Arizona Chickens

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igorsMistress said:
What is a "heritage breed" really? There's so much talk about heritage vs hatchery, but heritage breeds aren't what they used to be. Go look on any thread here and you'll see arguments over what the sop is, how it has or hasn't changed, etc. Breeders have different goals, some breed for meat and others for egg production. Even on this thread, @cactusrota and @DesertChic breed NN's and may have similar but not identical goals for their breeding projects. They may or may not care about color of the bird, color of the eggs, etc. Not that cactusrota and DesertChic are arguing over anything btw, they're just both working on NN's and may have different goals.

The RIR should typically lay 4 eggs a week and is supposed to be a dual purpose bird, so they should big enough to eat. My RIR's from a hatchery don't come close to the weight for a standard bird but they lay eggs EVERY day. I bet they don't weigh more than 5ish pounds with their feathers. Same for my Australorp. Yet my Aussie girls that I got from @BlueBaby are bigger birds now at six months than ALL of the one year olds I got from the feed store. Are they heritage birds, or are they just better quality due to breeding practices than the hatchery girls?

I haven't had the opportunity yet to track how many eggs my young Aussie girls lay, they've just started this Spring, so to test things out I'm tracking egg production from just the Aussie girls, including the hen that came from a hatchery, once I can figure out which newbie lays which egg. I'm thinking about trying the food coloring bit on their fluffy butts.

Realistically, there's no such thing as a pure bred chicken, unless you go back to the jungle fowl they came from. Heritage breed or not, they've pretty much all been crossed with something to improve the original for one reason or another.

What you want from your birds is how you should make decisions. Do you want an egg laying machine, or eggs and meat? Will you cull the girls when they don't lay, sell them off to someone who will? Do you care that with egg laying machines you may have to cull on a regular basis? How do you feel about hatcheries and what they do, hatching and selling as many chicks as they can to make a profit while killing off the roos.
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Different people have different reason's of why they want to have the chickens. Just keep in mind that either way from a hatchery or from a breeder, most of the roosters get culled. From a hatchery, they just get culled earlier as new born chicks. Many breeder's wish that they could be able to tell right off the bat who the boys are also, and I think that many of those breeders would also cull a bunch of new born boys, rather than to feed them. Who needs a yard full of roosters, unless you are planning on eating some?
 
Hi All: Can a lady living in Cali/L.A., just next door, join the AZ club? LOL!!! I have just started raising chickens. I have four right now, just to start to see how everything goes. I am sorry, but i don't know what breeds they are. No matter. They are doing fine so far. I have them in a brooder and have bought a chicken coop for them that has plenty of room.

I have 3 dogs, 1 horse, 1 African Gray parrot, lots of fishes in aquariums and now 4 chickens.
 
Jenni Chickie said:
Hi All: Can a lady living in Cali/L.A., just next door, join the AZ club? LOL!!! I have just started raising chickens. I have four right now, just to start to see how everything goes. I am sorry, but i don't know what breeds they are. No matter. They are doing fine so far. I have them in a brooder and have bought a chicken coop for them that has plenty of room.

I have 3 dogs, 1 horse, 1 African Gray parrot, lots of fishes in aquariums and now 4 chickens.
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Wow! I didn't realize that the AZ. club is more interesting to a Californian than the CA. club is. Are you planning on moving over here to Arizona?
 
Jenni Chickie said:
Hi All: Can a lady living in Cali/L.A., just next door, join the AZ club? LOL!!! I have just started raising chickens. I have four right now, just to start to see how everything goes. I am sorry, but i don't know what breeds they are. No matter. They are doing fine so far. I have them in a brooder and have bought a chicken coop for them that has plenty of room.

I have 3 dogs, 1 horse, 1 African Gray parrot, lots of fishes in aquariums and now 4 chickens.
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Howdy neighbor, Welcome to BYC! :welcome
 
I have chick's hatching here again! All of the pure Australorps have already been spoken for, but I do have some of my crosses available.

The crosses are from my Blue Australorp rooster over 3 of the Buff NN hens. They seem to be basically following the Blue and Black of the Australorp coloring, but with some interesting patches of coloring coming in from the mother's, too. Some of these cross chicks do have feathering on the necks, and then other's don't. If anyone is interested in some of these mixed chicks, I will sell them straight run for $2.00 each.
 
Jenni Chickie said:
Hi All: Can a lady living in Cali/L.A., just next door, join the AZ club? LOL!!! I have just started raising chickens. I have four right now, just to start to see how everything goes. I am sorry, but i don't know what breeds they are. No matter. They are doing fine so far. I have them in a brooder and have bought a chicken coop for them that has plenty of room.

I have 3 dogs, 1 horse, 1 African Gray parrot, lots of fishes in aquariums and now 4 chickens.
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Welcome... What part of my beloved CA are you from? If you are inland, our AZ people with knowledge of hot as hell, are definitely your playland....
 
Chick update!

They are five weeks now and have many jumping up to roost on the sides of the brooder. Some personalities are sticking out and are coming to cuddle with me. Most have like colors, brown and blonde and gray/black all mixed together.
There is one that sticks out in more ways than one. They are the only black and white one, and so far has the crest slightly bigger, wider and pink while the others are narrow and beige so...

Thinking it's a Roo. Name is Marshmallow bc of all the white. Well still see but I'm 90 percent sure it's a Roo, he can keep, China company later :lol:
 
nicollee said:
Welcome... What part of my beloved CA are you from? If you are inland, our AZ people with knowledge of hot as hell, are definitely your playland....
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I live in Southern CA, Northridge, about 25 miles from L.A. up in the hills of Porter Ranch. About 15 miles from the beach. The other week it was 100 degrees here in PR. Finally have some winter here this week. It's a freezing 68 today. :}
 

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