Arizona Chickens

[ejcrist]

I lost quite a few Barred Rock hens to the extreme heat this month, so I'm keeping all the rest I have. I didn't hatch any this year, just took the year off hatching chicks to concentrate on my turkeys. I hope to resume hatching this fall or winter, I've held back 5 males, one won Super Show Champion in Safford in January, and Champion American at Apache County Show in Feb, and several of his brothers are also nice birds, so I'll be setting up multiple breeding pens of this. This is my Show Champion

Wow! That's is about the nicest looking Barred Rock I've ever seen. Very nice bird! I hope one day I can grow 'em like that.

 

[cyborg]

I lost quite a few Barred Rock hens to the extreme heat this month, so I'm keeping all the rest I have. I didn't hatch any this year, just took the year off hatching chicks to concentrate on my turkeys. I hope to resume hatching this fall or winter, I've held back 5 males, one won Super Show Champion in Safford in January, and Champion American at Apache County Show in Feb, and several of his brothers are also nice birds, so I'll be setting up multiple breeding pens of this. This is my Show Champion

Wow! That's is about the nicest looking Barred Rock I've ever seen. Very nice bird! I hope one day I can grow 'em like that.

LOL! I have 2 of his brothers for my own breeding line. Sure is nice to live so close to @desertmarcy! @ejcrist Most poultry breeders will strongly suggest starting with the best birds you can find, and not wasting time with inferior birds. So, along those lines, I strongly suggest you work something out with @desertmarcy. Hate to say it, but most of what you find on Craigslist, dandy dime, etc. are only suitable for chicken soup.

 

[ejcrist]

LOL! I have 2 of his brothers for my own breeding line. Sure is nice to live so close to @desertmarcy !

@ejcrist Most poultry breeders will strongly suggest starting with the best birds you can find, and not wasting time with inferior birds. So, along those lines, I strongly suggest you work something out with @desertmarcy . Hate to say it, but most of what you find on Craigslist, dandy dime, etc. are only suitable for chicken soup.

Yes I definitely agree. The lady I'm waiting to hear back from shows her birds from what I can tell so I believe the rooster I'm hoping to get is a good bird. I have desertmarcy in my speed dial now for future reference and if she has any available in the future I'll definitely give her a holler. Sounds like the heat took a toll on her recently - that's a shame because it looks like she has some extremely nice BR's.

 

[FeatherPugs]

Quote: Every time I see this boy my eye is immediately drawn to his saddle feathers - they are just WOW! This is a fine looking young man!

 

[ejcrist]

Here's my new fella. Got him from a very nice lady in Gilbert this afternoon. The gals and him hit it off from the get-go.

 

[ejcrist]

I lost quite a few Barred Rock hens to the extreme heat this month, so I'm keeping all the rest I have. I didn't hatch any this year, just took the year off hatching chicks to concentrate on my turkeys. I hope to resume hatching this fall or winter, I've held back 5 males, one won Super Show Champion in Safford in January, and Champion American at Apache County Show in Feb, and several of his brothers are also nice birds, so I'll be setting up multiple breeding pens of this. This is my Show Champion

Just curious but were there any significant issues that lead to your losing those birds during the heatwave? The reason I'm asking is because I believe it's slightly cooler in Tucson than Phoenix so I need to be extra special careful. I use every measure I know of to include wading pans of water, a mister, a tall covered run, and ice in their water. For water I have two igloo coolers with Brite Tap nipples and ice in the coolers daily, and two 2 gallon water founts with ice. I also give them watermelon in the afternoons around 3-4 pm. So far I've been lucky but this new rooster I got is heftier than the gals so I really want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to keep him safe. The ride from Gilbert to Desert Hills in the back of my pickup with a cap and rear window open was a little rough on him. He was panting pretty good when I got home. After I got him in the run he immediately stood in the water pans, drank a lot of water, and ate some melon and he really perked up quite a bit. Right now he seems totally fine. But I definitely want to go the extra mile to keep him cool going forward.

