Arizona Chickens

[BlueBaby]

Dear oh AZ chook owners -

Due to my extreme love for both helping chickens and people, I've decided I want to write a book!

on what, specifically, one may ask?

Well a book about the raising and care of chickens of course!

I am already 3 pages into the book, which I have decided to title "Chooks: A guide to Raising and Caring for your Chickens

I have rented every poultry book I can find on the subject, and gaining info on what I could put into this book, Photographic, artistic, and linguistic pieces that will make this book stand out from the rest.

But I feel already this is not a one person ordeal. At 17, my mind only knows so much, and I was wondering if this amazing community of chook loving chicken people would have anything they thought would help to better my started book's rough draft, and even the final published product.

So, I guess my question is, does anyone have a suggestion on how i can make my book a one of a kind, relatable and informative guide to raising healthy chooks?

I've got the basics of raising and caring for them, which i can relate to my experience as a chicken owner.

I've got 10 basic chapters, (The table of content will be nest boxes labeled with the different chapters <3)

Ch 1 - But Why?

Ch 2 - Take Your Pick

Ch 3 - Building a Chook Dream Coop.

Ch 4 - How to Prepare + Daily Care

Ch 5 - Bring 'em In!

Ch 6 - Oh How They Grow!

Ch 7 - Chook Puberty

Ch 8 - Butt Nuggets

Ch 9 - Breeding + Roo or No Roo?

Ch 10 - Butchering - What, When and Why?

Is there anything that could be stuffed into another section/taken out/broadened/added?

Are you going to specify on raising them in the desert climate? How to keep them from getting too hot?

 

[Banaynaychicken]

Quote: I'll probably brief on different climates and locations in "Ch 4 - How to Prepare + Daily Care", so that people who are new know what to expect ^ for where they live, roughly.

 

[BlueBaby]

I'll probably brief on different climates and locations in "Ch 4 - How to Prepare + Daily Care", so that people who are new know what to expect ^ for where they live, roughly.

Ok, because a couple of weeks ago people were having that problem, and I had to add misters and sunscreen over the sides and top of the misters for the chickens. I was one of them.

 

[Banaynaychicken]

Quote: I feel you on heat, I've been giving my girls 2 fruity ice blocks a day, and filling their bird baskets with cold veggie scraps, wetting down their sand every now and then, and even bringing the 4 mo. olds inside :/ Luckily this rain has cooled things off alot.

humidity is still an issue of course.

 

[cyborg]

 

 
I'll probably brief on different climates and locations in "Ch 4 - How to Prepare + Daily Care", so that people who are new know what to expect ^ for where they live, roughly.

Ok, because a couple of weeks ago people were having that problem, and I had to add misters and sunscreen over the sides and top of the misters for the chickens. I was one of them.

I feel you on heat, I've been giving my girls 2 fruity ice blocks a day, and filling their bird baskets with cold veggie scraps, wetting down their sand every now and then, and even bringing the 4 mo. olds inside :/ Luckily this rain has cooled things off alot.

humidity is still an issue of course.

Gotta have something about ailments, diseases, and treatments.

 

[ejcrist]

I feel you on heat, I've been giving my girls 2 fruity ice blocks a day, and filling their bird baskets with cold veggie scraps, wetting down their sand every now and then, and even bringing the 4 mo. olds inside :/ Luckily this rain has cooled things off alot.

humidity is still an issue of course.

Just a thought, but it would be interesting if your book was specifically about raising chickens in the arid southwest. I've often thought about writing books on vegetable gardening in the southwest only because this region comprises about 20% of the continental US and probably have about the same percentage of the population, and a lot of people in this region are unsuccessful at growing vegetables here because they use info learned in the rest of the US which is also supported in books written on the subject. Using those methods here won't work most of the time so people assume it can't be done and give up. This of course is totally unfortunate since anyone can successfully grow vegetables if they understand the basics such as soil pH and how to correct it, irrigation water (city or well) pH, soil composition, sodic soils, caliche and drainage, and of course our seasons. I see so many people using raised beds when they are primarily used for better drainage in the damp northeast because they dry out before regular beds so you can plant earlier, but in this climate they can be a severe liability. I could ramble on but my point is I believe the demand for such info is high and there's not many good books on the subject. The information is out there but it takes some homework to get it, and a lot of people aren't familiar with the extension services, etc.

The same could be said for raising chickens here. Most books are great at covering the basics about coop size, ventilation, etc. for colder parts of the country but our region requires a whole 'nother perspective. I'm sure there's been a lot of people that tried raising chickens here and lost a good number to heat stress, dehydration, etc., and maybe gave up but if they had a fair handle on the basics to be successful here they may have had a good chicken-keeping career. In addition to the primary subject you could even add a section about dealing with ordinances, regulations, and of course HOA's since most construction in AZ happened very recently, and as a result probably most average people are living in HOA's under restrictive covenants. Heck, you could write a book just on that subject alone. You might want to include references to local government ordinances at the time of writing, or maybe website addresses, etc. So when you think of all the people from Southern California to West Texas that want to give chickenin' a go, I'd think you'd have an awful lot of interested people in your book. I know I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

These are just my thoughts but of course it would take a lot of work to put a book like that together. I'm guessing writing a book would take a lot of effort no matter what the subject but there's a lot of info lacking for our region when it comes to most outdoor interests in my opinion.

