Arizona Chickens

[nicollee]

That's where bantams are nice, less discs per chick required = able have more chicks. Last that's my chicken math logic. Lol

Not sure if the size of the birds, changes how many I'm allowed per Tempe city rules.....
when my kids were little, the mixed breeds I had were part bantam.... They are cute.

 

[bunsnpupsnchick]

Not sure if the size of the birds, changes how many I'm allowed per Tempe city rules..... 
when my kids were little, the mixed breeds I had were part bantam.... They are cute.

Probably not. They just tend to look at the straight #. It would be nice if it worked that way though. I'm sure whatever breed, variety, size you decide that they'll be fun.

 

[Sill]

I have quite a few that I started with however I've decided that barred Rocks Don't lay big enough eggs for me, the the blue americana's go Broody too often. The blue amerucana's are not worth eating because they're too small and scrawny and my opinion. Pardon my spelling on some of the names here. My black Copper Maran girls I've really enjoyed their dark colors and my Easter Eggers who I mated my (bcm)with the black Copper Marans roo
to get some olive Eggers for fun, kicks and giggles!

Still enjoying the olive eggers I got as chicks from you. Nice big green eggs!

I have a variety of breeds since my flock is divided into pures, egg layers and meat birds, but my primary focus is the Naked Neck Turken. I've found them to be the perfect breed out here as they are exceptionally heat tolerant, very feed efficient, have outstanding temperaments, and are very easy to breed for specific traits. I've divided my NNs into egg layers, which average 5-6 large to jumbo eggs each per week and some of my birds lay blue to green as well as pink eggs; pure NNs, which tend to run a little smaller in size, have nice meaty frames, and still supply me with 4-6 large to jumbo eggs per week on average; and my meat NNs, which include crosses with other breeds to increase size and rate of growth. So far even these meat NNs are giving me plenty of eggs in their pullet year, so I've no complaints about them at all.

I currently have pure Silver Grey Dorking eggs in the incubator (at least I hope they're pure), and will be working on them as my heritage breed with a focus on meeting APA standards.

And finally, I plan to add Russian Orloffs to my flock, but haven't purchased the hatching eggs yet. This is yet another dual purpose breed that purportedly leans toward being a meat breed...and I've read that they eat Fire Ants. In all seriousness this is the primary reason I want to get the breed. We have A LOT of fire ants on our property.


I also have some Easter Eggers, Bielefelders, Australorps, Barred Rocks, Dark Cornish and Cornish mixes, White Rocks, Dorking mixes, a Silkie, and several crosses on my property. The only birds I warn against raising out here are the Bielefelders, which really aren't heat tolerant and tend to die of heat stroke far too easily.

I can see some NNs are in my future. Nice to have that heat tolerance.

WOW

Thank-you for telling me about your chickens.
The two of you have so many cool breeds of chickens...
I raised RIR and EE, quail and a peacock when I was a kid,
When my kids were little, we had some mixed breeds a friend gave us...
I like certain looks and traits of different breeds, but don't have the space for a large flock... (20-30 as a kid)
I'm pretty sure Tempe,AZ limits me to 5 chickens, and I have 3..
I doubt my neighbors would report me, so I could push it a little, but no more then 8.
I'm pretty fickle

about what I want; changing my mind every time I see a pretty chicken
I was content with my EE's ; I thought about bantams, or French somethings,
THEN, When I saw someone post about Marans, and their beautiful chocolate covered eggs, I fell in love and really wanted one.
Next I saw then Splash Austrolops, REally anything I get will be loved..

... as long as they can survive our awful AZ heat..

...

Tempe is as bad as an HOA. Just keep your chickens out of the line of sight when someone looks over the fence.

 

[Sill]

After much anticipation and seeing big-girl behaviors from my pullets (going in the nest boxes and squatting for me) I saw one of my brown leghorn pullets singing the egg song. I checked the nest boxes and sure enough, there was a pretty white pullet egg!



Weird seeing a white egg, I've always had chickens that lay every other color!

 

[Sill]

If you live in the city and have neighbors that are close space-wise consider brown leghorns. They make all the regular chicken sounds but at half or less volume than other chickens! Very nice to have quiet birds!

 

[DesertChic]

DesertMarcy used to have Russian Orloffs. You might want to talk with her about them before you get them.

Thank you! I will definitely have a chat with her.

 

[DesertChic]

Hmmmm.... Thanks. I'll have to look into those breeds. I'm partial to the not so common too for breed &/ variety in the case of Cochin bantams. Their little fluffy butts running across the yard makes me smile every time. So I'm hooked. Lol


Both the Creve & sultan are on the livestock conservatory list as needing help. I think the Russian is too. Not sure for the other two.

I was very fond of the idea of raising Sultans for quite a while, but my research has shown that it's nearly impossible to find good breeding stock. I think they're a bit more work than I'm up for, especially since they're essentially an ornamental breed. I'm really not set up to for showy birds. I'm more focused on production breeds, which is why I've really wanted to focus on the Silver Grey Dorking. The Russian Orloffs will mainly be for pest control, if they pan out.

@Sill - Just say the word if you'd ever like to check out my birds. I LOVE the breed.

 

[deserteggs22]

When it comes to withstanding the AZ heat I confess to being very biased as nothing has beaten the NNs when it comes to heat tolerance. The most I need to do for them is make sure they have shade and maybe a trickle of water to stand in from time to time to cool off. I know a lot of people don't care for them because of their looks, but once you have some their personalities alone will win you over. One of my hens literally comes running to my arms when I call her name, and because they can be crossed with other breeds you can get some amazing feathering patterns. The other breeds I can recommend from first-hand experience for outstanding heat tolerance are Barred Rocks and White Rocks and Silkies. In my flock these are the other birds that have withstood 105* + with the least amount of assistance.

Your birds are the best! Raymond is the best rooster in my flock by far! He let's me pick him up, and is the only one that stays next to me when I let them free range. And he is really good with the ladies!

 

[bunsnpupsnchick]

I was very fond of the idea of raising Sultans for quite a while, but my research has shown that it's nearly impossible to find good breeding stock. I think they're a bit more work than I'm up for, especially since they're essentially an ornamental breed. I'm really not set up to for showy birds. I'm more focused on production breeds, which is why I've really wanted to focus on the Silver Grey Dorking. The Russian Orloffs will mainly be for pest control, if they pan out.

@Sill - Just say the word if you'd ever like to check out my birds. I LOVE the breed.

Yeah, if you want production out of them they are not the breed. They are pretty & sweet. The egg is bantam/small sized. Otherwise, they are a pretty bird & can be very sweet. Can't say about the boys as I haven't had one as of yet. Just the 2 girls. It's enough to make me want a boy & to try breeding. Which, they are not a broody breed so an incubator or broody girl is needed.

 

[MrsxRobertson]

Do you have brown leghorn pullets for sale? I loved the silver leghorn i had. She layed an egg every day, occasionally two a day and she was barely 6mo old when i got her.