me down for some of the clumping bamboo!

Yikes! Do you have a good rifle too?

Or a pack of dogs. Last spring a roadrunner tried to pull one of my quail through the wire. She was OK and healed her injuries but the darn roadrunner kept coming back. I let me dogs stay out as much as possible and the roadrunner must have searched for easier prey because I didn't see or hear it again after that week.

Do you collect egg plates? - I have a number of them myself. Unfortunately I just knocked on of the vintage ones off the wall. One of my favorites of course!! Nice egg plate.

Of course it's the favorite one that falls and breaks! I try to restrain myself from buying more egg plates, but sometimes you find one that just has to come home.

Mites can kill a chicken pretty fast. Especially if the bird is already weak or stressed. I've been battling mites at my place for a couple of years now and haven't noticed any chickens with dilated eyes, so I suspect something else was going on with your bird.

I hardly ever see the mites themselves, even though I check the chickens several times a week in the evening when they are on their roosts. When I find evidence of mites - "dirty" belly feathers and patches of red skin - I treat the whole flock. Wild birds are always getting into my coops/runs. There is no way to keep them out when the chickens are free-ranging, and the chickens seem much healthier when they are let out. So I check them frequently and treat for mites as needed. Good luck with them!

Thanks for the tips!

Hi I'm a newbie and trying to find out how to post

What part of AZ are you in?

 

[Sill]

I am hoping that is all it was, but for some reason I don't think that was it.. She did have some stuff around her mouth.. When I went out this morning, the flock dd not come running like they do every morning, so I knew something was wrong.. Thank you..
I collect duck's & chicken's...

real one's.. Hehe, we do have a set that is hand painted.. When we have time I wil post them up.. & thank you.. Have you seen Ranger??

Could it have been fowl pox? That's what comes to mind with something around the mouth.

I ordered Oxine.. Want to make sure I cover this problem. When @Sill & I did a necropsy on a hen her lung's had a weird look to them..
http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page11.htm

Yeah that was a strange one.

Yeah, the lungs look way too pale....and those dark streaks are strange. Something respiratory?

Then again, I've never examined the lungs of a chicken that had been dead for a while. I don't know how the blood settles and congealed once the bird has been dead for hours and hasn't been exsanguinated.

Yes they were sure pale and the dark stuff wasn't blood, it was black, but didn't show as well in the photo as it looked in person. I had just culled her to end her suffering after trying rounds of antibiotics for whatever resperatory thing she had, so she was fresh, not hours dead. I still wonder if birds can get valley fever and that's what this was?

 

[Sill]

Good Monday! !
check out these spoiled brats getting their treat, they decided to pose for a photo first.


Also, @Sill and i were busy processing rooster's most of the day . Here is her station. notice we enjoy the outdoors with a glass of wine and lit the tiki torches for candlelight to get rid of the flies.. anything to make this process..

One of her tortoise had to come over and see what we were doing,

nothing like organic farm raised chicken, rather that then think about the rooster out there with someone that would use it for fighting purposes..

The meat will be delish for everything we use it for. Thanks so much for coming over to help, is sure makes it faster, as well as more fun, as fun as processing birds can get anyway. The tiki torches sure helped keep the flies at bay. And the wine was enjoyable! Spot the tortoise sure made a pest of himself, the little darling.

Anyone in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area looking for a blue(very dark blue almost black) silkie roo? It's less than 4 months old. I've had my suspicions about Ducky since early on but this morning he crowed for the first time to confirm it's definitely a boy. I don't know if/when my neighbors will complain as we can't hear him while inside the house but in the spring and fall with windows open they might not be pleased. Anyone have luck with no-crow collars? I was thinking of making or buying one but if he can go to a new home where he can crow his heart out and won't be sent to freezer camp, I'd likely prefer that. PM me if interested.

@moms3cuties showed me how to use the no crow collars. You have to make them very snug. I wasn't getting them on tight enough and the dudes kept crowing. Once she showed me how to put them on there was no more crowing, or rather they go through the motions of a crow but it comes out quiet and garbled so it sounds nothing like a crow, if you can hear it at all.

Hello!

Im about to raise my first flock and am having some trouble troubleshooting where I should put my brooder. My house is modest in size and I cannot seem to identify a really obvious choice of a place to locate our brooder inside. The only place that allows for easy clean up of the "dust" Ive been reading about is in our kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms. I've thought about laying a tarp in our living room or moving our kitchen table out, or just letting our bath tub become a brooder and just give the kids showers in the master bath.

All of these options, seem to disrupt our normal way of doing things. The bathtub option is low on the list of being problematic but its the kids bath and I don't want the kids to have any more chance to be around the chicks unsupervised.

