Arizona Chickens

[rghowell]

Thank you so much for your reply! I think I will go with the sand in the run, my husband is finally convinced to give it a try too. I posted some pictures of the set-up. I have a baby pool I fill up about an inch with water and sprinkle pine shavings, the chickens go and stand in it. I also filled up containers with top soil & DM Earth for dust bathing.

 

[BlueBaby]

I am looking for advice from fellow Arizonians raising chickens in the hot dry climate. My husband built a raised run with coop above, I love it so much! My issue is I am not sure what would be best to fill the run with. I have filled it with pine shavings for over a month and I am not very excited about it. They blow around, poop dries up super fast and there is no deep litter going on with this dry climate. I have a few friends that said their run is just dirt but my run is raised and has vinyl for easier cleaning. In the coop part, I do believe pine shavings are the best but I need something different for the raised run. My husband thinks sand would be horrible but I wanted to try it. I like the idea of being able to rake out the poop every couple of days like kitty litter. Anyone else in Arizona have a raised chicken run? What has worked best for the desert since there really isn't any deep litter happening in our area.
Thank you so much!

Good to see that you have found your way over here to our Arizona states thread. I also have a dirt floor in both my coop and my run. It's not that hard to clean out the poop. Just a dustpan and something to push the poop into it, then empty the dustpan into a bucket.

 

[Happychi2019]

Mine is mostly dirt with a little sand too. I love having shade for them!

 

[rghowell]

View attachment 1839484 Mine is mostly dirt with a little sand too. I love having shade for them!

I love your coop!! Similar colors to mine too! We may have gone a little overboard with the raised run but the idea was to be easy to power wash the vinyl flooring. We will see how it goes with the sand and I will still keep my dirt bath containers in there for them too. Thanks for sharing this with me, hopefully this route will be easier to upkeep.

 

[nicollee]

Thank you so much for your reply! I think I will go with the sand in the run, my husband is finally convinced to give it a try too. I posted some pictures of the set-up. I have a baby pool I fill up about an inch with water and sprinkle pine shavings, the chickens go and stand in it. I also filled up containers with top soil & DM Earth for dust bathing.

I just wanted to make sure you used "food grade" diatomaceous earth?
Enjoy the coming adventure with your chicken friends!

 

[rghowell]

I just wanted to make sure you used "food grade" diatomaceous earth?
Enjoy the coming adventure with your chicken friends!

Yes of course. I have read up on it's benefits, purchased the food grade diatomaceous earth from tractor supply . Thank you for sharing as I am new at this

 

[rghowell]

Hello again!
We are looking to set up an automatic watering system to our coop. So far, we either want to attach the chicken drinker cups to pvc pipe or set a timer on filling a large container that is open- husband thinks the water will be cooler with open bowl versus the drinking cups. We have already dug the line so we will have misters going off a couple of times a day along with the waterer. Currently, I fill a large bowl and the poultry waterer you buy at TS with a block of ice/water & electrolytes. It stays cold for most of the day. Would love to hear if anyone has been successful with a watering system when 100 plus degrees out.
Thanks again for all your input.

 

[BlueBaby]

Hello again!
We are looking to set up an automatic watering system to our coop. So far, we either want to attach the chicken drinker cups to pvc pipe or set a timer on filling a large container that is open- husband thinks the water will be cooler with open bowl versus the drinking cups. We have already dug the line so we will have misters going off a couple of times a day along with the waterer. Currently, I fill a large bowl and the poultry waterer you buy at TS with a block of ice/water & electrolytes. It stays cold for most of the day. Would love to hear if anyone has been successful with a watering system when 100 plus degrees out.
Thanks again for all your input.

When I had Australorp's and pure White Breese before, they liked to stand under the mister's. It did end up making their feather's start looking weird though. My Naked Neck's never did like going under them though, and preferred to just stand in pan's of water for cooling off. The Naked Neck's have less feathering on both the neck's and the body, so it help's them to stay cooler in our hot temp's here.

 

[BlueBaby]

Do anyone's else's chicken's look like they are starting an early molt? I have been noticing a few more feather's on the ground than normal. I looked at my Crested Cream Legbar hen Miracle's back more closely near the tail on the back yesterday evening, and it look's like she has new pin feathers coming in.

 

[Fishybiz]

Do anyone's else's chicken's look like they are starting an early molt? I have been noticing a few more feather's on the ground than normal. I looked at my Crested Cream Legbar hen Miracle's back more closely near the tail on the back yesterday evening, and it look's like she has new pin feathers coming in.

I think mine recently went through a mild molt and finally are back laying. More than normal amount of feathers were in the nest box.