Arizona Chickens

[deserteggs22]

Kinda weird to ask, but.....

Does anyone in the Tucson/Sahuarita area have an incubator that i could barrow for the next month? Im wanting to set more eggs than my incubator can handle for tis easter hatch, but my brinsea can only hole 24. Thanks!

 

[cactusrota]

Well it depends on wether you are selling for breeding or consumption.

Conspumtion I sell my eggs for $3.50 a dozen, and deduct that .50 cents if someone rupplies their own egg cartons.

Right now, a Free Range, non- growth hormone induced, large dozen of eggs is flippin' $7 at most stores.

And we are getting those in our own backyard.

I would sa I COULD raise my prices but I dont really use the money for anything accept feed.... (Which it only pays half of anyway soooo.....)


Breeding/Fertilized Eggs: Depends which breed you are selling. The higher the demand of teh breed the more you can sell a fertilized egg for. Economically anyway.

And another thing to consider is that the egg farms that sell their products in stores have to go through all the permits, fees, and other regulations in order to get those labels on their packaging. Alot of the time it's not just a matter of inspection to pass a list of requirements. There can be expenses that only those who have tried it know about. I know it's not related, but having just gotten out of the trucking industry as owner-operators, it's almost like they are trying to put you out of business. The big feds are geared towards making it easy for the big industries, not the natural farmers that are trying to do it right.

 

[ejcrist]

And another thing to consider is that the egg farms that sell their products in stores have to go through all the permits, fees, and other regulations in order to get those labels on their packaging. Alot of the time it's not just a matter of inspection to pass a list of requirements. There can be expenses that only those who have tried it know about. I know it's not related, but having just gotten out of the trucking industry as owner-operators, it's almost like they are trying to put you out of business. The big feds are geared towards making it easy for the big industries, not the natural farmers that are trying to do it right.

You are so right about that. The funny thing is though the big egg selling companies go through all the regs to comply with the label requirements, and then go through all the necessary machinery to properly sort sizes and reject irregular shapes just so they can sell a dozen eggs for $2.00 if they want to be competitive. And then someone like us comes along and slaps a "Nest Run" label on our backyard eggs, meaning they're not cleaned, sorted, or graded, and we sell ours for more, like $4.00 a dozen in my area, and then we sell out quicker than our hens can produce them. Oftentimes mine has dried poop on them that I missed but people still buy them. For once in my life I feel like I'm getting over, even though the profit margin is very slim.

 

[igorsMistress]

Finished our coop last weekend. Mother Nature is already going to test it with wind and rain in the next couple days.
At least it's goung to cool off

 

[ejcrist]

Finished our coop last weekend. Mother Nature is already going to test it with wind and rain in the next couple days.
At least it's goung to cool off

Cool. I'm usually a day late and a dollar short.

I have two coops under my belt and the one thing I decided I want to add is rain spouts. It never occurred to me when I built them since we don't get much rain, but after a couple of steady downpours this past winter I think I'd do good to direct the water further away from the coops. Otherwise it's a muddy mess off the ends where my roof slopes. I'll probably direct the spouts into rain barrels since I have them around my house. The only problem with rain barrels under 500 gallons is they fill up lickety split; 1/4" of rain will fill my 250 gallon barrels around my house so I decided never to get anything under 500 gallons for collection in the future. I pump them into 1,500 gallon holding tanks when full but even those are always filled long before spring. The water's great though (neutral pH) and the vegetables love it. It helps counteract the alkaline water we have in wells and the city. I figured spouts into the next coop I'm designing now.

Hope your coop keeps your birds comfortable. Nothing worse than a wet hen.

 

[Banaynaychicken]

All of my birds are entered for the Pima County Fair this year!!

I'll be showing -

Benny (Buff Laced Bearded Polish Cockerel)
Mercury (Buff Laced Non-Bearded Polish Cockerel)
Quinn (Barred Plymouth Rock. Totally beautiful babe<3)
Doobie (Jubilee Orphington. JUST finished molting)
Bo (Serama. Wheaton colored? Hes my babe and my Showmanship Bird.)
Honk (Buff Laced Bearded Polish Pullet.)
Little (Bantam White Sultan Pullet. Shes SOO full of piss 'n' vinegar.)
Winnie (Silver Laced Wyandotte Pullet. Shes um.... shes giving me grey hairs. Shes starting to molt XD)

So yeah!!

Papers were due on the 15th so luckily I turned my papers in on time. Knock on wood.

If anyone would like to come and see the bird show, and has the time, im basically living at the fair grounds and competing in Showmanship and Breed Stanard.

- Apr. 23 - Wash all birds. Place in Seprate Cages for the night!

- Apr. 24 - Coop in between 4pm and 8 pm.

- Apr. 25 - Showmanship starts at 1pm in the barn.

- Apr. 26 - Breed Standard is in the barn, it starts at 9 am.

