Arizona Chickens

[azchickens14]

Really??? Dorkings in AZ? I had no idea there was anyone around here raising or breeding them. I've been searching for a long time. The Silver Grey Dorking was love at first sight for me, and that was only a photograph. For the past two years I've suffered one disappointment after another in trying to get some, and my last batch of hatching eggs for purportedly "pure" SLGs turned out to be a bunch of broken eggs and produced one copper Ameraucana instead. Prior to that, the SLG eggs I've been shipped had actually been crossed with something else, and while most of them have 5 toes and a couple have feathering similar to SLGs, their personalities have been awful. All of the males were really aggressive and even the females have left much to be desired. I culled one of the hens for being downright mean and another for being an egg eater. 

Ironically, I have a lot of birds with 5 toes. I've done a couple barnyard hatches since all of my birds were interacting regularly and discovered that not only my Silkie-mixes have 5 toes, but also some of my EE crosses. My Ameraucana/Bielefelder cross yielded a beautiful red barred cockerel with 5 toes and feathered shanks. Never saw that one coming. 

I'm glad to hear the NNs were represented at the show. They are so underappreciated as a breed. 

There is a lady up in kingman who has them as well! She was selling chicks last year. I will see if i can find her contact information for facebook

 

[azchickens14]

The lady that sold the dorkings chicks is named Rachel Combs. She was selling them last spring so im thinking she still has them. Here is a picture of one a friend of mine got from her

 

[ejcrist]

I remember seeing that one too. I think it was west valley. I was just going to suggest might be worth coming to the last week in hopes that maybe they'd be selling any--eggs or babies. I think my step-mom & I are going to go that Friday (take advantage of the fry's free tickets & hopefully not as crowded again) if we do I'll see about grabbing as many names, numbers & breed they have information for the sellers as I can. Then I'll happily share.

Did you see the sultan? Little white thing with a poof on top like a polish? It has 5 toes too & dark skin. They aren't the best of layers & lay small eggs/bantam egg depending on if standard or bantam sized. I've 2 & they're really pretty & can be very sweet. Though my Marshmallow does act like the queen. My Mouse is aptly named as she's shy, but doesn't put up with the antics of the younger cockerels. lol

The salmon favorelle was pretty too. I think they are feather legged, but 4 toes. Huge (well, to me with my bantams), but something I might consider if I need more regular egg layers.

Gosh if you could write down the name of the breeder of that Rhode Island Red that's up there I'd be extremely grateful. I'm having a hard time finding breeders for them as well. From what I understand there's quite a significant difference between production hatchery birds and the true heritage bird. I acquired a nice cockerel and I'd love to get some pullets and breed them.

 

[bunsnpupsnchick]

Gosh if you could write down the name of the breeder of that Rhode Island Red that's up there I'd be extremely grateful. I'm having a hard time finding breeders for them as well. From what I understand there's quite a significant difference between production hatchery birds and the true heritage bird. I acquired a nice cockerel and I'd love to get some pullets and breed them.

I'll do what I can. Do you want the naked necks too? Any others?

Odds are anyone who has a business card or similar I'll be grabbing it. I'm a total dork that way. If I know & remember for any specific breed I'll do what I can to hunt them out & get the contact info....if they still have any eggs/chicks/grown birds that they're selling & try to get how many or other information on their breeding too. I'm a bit OCD with a few things if it hasn't shown on my postings yet.

Out of curiosity...is this a RIR or production red? It was the cockerel I just rehomed. I loved his look. If I need another lf egg layer I wouldn't mind the pullet version, but without the attitude. Such a gorgeous red color.

 

[bunsnpupsnchick]

I think on the az breeder/seller info thread I saw mentioned about tax breaks for breeding chickens. So I've been on an information search. Well, I think I found a couple of resourced for the information.

For the property tax break it looks as if breeding chickens--for meat, eggs, or to sell the birds would need to be a business & meet certain requirements. Size of land itsn't one of them. Yay for those us on small(er) parcels. Some of you may know about these for other ventures you do, but there are provisions for other animals as well as raising various crops/food items. I'm including links for what I've found. No guarantee I've found everything, but I believe I've found enough to explain it & help folks decide if it's up their alley or not.

Links:

https://www.azdor.gov/Portals/0/Brochure/AZ-Agricultural-Property-Manual.pdf

https://www.azdor.gov/propertytax.aspx

I also found something about tax break for federal income tax, but I haven't fully read it for me to understand it yet. It has to do with conservation. Again, there's a provision in it where the size of lot doesn't matter. I'm including the links I've found so far.

Edit: I believe there's a break for property or state income tax. The federal I think is a credit/refund type of thing based on the property tax. The first link gives some of that information. I haven't gone to the point of finding/reading the irs stuff yet. Once I do I'll edit/repost this....assuming someone would find it useful.