 

[ejcrist]

1. Don't worry about his lack of crowing. He may still just be getting a feel for the land and will start crowing when he's more settled in and confident. The most important thing right now is that he's bonding with your hens. I have a lot of cockerels/roosters right now....over 2 dozen...and they don't all crow all the time, and every time I relocate some of them or change things up it can trigger periods of silence while they adjust.

2. A 16% layer feed is just fine for your roosters. You don't need any special feed for them. The amount of calcium in the layer feed is sufficient to meet basic nutritional needs of both genders, but providing extra oyster shell is still a very good idea for your hens as they lose a lot of their calcium when laying eggs. I even occasionally notice my roosters consuming small amounts of oyster shell, usually around they time they'll be molting, or just when they want to encourage the hens to consume some. If your rooster's feathers start looking bad then you may want to slip him some extra protein from time to time, but as a general rule they get by just fine on layer feed.

All of that said, I've personally seen better results in hatching/breeding if I increase protein for a month before starting my breeding programs, and I also always switch to a higher protein feed when my birds molt. I also tend to feed them more protein during the hotter months as it helps them better deal with the excessive temperatures. I'm lucky though...the feed I use has zero corn (which raises body temperature) and uses fish meal as a primary source of protein rather then simply relying on vegetable protein. I think that makes a difference too.

Desert Chic you were spot-on again as usual about my boy's lack of crowing. I was awakened at 04:30 this morning by the prettiest, most wonderful series of crows I ever heard. That young fella has a nice set of vocal chords on him I'll tell ya. I was very glad to finally know he wasn't a crow-less bird. He's really settled into his position now and takes his job very seriously. He isn't at all aggressive but he takes good care of the gals, calling them over for bugs, etc. So anyway just thought I'd let you know - he's doing good and the broody gal has been totally normal now too. So life in our universe is very good.

 

[BlueBaby]

Just a thought, but it would be interesting if your book was specifically about raising chickens in the arid southwest. I've often thought about writing books on vegetable gardening in the southwest only because this region comprises about 20% of the continental US and probably have about the same percentage of the population, and a lot of people in this region are unsuccessful at growing vegetables here because they use info learned in the rest of the US which is also supported in books written on the subject. Using those methods here won't work most of the time so people assume it can't be done and give up. This of course is totally unfortunate since anyone can successfully grow vegetables if they understand the basics such as soil pH and how to correct it, irrigation water (city or well) pH, soil composition, sodic soils, caliche and drainage, and of course our seasons. I see so many people using raised beds when they are primarily used for better drainage in the damp northeast because they dry out before regular beds so you can plant earlier, but in this climate they can be a severe liability. I could ramble on but my point is I believe the demand for such info is high and there's not many good books on the subject. The information is out there but it takes some homework to get it, and a lot of people aren't familiar with the extension services, etc.

The same could be said for raising chickens here. Most books are great at covering the basics about coop size, ventilation, etc. for colder parts of the country but our region requires a whole 'nother perspective. I'm sure there's been a lot of people that tried raising chickens here and lost a good number to heat stress, dehydration, etc., and maybe gave up but if they had a fair handle on the basics to be successful here they may have had a good chicken-keeping career. In addition to the primary subject you could even add a section about dealing with ordinances, regulations, and of course HOA's since most construction in AZ happened very recently, and as a result probably most average people are living in HOA's under restrictive covenants. Heck, you could write a book just on that subject alone. You might want to include references to local government ordinances at the time of writing, or maybe website addresses, etc. So when you think of all the people from Southern California to West Texas that want to give chickenin' a go, I'd think you'd have an awful lot of interested people in your book. I know I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

These are just my thoughts but of course it would take a lot of work to put a book like that together. I'm guessing writing a book would take a lot of effort no matter what the subject but there's a lot of info lacking for our region when it comes to most outdoor interests in my opinion.

I agree with you on the specifically about raising chickens in the arid southwest region. I have noticed that most of the chicken books are just generalized and generic with the other ones. Same with the growing vegetable ones. I myself have been curious about what natural types of desert plants are edible, but as yet to find a good book on that!

 

[BlueBaby]

Desert Chic you were spot-on again as usual about my boy's lack of crowing. I was awakened at 04:30 this morning by the prettiest, most wonderful series of crows I ever heard. That young fella has a nice set of vocal chords on him I'll tell ya. I was very glad to finally know he wasn't a crow-less bird. He's really settled into his position now and takes his job very seriously. He isn't at all aggressive but he takes good care of the gals, calling them over for bugs, etc. So anyway just thought I'd let you know - he's doing good and the broody gal has been totally normal now too. So life in our universe is very good.

ejcrist, maybe your broody just wanted to have a rooster around so bad that she was trying to hatch one out herself. lol

 

[Banaynaychicken]

Quote: I feel you on heat, I've been giving my girls 2 fruity ice blocks a day, and filling their bird baskets with cold veggie scraps, wetting down their sand every now and then, and even bringing the 4 mo. olds inside

Luckily this rain has cooled things off alot.

humidity is still an issue of course.

Gotta have something about ailments, diseases, and treatments.
Good point! I totally spaced that.. make that 11 chapters!