Arizona Chickens

[Catwest]

Our three year old is calling our chicks HIS chicks, but he’s afraid to touch them

Our 18 month old, on the other hand, is obsessed with them and wants to hold them and pet them, but she’s not allowed to do more than a couple of gentle pets while I hold the chick and her petting hand. She is generally a gentle petter, but she does get excited...

So glad my parents never bought us holiday pets growing up. My dad knew he’d end up taking care of them most likely

 

[Catwest]

I wish I could go that tall, but I think my HOA doesn't want anything protruding about our 5-ft walls, so went the low-boy route. I'm sure I read it correctly before I started investing money in lumber and building. My run is only 5-ft tall, but I'm only about 5'8", so it's no big deal.
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My concern now is that a HUGE Pitbull hangs his big head and paws over that section where you see that one column, just above the park bench. It's the back part of my run. There must be some type of planter box on the other side for him to stand on. He constantly barks at anything that moves, including neighbors closing their car doors. He's really a PIA.

My chickens panic at every little noise, even a passing car. I want to put some type of lattice work or such to where they cannot see each other, maybe some climbing plants to conceal them.

He looks a little older with some gray whiskers, but I don't trust him.

My pit mix picked up one of my mom’s chickens once. Dropped it promptly... he just wanted to play I’d never trust him or our blue heeler with the chickens.

I don’t blame you for distrusting the neighbor’s dog you know nothing about one bit! That is a smart move. Two loose pit mixes literally tore my cat in half about a month ago, but they were as friendly as could be to people and other dogs. You just never know

 

[Bobby Basham]

My pit mix picked up one of my mom’s chickens once. Dropped it promptly... he just wanted to play I’d never trust him or our blue heeler with the chickens.

I don’t blame you for distrusting the neighbor’s dog you know nothing about one bit! That is a smart move. Two loose pit mixes literally tore my cat in half about a month ago, but they were as friendly as could be to people and other dogs. You just never know

OMG, how terrible. Supposedly this dog is friendly and all, but being in close proximity to chickens may put him over the edge to do something stupid.

 

[meetthebubus]

OMG, how terrible. Supposedly this dog is friendly and all, but being in close proximity to chickens may put him over the edge to do something stupid.

In my experience last month with those neighbors rottweilers they were having fun, but the chickens werent, so the very stress of a dog can harm them your right to think cautiously

 

[Bobby Basham]

In my experience last month with those neighbors rottweilers they were having fun, but the chickens werent, so the very stress of a dog can harm them your right to think cautiously

My group seems to be a nervous, noise-sensitive, greedy bunch. They don't like to be touched (except for one) but they like to hang close to me. One day, I accidentally sneezed and passed gas at the same time, and they freaked out.

 

[Bobby Basham]

I'm looking at building a 16x10 run using wood and hardware cloth mostly. We are from Illinois originally, do you guys use pressure treated wood on the ground or just regular softwood? We will Digging down 2 inches or so and bury the first board horizontal, having hardware cloth running 1.5-2ft out from there, then having a 2x6 on top of the first board making an L shape because we want to do deep litter. We were planning on having most of the coop on the side where the sun is in the afternoon that will help shade a little over half the length. We don't have much shade in our yard at all so we were thinking of running a roof over half of the run also, the rest would just be hardware cloth. I will be installing as much ventilation in the coop as I can especially in the roof area. I'll do a couple "windows" off of the hot wall too.
We will start looking into water, I have a leg of my irrigation about 2 ft away from where I plan on building the coop. I'll make sure I trench a line into the run for that then.
Sorry for the long post, I hope it makes sense what we are trying to do.

Another concern for me would be, for those who don't make their own feed recipes or belong to a co-op that specializes in a balanced grain, what COMMERCIAL layer feeds are you using? Mine are approaching that mark. Purina, Layena...there are multiple choices out there and hope you would share with the rest of us.

 

[K9Dave]

Yes, I remember you. When are you going to be moving back here to AZ.?

I don’t miss the desert at all. So glad to be back in the trees and green.

When’re you coming to visit? Lol

 

[K9Dave]

Hey Dave! Great Pics! I was just thinking about you this am. A friend who lives in Avra Valley has to come my way about weekly and get eggs from me. Ridiculous I tell her and wish I knew folks in Avra Valley again! Ha! You look like you are thriving and that little person is perfect! Hello again.

Hope all is well. Thank you

 

[K9Dave]

Using the site on my phone is different. Gonna take some getting used to.

Thanks everyone. Great seeing all of your screen names again.

 

[cactusrota]

So glad my parents never bought us holiday pets growing up. My dad knew he’d end up taking care of them most likely

Our childhood pets when I was growing up was the bugs we found under rocks and kept in old relish jars with holes poked in the lid.... .. although we did have a cat.