Arizona Chickens

[MagicChicken]

Sorry, but I never knew about the no last meal rule in the 80's. I just did what my grandmother did, went and got the one I wanted for dinner or the freezer the day he was needed. No problem, just be careful where you cut, do not cut into the gut. Here is a photo of the "chicken Killer knife" -- my children to this day will not touch this knife, they are over 30! I got it from my brother-in-law who worked in a processing plant in Kansas. He retired with carpal tunnel he butchered so many chickens with knives like this. I got this from him because it was sharpened so many times it no longer met specs for the company he worked for, so he gave it to me. My birds did not know what was going to happen, until I hung them up in the garage.

Yeah, the no last meal thing may be overkill (no pun intended). It does cut down on the amount of poop in their digestive tract, which tends to ooze out and get all over everything during their death throes if I haven't withheld food overnight. But it's not essential. It's just how I do it.

I try not to let them know what's happening either, until they're getting hung upside down in the tree. I do keep them in a holding pen overnight because they find that less suspicious and scary than me chasing them around the coop/run in the morning.

That knife is awesome. Similar shape to the one I use, but yours looks like a much better knife.

 

[Sara Suits]

Hi AZ BYC enthusiast - I'm new to having chickens. First time this year in March. Bought 12 from TSC in mid March and some started laying about 2 weeks ago, I think the layers are sexed links. Even though I thought I bought pullets, I ended up with 2 RR roosters, 2 bantam roosters, one of them is a frizzle breed. I want to rehome one of the RR and the frizzle. Will anyone be interested? I'm in Rio Verde near Scottsdale.

There's a gentleman by the name of Jacob Kelly that rehomes roosters in certain circumstances. His contact info is on his Facebook page, A-Z Chickens. He helped us rehome our Welsummer Roo last month. Good luck!

 

[DesertChic]

Yes, I was surprised because they refused the caterpillar that I caught for them...but they love ants and crickets! Especially my Delaware. The ants were carrying green leaves so the chickens were especially intrigued, and apparently hungry lol

Was the caterpillar bright green with stripes down the back and a horn on one end? If so, it's a green hornworm and too many of them can actually be toxic to the chickens. Green hornworms like to eat members of the solanacea plant group (the deadly nightshade group), which not only includes things like eggplant and tomatoes, but also the wild growing Sacred Datura plant, which is highly toxic. I fed my birds all the Green Hornworms I picked off of my tomato plants without problem, but as soon as one of my girls snatched one off of Datura plant I learned very quickly to be more cautious about these "treats". I wound up have to give her an Epsom salt flush to help her get over the toxins.

As far as eating the ants are concerned, count yourself lucky. I've yet to have any chickens that eat those Fire Ants more than one time.

 

[cactusrota]

That's interesting. I've had chickens in the past that ate Datura and they never had a problem. Maybe the hornworm concentrates the toxins inside them or something...

 

[City farm]

Haven't been on in a while and the changes might take me bit to catch up on.. our flock is still laying durring the summer. Mostly the duck's.. chicken's not so much.. Claire was 5 plus when she passed, so all we have now is Cheryl the chicken about 5 years old, the one and only chicken.. we had a chance to take in a few but since we took in the 14+ year old duck Fawn we did not want to disrupt her stay.. so we might get something else.. maybe turkey or idk.. any suggestions? Cheryl is the silkie..

Cheryl our silkie hen, Blondie showing us her bottim & foxy lady from maryhysong..

• City farm
• Mar 31, 2014

 

[SonoranChick]

This caterpillar was small and hairy...black with yellow or light green striping. I did not know the green hornworms were toxic though, so thank you very much for the info!

 

[SonoranChick]

While we are on the unfortunate subject of pests...in the last few days we have been suffering what can only be described as a massive fly infestation. They seem to be the little black house flies, not the giant horse flies. I have not noticed any bites, not on myself or the chickens. But, of course, they are attracted to the chicken area due to the poop and the misters. I am keeping it as clean as I can but it's almost as if they are swarming the areas with water. They seem harmless but are a huge nuisance. We have the smelly fly bags, fly strips, and a big sticky fly tube from the feed store...I am still outnumbered. Anything I need to know in the seemingly never-ending battle of the bugs?

 

[BlueBaby]

There's a gentleman by the name of Jacob Kelly that rehomes roosters in certain circumstances. His contact info is on his Facebook page, A-Z Chickens. He helped us rehome our Welsummer Roo last month. Good luck!

The guy that you mentioned doesn't pick up everywhere in the valley. He would not pick up a couple of roosters out here that my next door neighbor has. The roosters are doomed to be culled now.

 

[cavemanrich]

While we are on the unfortunate subject of pests...in the last few days we have been suffering what can only be described as a massive fly infestation. They seem to be the little black house flies, not the giant horse flies. I have not noticed any bites, not on myself or the chickens. But, of course, they are attracted to the chicken area due to the poop and the misters. I am keeping it as clean as I can but it's almost as if they are swarming the areas with water. They seem harmless but are a huge nuisance. We have the smelly fly bags, fly strips, and a big sticky fly tube from the feed store...I am still outnumbered. Anything I need to know in the seemingly never-ending battle of the bugs?

I control my fly problem with those (smelly bags) although they do not smell unless you get close to them and they are already well worked. I keep about 5 or 6 individual units in different areas. I use the following plus a few of my home made units. I bait the homemade units with cat food. They activate in about 3 days. The store units activate INSTANTLY.

Or maybe get a different kind of chickens to scare the fly away.
Here is one possibility........

 

[SonoranChick]

I have ant-eating chickens....if only I could cross-breed them with this fly monster chicken you speak of we would put the pest companies out of business!

I am happy to hear that the bags are working well. I will grab some more on the next feed store run. I'm not a fan of the fly strips...sticking to everything except the flies. I liked the fly tube, but it was full within 2 hours. I am also nervous to have the sticky stuff outside with the wild birds like woodpecker flying around. I'll take "stinky" over "sticky" for now.