 

[FeatherPugs]

Just curious but were there any significant issues that lead to your losing those birds during the heatwave? The reason I'm asking is because I believe it's slightly cooler in Tucson than Phoenix so I need to be extra special careful. I use every measure I know of to include wading pans of water, a mister, a tall covered run, and ice in their water. For water I have two igloo coolers with Brite Tap nipples and ice in the coolers daily, and two 2 gallon water founts with ice. I also give them watermelon in the afternoons around 3-4 pm. So far I've been lucky but this new rooster I got is heftier than the gals so I really want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to keep him safe. The ride from Gilbert to Desert Hills in the back of my pickup with a cap and rear window open was a little rough on him. He was panting pretty good when I got home. After I got him in the run he immediately stood in the water pans, drank a lot of water, and ate some melon and he really perked up quite a bit. Right now he seems totally fine. But I definitely want to go the extra mile to keep him cool going forward.

Tucson hasn't been cooler lately and they've been breaking records like crazy too. I believe your new boy will be just fine.

 

[ejcrist]

Tucson hasn't been cooler lately and they've been breaking records like crazy too. I believe your new boy will be just fine.

Yeah I guess you're right about Tucson. I remember seeing the temps on the weather channel and it was about the same as up here in the frying pan. That's a real shame she lost those couple of birds. I only ever lost a few Cornish Crosses when it got hot and they were at prime butchering size, and even though they're common and fairly easy to grow I felt awful due to all the work I put into getting them to that stage. If they had been high quality breeding birds someone would've probably had to take me to the ER or something. Thanks to you and others on this site I have a lot of good measures to take to keep the girls (and boy now) reasonably comfortable. They're calling for a a slight chance of rain a couple of days this week so hopefully we might get a sprinkle or two and keep the temperatures reasonable.

 

[ejcrist]

Two quick questions about my new rooster:

1. I haven't heard him crow yet. There are two roosters about 200 yards or so just north of me that crow every morning and I expected to hear my fella start crowing this morning but he was quiet. Is that unusual? He has a very nice voice when he clucks - he should be on American Idol, so I was a bit surprised at his silence. He just spent his first night here though so maybe that has something to do with it.

2. I've read on here and other places that you should feed a mixed flock, like what I have now with the new rooster, a feed that doesn't contain calcium and then supply free choice oyster shell or other source since the extra calcium in layer feed may not be good for roosters and certainly not if you have pullets that aren't laying. I switched my girls to Nutrena 16% Naturewise Layer Crumble when they started laying about 2 months ago and they're doing really well on it. That's what I have out there now and the rooster's been eating it. I've also read that others let their roosters eat the layer feed and it's totally ok. Is there any consensus on whether or not a rooster can eat layer without any problems or do you just take it on a case by case basis?

Any info would be appreciated. I really love having that rooster out there. He's like the prettiest bird on the planet on steroids.

Gene

 

[chikdukturkmom]

Thanks much for sharing that info - I didn't think to look there. I'm not big on social media but I do talk to relatives overseas that exclusively use Facebook. Anyway I took a look and you were right. I found AZ Chicken Raisers and they have lots of birds for sale on there. I really wish I had a Barred Rock cockerel for my gals but I don't think it would be easy to integrate one at this point now that my pullets are going on 7 months old and seem to have their order set pretty well. Now that they're laying good I kinda hate to throw a wrench in the machine. I don't know if I'm over-thinking it or not and maybe it would be ok to put a cock in eye ball view so they get used to him and then introduce him supervised for a couple of sessions to see how things go. While their universe seems to be in good order to me, I frequently catch them trying to mate each other every once in awhile so I'm thinking it'd be nice to have a cock for their sake. I probably should give it a go to get some practice because I want to start a breeding flock in the near future that will be separate from my layers, and if I'm going to get involved in that I'll be integrating roosters frequently. I'm just thinking out loud I guess but I do wish I had a rooster out there. 

Im in kingman and i have 5 week old barred rock that my broody hatched. Have a barred rock hen laying on some more too. If you are willing to make the drive they are beautiful. I can take newer pictures if you would like.