Links:

http://www.nature.org/about-us/priv...easements/what-are-conservation-easements.xml

https://www.azdor.gov/Portals/0/Brochure/conesmt.pdf

And for anyone with land that could be leased for grazing an article about that & how it can help with taxes, I think it uses the same stuff I found above, but the bottom of the article has links too:

http://www.azland4u.com/graze.htm


If this helps anyone, great. If not, at least it's here so maybe in the future. With the way property taxes are going I'm sure any break would be welcome....I think it would at least.

 

[ejcrist]

I'll do what I can. Do you want the naked necks too? Any others?

Odds are anyone who has a business card or similar I'll be grabbing it. I'm a total dork that way. If I know & remember for any specific breed I'll do what I can to hunt them out & get the contact info....if they still have any eggs/chicks/grown birds that they're selling & try to get how many or other information on their breeding too. I'm a bit OCD with a few things if it hasn't shown on my postings yet.

Out of curiosity...is this a RIR or production red? It was the cockerel I just rehomed. I loved his look. If I need another lf egg layer I wouldn't mind the pullet version, but without the attitude. Such a gorgeous red color.

Yes, if you could get both the RIR and NN info that'd be good. The next time I get NN's I'll probably go to DesertChic first since she has some really nice looking birds that she says are quite tasty, but it's always helpful to know breeders as well.

The picture looks like a production red to me. I'm no expert but the dual purpose RIR's I've familiarized myself with are much darker in color.

 

[bunsnpupsnchick]

I'll be on the lookout for those.

Thanks, that was my thought. I know production was one of the possibilities the feed store didn't have the labels & the 'kids' there were totally clueless. Least I know now for future.

 

[BlueBaby]

I think on the az breeder/seller info thread I saw mentioned about tax breaks for breeding chickens. So I've been on an information search. Well, I think I found a couple of resourced for the information.

For the property tax break it looks as if breeding chickens--for meat, eggs, or to sell the birds would need to be a business & meet certain requirements. Size of land itsn't one of them. Yay for those us on small(er) parcels. Some of you may know about these for other ventures you do, but there are provisions for other animals as well as raising various crops/food items. I'm including links for what I've found. No guarantee I've found everything, but I believe I've found enough to explain it & help folks decide if it's up their alley or not.

Links:

https://www.azdor.gov/Portals/0/Brochure/AZ-Agricultural-Property-Manual.pdf

https://www.azdor.gov/propertytax.aspx

I also found something about tax break for federal income tax, but I haven't fully read it for me to understand it yet. It has to do with conservation. Again, there's a provision in it where the size of lot doesn't matter. I'm including the links I've found so far.

Edit: I believe there's a break for property or state income tax. The federal I think is a credit/refund type of thing based on the property tax. The first link gives some of that information. I haven't gone to the point of finding/reading the irs stuff yet. Once I do I'll edit/repost this....assuming someone would find it useful.

Links:

http://www.nature.org/about-us/priv...easements/what-are-conservation-easements.xml

https://www.azdor.gov/Portals/0/Brochure/conesmt.pdf

And for anyone with land that could be leased for grazing an article about that & how it can help with taxes, I think it uses the same stuff I found above, but the bottom of the article has links too:

http://www.azland4u.com/graze.htm


If this helps anyone, great. If not, at least it's here so maybe in the future. With the way property taxes are going I'm sure any break would be welcome....I think it would at least.

Thanks for posting the info and links here.

 

[BlueBaby]

Actually, my first flock was all hatchery chicks...4 Australorps, 3 Barred Rocks, and 3 Buff Silkies. I still have all of the girls from that original purchase, but had to cull all 3 of the roosters for being too mean. They're now just over 2 years old. My lone Silkie is pet, my little darling that just charms me no matter how bad my day is. My two BRs are still outstanding layers and have given me 2 more lovely BR hens. And my Australorps...one of the four still lays very well and is very sweet. The other three appear to be reaching the end of their laying years.

That said....I just found out I won the hatching egg auction. My SGD eggs should be shipped tomorrow.

I haven't seriously considered getting SGD chicks from a hatchery simply because I really want to work on helping this breed reach and/or maintain SOP. This will be my heritage breed, and I think going with hatchery stock may lead to further disappointment.

Cool! I'm glad that you won! Good luck with your future hatching!

 

[DesertChic]

So I just did a quick search for any crevecoeur breeders in AZ & came across Rare Bird Farm in the west valley. http://rarebirdfarm.vpweb.com/chickens Looks as if they have Transylvanian Naked Necks in a few different colors. Is this along the lines of what you guys are wanting for your NN? Maybe you already know about them. Thought I'd post just in case.

Thanks for the link. I actually bookmarked them a while ago, but so far I'm pretty happy with how my NNs are turning out. Their coloring may be unconventional for many, but their egg laying, build and temperaments have been fantastic, and now I'm beginning to focus on breeding my pure line (as opposed to my NN crosses) to SOP. This year's goal is to breed my birds to get some white NNs. I LOVE white NNs.

This is one of my meat breeding NNs, Simon: