Arizona Chickens

[igorsMistress]

Ok, so we still have to wait to know if the black one is pullet or cockerel then. Maybe you could get a good picture of your black one and post it here for us to try to help?

Yes'm I'll be able to post a pic tomorrow when I can sit in the yard with them.
Pretty sure it's a boy, likes to scrap with his older brother where as the little blues kinda follow and hang out together now.
Everyone ended up in the big coop just before bed and it was a little intense lol. The big girls had an attitude like uh...excuse me, but no.

 

[meetthebubus]

@DesertChic that's hard!

@Junochick I think only the girl widows are poisonous they have some red on their back

I'm glad to see most reptiles have gone to hibernation, prairie dogs as well are becoming scarce, soon the bunnies will be scarce but those winter birds are menaces

 

[SonoranChick]

I'm so happy the flies have pretty much vacated. This summer was absolutely brutal, they swarmed. They were in the tens of thousands and nothing seemed to work, except those stinky bags did an okay job.

 

[MagicChicken]

I'm so happy the flies have pretty much vacated. This summer was absolutely brutal, they swarmed. They were in the tens of thousands and nothing seemed to work, except those stinky bags did an okay job.

Fly Eliminators from Arbico Organics. Start in March (in Tucson) and end in October. A bit pricey but they work really well. I have about 40 chickens. I get a half unit every four weeks. Only had a few flies during the worst of fly season. Can't recommend them enough. The first couple of years I used them I didn't start early enough (first year) and didn't end late enough (second year). This year was just right (March-October). You have to get fresh shipments every few weeks because the fly eliminators don't reproduce as fast as the flies. You can talk to them about how many you might need and set up your own program.
http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/fly-control-program

 

[SonoranChick]

Awesome, thank you. We will be trying this for next summer. I a, familiar with Arbico, years ago we bought some type of a UFO looking contraption that caught thousands of flies. I'll bug husband about that, I haven't seen it in a while but I'm sure we still have it. It worked pretty well but I've heard nothing but good about the fly eliminators.

 

[DesertChic]

@DesertChic that's hard!

@Junochick I think only the girl widows are poisonous they have some red on their back

I'm glad to see most reptiles have gone to hibernation, prairie dogs as well are becoming scarce, soon the bunnies will be scarce but those winter birds are menaces

We still have a lot of lizards around here, much to my chickens' pleasure since they've been hunting the little buggers daily. And now we're starting to see mice too. The mice and pack rats are preparing for the winter. One of my chickens caught a mouse early this evening, but I'm seriously considering adopting a cat to help prevent a population explosion. Mice have never been an issue for me before, but I really don't want to give them a chance to become one.

 

[Bobby Basham]

You may already be aware, avoid breathing DE dust. I'm not writing this to scare anyone, rather to inform. Same way you wash your hands after you handle chickens and before you eat lunch.
I personally use food grade DE in my coop and pigeon loft. Place a thin layer first. Cover with a layer of Sweet PDZ. Finally I cover with hay/pine chips/straw. (whatever I have at the time of cleaning) I do use a dust mask as a precaution. When DE gets wet, its inhaling danger is gone, as well as effectiveness on the targeted bugs.

I like the fact that DE becomes ineffective when it gets wet. Why waste a bunch of DE loaded bedding when cleaning out the coop when you can throw it out in part of the run, spray it down a bit and mix it up, so that it can contribute to the deep litter process for composting. It then won't destroy the good micro organisms.

 

[igorsMistress]

Fly Eliminators from Arbico Organics. Start in March (in Tucson) and end in October. A bit pricey but they work really well. I have about 40 chickens. I get a half unit every four weeks. Only had a few flies during the worst of fly season. Can't recommend them enough. The first couple of years I used them I didn't start early enough (first year) and didn't end late enough (second year). This year was just right (March-October). You have to get fresh shipments every few weeks because the fly eliminators don't reproduce as fast as the flies. You can talk to them about how many you might need and set up your own program.
http://www.arbico-organics.com/category/fly-control-program

I wish there was an OMG THIS IS SO AWESOME THANK YOU!!! button instead of just a like button for posts like this

 

[SonoranChick]

We still have a lot of lizards around here, much to my chickens' pleasure since they've been hunting the little buggers daily. And now we're starting to see mice too. The mice and pack rats are preparing for the winter. One of my chickens caught a mouse early this evening, but I'm seriously considering adopting a cat to help prevent a population explosion. Mice have never been an issue for me before, but I really don't want to give them a chance to become one.

Same here with the mice & pack rats, and then they brought in the snakes! It's a jungle out here! We tried cats a while back but the desert environment was too unforgiving, and our dogs are too lazy to catch them. We just got a new kind of trap called "have a heart" from Amazon...it humanely traps the mouse and then you can relocate if you wish. Or do away with it...hubby drowns them

 

[SonoranChick]

I like the fact that DE becomes ineffective when it gets wet. Why waste a bunch of DE loaded bedding when cleaning out the coop when you can throw it out in part of the run, spray it down a bit and mix it up, so that it can contribute to the deep litter process for composting. It then won't destroy the good micro organisms.

Can the chickens eat food grade DE? I have heard some sprinkle it in their food...do you guys do this? Thanks for all the advice.