I am considering putting the chicken brooder outside under the shade of my eaves on the north side of my house. I know its hot outside but I just think that is the most sanitary and shady place I've got at the moment and I could forgo the heat lamp. But I know the heat in the shade is still super hot! I would consider the garage as well but the same issue arises. My only really heavily shaded area and great place for my chickens is unfortunately on the outside of my fenced yard where I have some big established citrus trees.

Am I off base in thinking the chicks would be able to thrive in a brooder outside in the shade?
Is there a way any of you have beat the "dust" and kept your chicks inside with little cleaning of the area around the brooder?
Is the dust as bad as they say?
Am I really over-thinking this? lol....

I would really like any feedback you all have. The chicks are due to arrive this week.

I raise all my chicks outside. I don't want the mess in my house. From incubator to outside brooder. I don't usually have chicks this time of year, but it's so hot out they only need a heat source the first week or two, and usually only at night. I do cover my brooders with welded wire mesh so they are cat proof and use an old horse trough and large rubbermaid totes. The brooders are on the patio with deep shade all day so I don't have to worry about sun. A rheostat cord on the brooder is a must outside in summer here and allows me to lower the intensity of the light to very low so they don't over heat.

 

[Twinklin]

@moms3cuties showed me how to use the no crow collars. You have to make them very snug. I wasn't getting them on tight enough and the dudes kept crowing. Once she showed me how to put them on there was no more crowing, or rather they go through the motions of a crow but it comes out quiet and garbled so it sounds nothing like a crow, if you can hear it at all.

Thanks! I made one yesterday and let him get used to it all day. He only crowed maybe 6 times yesterday morning and then not again all day but he was also very angry about the collar and walked backwards trying to get it off every time he got up. I made it from velcro and denim fabric and made it so my pinky could fit under it. I am up extra early today to see if I hear him this morning. I'll keep adjusting it as needed and hopefully I can prevent having to rehome him. He's so sweet.

 

[DesertChic]

Oh, wow! One of my White Rock pullets laid her first egg yesterday @ just 17 weeks! I literally finished building a nesting box and installed it on Sunday, and then yesterday she laid her first egg. Timing is everything!

The really funny part was watching the very distressed Bielefelder cockerel reacting to her "egg song". He would run to the coop door, run to me, run around me a couple times, run back to the coop door.....He was like a nervous father in the maternity ward.

 

[DesertChic]

Also, @Sill and i were busy processing rooster's most of the day . Here is her station. notice we enjoy the outdoors with a glass of wine and lit the tiki torches for candlelight to get rid of the flies.. anything to make this process..

One of her tortoise had to come over and see what we were doing,

nothing like organic farm raised chicken, rather that then think about the rooster out there with someone that would use it for fighting purposes..

Now I know I've been doing it wrong this whole time. I haven't had any wine while doing my butchering!!! That would make the whole procedure so much nicer! And a tortoise supervisor? What a clever idea!

Seriously though, it looks like you guys had a really efficient setup. How many did you process?

 

[City farm]

Hello!

Im about to raise my first flock and am having some trouble troubleshooting where I should put my brooder. My house is modest in size and I cannot seem to identify a really obvious choice of a place to locate our brooder inside. The only place that allows for easy clean up of the "dust" Ive been reading about is in our kitchen, dining room, and bathrooms. I've thought about laying a tarp in our living room or moving our kitchen table out, or just letting our bath tub become a brooder and just give the kids showers in the master bath. 

All of these options, seem to disrupt our normal way of doing things. The bathtub option is low on the list of being problematic but its the kids bath and I don't want the kids to have any more chance to be around the chicks unsupervised. 

I am considering putting the chicken brooder outside under the shade of my eaves on the north side of my house. I know its hot outside but I just think that is the most sanitary and shady place I've got at the moment and I could forgo the heat lamp. But I know the heat in the shade is still super hot! I would consider the garage as well but the same issue arises. My only really heavily shaded area and great place for my chickens is unfortunately on the outside of my fenced yard where I have some big established citrus trees.

Am I off base in thinking the chicks would be able to thrive in a brooder outside in the shade? 
Is there a way any of you have beat the "dust" and kept your chicks inside with little cleaning of the area around the brooder?
Is the dust as bad as they say? 
Am I really over-thinking this? lol.... 

I would really like any feedback you all have. The chicks are due to arrive this week. 

Chicken's can & will disrupt your day.. They are better than watching television. Hand raising them makes them more like pet's.. I would do indoors since you have kid's, although doing outdoor's in this heat, 90' for a week old would be fine too.. Just depends on how you want to do it..
Dusting, in a large old fire pit work's. But they do find a spot in the dirt sometimes.. Have you ever gone on the coop tours? they are threw out the valley? There is more than one organization that put's this event on.. Valley permaculture & can't think of the other name at the moment.. This is a great way to see how others have their set up.. Plus you are able to ask Question's to the bird owners..

 

[City farm]

Hi I'm a newbie and trying to find out how to post

What breed 's of chicken's do you have? We only use a few options on this thread.. Still learning too..