Arizona Chickens

[SonoranChick]

I don't have much splash in my flock yet but I'm slowly working towards it. In the near future I may also be adding more mottled, and I already have a lot of buff, red, and blue barring, some also with lacing. The trick for me is getting the pretty feathers without losing the other qualities I've bred to...either egg production or meat production (and I ALWAYS breed for temperament). Right now I place more emphasis on my meat line because even my meat producers are giving me 200-300 eggs per year. My number one meat breeding hen, now three years old and a beautiful buff barred girl, laid 290 pale blue eggs her first year and 186 her second in spite of going broody. She's not my biggest egg producer and yet has given me the majority of my meat breeding hens, all of which gave me 200+ eggs their first year and sometimes top out between 7 and 8 lbs each.

This is my Cocoa Puffs (photo taken in 2015) - mother to roughly half of my current flock: Her barring is actually coming in much stronger now that she's almost out of heavy molt and her body has filled out considerably, but she's notoriously camera shy.
View attachment 1201103

She is just gorgeous. The blue against red is striking. And she lays pale blue eggs if I read correctly? Sign me up! I am so sad I didn't even think of NNs when creating my flock. I suppose I can see why they aren't as popular, but I really like the way they look! And who cares what they look like, really, they are just an awesome breed the more I research. When I build or add on to my flock, I'm still going to do a mixed flock, but I will do more australorpes and NNs...after this summer I'll see what other breeds I think handle the heat well. I'm also loving my BO, RIR and red star sex link for all around weather tolerance so far. I'm not brave enough to add a rooster quite yet, mainly because of the inevitable chicken math that could result

 

[azurbanclucker]

Az folks. Who's got B/B/S Langshans and Blue Laced red Wyandottes for sale? I lost my stock in a coyote incident recently and am looking to restock

 

[cavemanrich]

Az folks. Who's got B/B/S Langshans and Blue Laced red Wyandottes for sale? I lost my stock in a coyote incident recently and am looking to restock

So sorry to hear of loss of any kind.
Did you solve the coyote intrusion access ???

 

[BlueBaby]

I don't have much splash in my flock yet but I'm slowly working towards it. In the near future I may also be adding more mottled, and I already have a lot of buff, red, and blue barring, some also with lacing. The trick for me is getting the pretty feathers without losing the other qualities I've bred to...either egg production or meat production (and I ALWAYS breed for temperament). Right now I place more emphasis on my meat line because even my meat producers are giving me 200-300 eggs per year. My number one meat breeding hen, now three years old and a beautiful buff barred girl, laid 290 pale blue eggs her first year and 186 her second in spite of going broody. She's not my biggest egg producer and yet has given me the majority of my meat breeding hens, all of which gave me 200+ eggs their first year and sometimes top out between 7 and 8 lbs each.

This is my Cocoa Puffs (photo taken in 2015) - mother to roughly half of my current flock: Her barring is actually coming in much stronger now that she's almost out of heavy molt and her body has filled out considerably, but she's notoriously camera shy.
View attachment 1201103

I have some of my pure Splash Australorp chicks over here that were born on Nov. 15th.

 

[Bobby Basham]

View attachment 1193897 @Bobby Basham after two weeks I gave my chicks this stuff as their first treat. They are still addicted to it! It's from the feed store and has grit and chick crumble in it already, plus all kinds of goodies like worms, red pepper, oregano, and shrimp. In moderation, this is a wonderful chick-safe treat. I even think it smells good!

I went to the Little Farmer website...quite interesting, and their bag was labeled 5lbs, 80 oz, but the description was for a 3lb bag for $13.99 plus a flat rate $6.99 for shipping for orders under $100.

As far as the chickies go, they all hold their heads up high like giraffes when I call to them and enter the room, some even jumping high when they see me. I have no food to offer them, but they still get excited, so looming overhead doesn't seem to bother them too much. Some of them stick close to my hand while I clean the waterers and feeder, especially the Astra whites. Most of them can already fly up to the top of the brooder. I do have a pre-cut piece of hardware cloth in case they get too frisky and want to explore the bathroom. They do move over to one end when I flake up the shavings with a fork.

There is one little RIR (I call it the chipmunk because the back stripes were darker than the other two) who insists on parking on my wrist and take a short nap, then it will crawl up my sleeve and snuggle in the folds of my thick bathrobe at the elbow joint. It refuses to budge even when I softly stroke its back.

Sometimes, when they all crowd in the corner, I try to give each of them a little belly stroke...some screech, some try to run, some are indifferent.

 

[BlueBaby]

Az folks. Who's got B/B/S Langshans and Blue Laced red Wyandottes for sale? I lost my stock in a coyote incident recently and am looking to restock

I'm sorry that you lost your flock. I hope that you secure your coop and run better so that the coyotes won't be able to get at any new ones that you get for a flock.

 

[igorsMistress]

I have been giving them extra protein. My rooster started his molting after the hens did. The hen's about done now, but he's still going. Those feathers look so pretty when the new ones come back in. My Blue rooster was a 2017 New Years Day baby.

He is huge and he isn't even a year old yet? My goodness! My EE boy wasn't much younger than him and not nearly that big. Sheesh.

 

[SonoranChick]

I went to the Little Farmer website...quite interesting, and their bag was labeled 5lbs, 80 oz, but the description was for a 3lb bag for $13.99 plus a flat rate $6.99 for shipping for orders under $100.

As far as the chickies go, they all hold their heads up high like giraffes when I call to them and enter the room, some even jumping high when they see me. I have no food to offer them, but they still get excited, so looming overhead doesn't seem to bother them too much. Some of them stick close to my hand while I clean the waterers and feeder, especially the Astra whites. Most of them can already fly up to the top of the brooder. I do have a pre-cut piece of hardware cloth in case they get to frisky and want to explore the bathroom. They do move over to one end when I flake up the shavings with a fork.

There is one little RIR (I call it the chipmunk because the back stripes were darker than the other two) who insists on parking on my wrist and take a short nap, then it will crawl up my sleeve and snuggle in the folds of my thick bathrobe at the elbow joint. It refuses to budge even when I softly stroke its back.

Sometimes, when they all crowd in the corner, I try to give each of them a little belly stroke...some screech, some try to run, some are indifferent.

Yeesh that is quite pricey for the chick treats...try your local feed store. If they don't carry it I'm sure they'll have something similar. I get mine from Triple L feed store, which has locations in marana and casa grande. It should be about ten bucks for 3 lbs.

 

[azurbanclucker]

I'm sorry that you lost your flock. I hope that you secure your coop and run better so that the coyotes won't be able to get at any new ones that you get for a flock.

They were out for the night because we were about to go out of town. They've been in the coop locked up at night since (the remaining kids).

 

[cactusrota]

Coyotes are the devil in a fur coat. We get them in big packs around here, and they come around during the day more this time of year. I have a fantacy of popping enough of them to make a nice pelt bedspread, I've done some skinning before, but tanning all those fur on hides just seems like too much work and I would need like 40 of them for the size bedspread I'd want. That's too much work.