Arizona Chickens

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ejcrist said:
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.
Click to expand...

Please write that gardening book! I'm one of those people who was born with a black thumb. My mom's thumb was green, and my son's thumb is green, but mine most definitely started out black and is finally changing to a sappy-brown sort of green, but it's been a constant battle. I bought the book "Extreme Gardening" which helped a lot, but not quite enough. If you're unlocked the mystery of gardening in this desert climate then please, please share! I'll be your first customer!
 
Banaynaychicken said:
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?
Click to expand...

I love that you want to do this! Good for you!

Along with a chapter on common illnesses and how to research potential complications, I would recommend including a chapter about coping with things going wrong, especially unexpected deaths. Sometimes, no matter how devoted you are to care of your chickens, things go wrong and you have to face tragedy. I've been fortunate to only lose one hen this summer to heat stroke, but I beat myself up royally over her loss. My husband and son kept telling me I did what I could to keep the chickens cool, but I know I could've done more. THAT is what's hard to live with. I've literally read dozens of poultry books, most dating back to the early 1900s, and very few of them address the emotional aspect of finding any member(s) of your flock dead, no matter what the cause. I think people need to know that unexpected losses don't always equate to being a poor poultry keeper.
 
DesertChic said:
Please write that gardening book! I'm one of those people who was born with a black thumb. My mom's thumb was green, and my son's thumb is green, but mine most definitely started out black and is finally changing to a sappy-brown sort of green, but it's been a constant battle. I bought the book "Extreme Gardening" which helped a lot, but not quite enough. If you're unlocked the mystery of gardening in this desert climate then please, please share! I'll be your first customer!
Click to expand...
No kiddin? I figured you for a "green thumb" kinda lady. Ok now you got me seriously thinking about doing it. I've never written a book to be published before so I don't know how long it takes but if others can do it I certainly can too. In the meantime if you're having any particular troubles just shoot me a pm or email which I'll pm to you now. I never consider myself an expert on anything; I'm a lifelong student, but I'll be more than happy to pass on anything I learned over the years.

Here's one of our our garlic harvests a little while ago:

My farmer wife:




Me:




I love growing garlic here and of course we eat it about every day. We only grow the hard-neck varieties because they really have superior flavors and there's a wide variety of types to grow. Most of these were Georgian Crystal which according to the data on them are only supposed to grow well in cool climates - wrong! They do exceptionally well here and are one of my favorites. I sold a good bit of them for $1.00 a head and they were all gone in about a week. That's just through word of mouth too; no advertising or farmers markets. They sell themselves once people try 'em. Next year I'm tripling the amount we're growing since they're so popular. I'm also adding a bunch of new varieties I think will do well (a couple creole, asiatic, and mediterranean types I haven't grown yet). They'll cover my feed costs for a year easy.

That's just one crop but almost everything does really well here. Okra, eggplant, beans, onions, sweet potatoes, snow peas, and corn among other things do exceptionally well here. While a lot of people cuss at having to irrigate, the nice thing about it is you have complete control of the timing of water to the plants, so you can often grow a better crop here than in rainier parts of the country. To be successful you just have to feed the soil and not the plant. We only use organic methods because they do just that; synthetics are only short term and often too much at once. But yeah, correct your soil over time with compost, chicken manure compost especially, sheet composting, green manures/cover crops, etc., and over time your pH will come down and the often clay soil will gravitate to a loam and you'll be in serious business. All these methods work even for very small scale plots but some make more sense like only using compost vs. planting green manures on a 2'X5' bed. But all plots benefit from cover crops which are simply growing something in a plot that's fallow so it's not exposed to the drying, sun-baked conditions we have here until your next planting. I love cover crops and green manures. For this area certain covers work a lot better than others such as medic instead of white clover, Ameristad Alfalfa instead of dormant varieties, etc. These covers are very drought resistant. Anyway I'm rambling and taking up space on the website, but it's a great subject.

Like I said, I'm always learning and I'm sure there are others who have this stuff down pat a lot better than me, but I'll be glad to tell you what I know. Learning and seeing results first hand is a big part of the fun.

Gene
 
So I have established there will now be 12 chapters ^^

Cover

Inner cover page

Dedications (All the lovelies on this board will be added to those!)

Intro

Table of Content

Ch 1 - But Why?

Ch 2 - Take Your Pick

Ch 3 - How To Prepare + Daily Desert Care

Ch 4 - Building a Chook Dream Coop

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 - Losing a Chook,+ How to Cope

Ch 11 - Butchering - What, When, and Why

Ch 12 - Common Diseases and Cures + Solutions

Recepies

Breed Chart

Chook Edibles - Garden of Chooks

Acknowledgments

Index

References

About the Author

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is there anything that could be stuffed into another section/taken out/broadened/added?
 
ejcrist said:
No kiddin? I figured you for a "green thumb" kinda lady. Ok now you got me seriously thinking about doing it. I've never written a book to be published before so I don't know how long it takes but if others can do it I certainly can too. In the meantime if you're having any particular troubles just shoot me a pm or email which I'll pm to you now. I never consider myself an expert on anything; I'm a lifelong student, but I'll be more than happy to pass on anything I learned over the years.

Here's one of our our garlic harvests a little while ago:

My farmer wife:




Me:




I love growing garlic here and of course we eat it about every day. We only grow the hard-neck varieties because they really have superior flavors and there's a wide variety of types to grow. Most of these were Georgian Crystal which according to the data on them are only supposed to grow well in cool climates - wrong! They do exceptionally well here and are one of my favorites. I sold a good bit of them for $1.00 a head and they were all gone in about a week. That's just through word of mouth too; no advertising or farmers markets. They sell themselves once people try 'em. Next year I'm tripling the amount we're growing since they're so popular. I'm also adding a bunch of new varieties I think will do well (a couple creole, asiatic, and mediterranean types I haven't grown yet). They'll cover my feed costs for a year easy.

That's just one crop but almost everything does really well here. Okra, eggplant, beans, onions, sweet potatoes, snow peas, and corn among other things do exceptionally well here. While a lot of people cuss at having to irrigate, the nice thing about it is you have complete control of the timing of water to the plants, so you can often grow a better crop here than in rainier parts of the country. To be successful you just have to feed the soil and not the plant. We only use organic methods because they do just that; synthetics are only short term and often too much at once. But yeah, correct your soil over time with compost, chicken manure compost especially, sheet composting, green manures/cover crops, etc., and over time your pH will come down and the often clay soil will gravitate to a loam and you'll be in serious business. All these methods work even for very small scale plots but some make more sense like only using compost vs. planting green manures on a 2'X5' bed. But all plots benefit from cover crops which are simply growing something in a plot that's fallow so it's not exposed to the drying, sun-baked conditions we have here until your next planting. I love cover crops and green manures. For this area certain covers work a lot better than others such as medic instead of white clover, Ameristad Alfalfa instead of dormant varieties, etc. These covers are very drought resistant. Anyway I'm rambling and taking up space on the website, but it's a great subject.

Like I said, I'm always learning and I'm sure there are others who have this stuff down pat a lot better than me, but I'll be glad to tell you what I know. Learning and seeing results first hand is a big part of the fun.

Gene
Click to expand...

Very nice garlic harvest. You did great!
 

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