- Apr. 30 - Coop Out. Take my babies home and maybe even some RIBBONSH!

 

[igorsMistress]

Cool. I'm usually a day late and a dollar short.

I have two coops under my belt and the one thing I decided I want to add is rain spouts. It never occurred to me when I built them since we don't get much rain, but after a couple of steady downpours this past winter I think I'd do good to direct the water further away from the coops. Otherwise it's a muddy mess off the ends where my roof slopes. I'll probably direct the spouts into rain barrels since I have them around my house. The only problem with rain barrels under 500 gallons is they fill up lickety split; 1/4" of rain will fill my 250 gallon barrels around my house so I decided never to get anything under 500 gallons for collection in the future. I pump them into 1,500 gallon holding tanks when full but even those are always filled long before spring. The water's great though (neutral pH) and the vegetables love it. It helps counteract the alkaline water we have in wells and the city. I figured spouts into the next coop I'm designing now.

Hope your coop keeps your birds comfortable. Nothing worse than a wet hen.

Thanks @ejcrist I am waiting for my husband to get home with some hooks to cover the front with a tarp. It's supposed to be windy but only a 20% chance of rain now...
Good to know capacity for water runoff! We are planning to add rain gutters and downspout into a rain barrel but I doubt I would have thought to go that big. Fortunately we have a flood vent in the side yard where the coop is located. Hopefully that helps.
The soil here is terrible! I'm working on amending the soil in there and putting in some eco turf to prevent runoff into the coop as well.

 

[cavemanrich]

@wyldflwr
Eco turf plastic or living mix of heat tolerant grass??? My uncle living on Georgia, Just west of Central had the living variety.

 

[ejcrist]

Thanks @ejcrist I am waiting for my husband to get home with some hooks to cover the front with a tarp. It's supposed to be windy but only a 20% chance of rain now...
Good to know capacity for water runoff! We are planning to add rain gutters and downspout into a rain barrel but I doubt I would have thought to go that big. Fortunately we have a flood vent in the side yard where the coop is located. Hopefully that helps.
The soil here is terrible! I'm working on amending the soil in there and putting in some eco turf to prevent runoff into the coop as well.

You got that right about the soil here. It's low in organic matter, heavy on the clay composition, and highly alkaline. On the bright side it's high in minerals. It took me a good 1-2 years of growing cover crops to get the tilth about right and now it's pretty good. The chicken manure compost certainly helps with the NPK. If you decide to do any gardening you'll hear a lot of people talk about raised beds, but raised beds are good for places where the soil doesn't dry out in time for spring planting, like back east. Out here any plants in a raised bed will require 3x the water to keep them moist. I think the reason people use raised beds out here is because they don't want to work the soil to make it decent. Not saying there's anything wrong with that philosophy since different people have different amounts of time to dedicate to gardening here, but I hate hearing how raised beds are better in the valley because the soil is so poor which ain't necessarily the case - just takes some upfront work to get it going and maintain it but it's no different than difficult soils in any other part of the country. If anything it'd be better to make a depressed bed to retain moisture. Above all, feed the soil to bring the pH down to as close to neutral as possible - that's probably one of the main things. Also I always recommend growing crops that tolerate alkaline soil, such as corn, beans, etc. Sorry for going off on a tangent but I love growing vegetables.

 

[igorsMistress]

You got that right about the soil here. It's low in organic matter, heavy on the clay composition, and highly alkaline. On the bright side it's high in minerals. It took me a good 1-2 years of growing cover crops to get the tilth about right and now it's pretty good. The chicken manure compost certainly helps with the NPK. If you decide to do any gardening you'll hear a lot of people talk about raised beds, but raised beds are good for places where the soil doesn't dry out in time for spring planting, like back east. Out here any plants in a raised bed will require 3x the water to keep them moist. I think the reason people use raised beds out here is because they don't want to work the soil to make it decent. Not saying there's anything wrong with that philosophy since different people have different amounts of time to dedicate to gardening here, but I hate hearing how raised beds are better in the valley because the soil is so poor which ain't necessarily the case - just takes some upfront work to get it going and maintain it but it's no different than difficult soils in any other part of the country. If anything it'd be better to make a depressed bed to retain moisture. Above all, feed the soil to bring the pH down to as close to neutral as possible - that's probably one of the main things. Also I always recommend growing crops that tolerate alkaline soil, such as corn, beans, etc. Sorry for going off on a tangent but I love growing vegetables.

I've heard the same thing but thinking sunken beds make more sense to actually catch some rain.
I've been considering hugelkulture as well.
We have a lemon and an apple tree already. Going to add another apple and a dwarf apricot plus at least one more desert adapted tree while I prep the soil.
Although my weeds this year might be telling me the soil is getting there finally!
I like growing veggies too. Nothing this spring but thinking about this fall.