Arizona Chickens

[Coffee N Chickens]

If anyone here need's a free 2021 chicken tracker to help them keep track of their chicken expenses, you can grab one. It's done up in excel spread sheet and there's a download for it here:

https://stewartcreeksomethings.com/chicken-tracker/

So far, mine are only expenses. Nobody has laid an egg yet, and I'm planning a larger coop. But they're fun to be around, nice to hold, and I love to hear the rooster crow in the morning. He's at it right now. Happy.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning AZ. I heard on the news, after reading in the OFA, that our winter is going to
warmer and drier than usual. While the drier part doesn’t bode well, warmer means I can sow some veg seeds early so that’s what I’m doing today. Already have some cukes, carrots, lettuce and garlic in. Artichokes and broccoli are doing quite well. Today I’m starting a couple types of tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, squash and Armenian cukes. The herbs are all doing great, I planted some strawberry roots yesterday so hopefully those will too.

The ducklings are growing growing growing! They’re five weeks now and still hesitant to go outside. I coaxed them out with peas in a bowl of water yesterday though. Hopefully today they’ll manage to brave the outdoors for a bath.

Hubs surprised me yesterday with four Egyptian Fayoumi pullets on order for delivery in April. I’d been talking about giving them a try for their heat hardiness and disease resistance, and wanted to breed them with a bantam Turken roo, but breeding and hatching are off my list for a while. I’m going to give these little ones a try and see how it goes though, my coop will have been empty for more than six months and sanitized twice between flocks. Hopefully that’s enough.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

[Coffee N Chickens]

Good morning AZ. I heard on the news, after reading in the OFA, that our winter is going to
warmer and drier than usual. While the drier part doesn’t bode well, warmer means I can sow some veg seeds early so that’s what I’m doing today. Already have some cukes, carrots, lettuce and garlic in. Artichokes and broccoli are doing quite well. Today I’m starting a couple types of tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, squash and Armenian cukes. The herbs are all doing great, I planted some strawberry roots yesterday so hopefully those will too.

The ducklings are growing growing growing! They’re five weeks now and still hesitant to go outside. I coaxed them out with peas in a bowl of water yesterday though. Hopefully today they’ll manage to brave the outdoors for a bath.

Hubs surprised me yesterday with four Egyptian Fayoumi pullets on order for delivery in April. I’d been talking about giving them a try for their heat hardiness and disease resistance, and wanted to breed them with a bantam Turken roo, but breeding and hatching are off my list for a while. I’m going to give these little ones a try and see how it goes though, my coop will have been empty for more than six months and sanitized twice between flocks. Hopefully that’s enough.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Here's a thought I'd like to throw out there, even thought you (and everyone else!) know more about chickens than me.

Years ago I was stationed in Florida and my dogs could not completely get rid of fleas. I'd flea bomb, clean, and bathe them, over and over. Then a vet made the comment to me that the big reason infestations and diseases seem to come back out of nowhere is that people do the area the animals live in, but forget about their cars and walkways, and other places the animals have been, even for a quick minute. Flea bombing the car worked wonders. The suggestion is that maybe cars (if they were transported) and anywhere the chickens have been, even for a minute, might harbor bad bugs that will return to make the flock sick. Just an early morning thought (at only half coffee capacity).

 

[igorsMistress]

Here's a thought I'd like to throw out there, even thought you (and everyone else!) knows more about chickens than me.

Years ago I was stationed in Florida and my dogs could not completely get rid of fleas. I'd flea bomb, clean, and bathe them, over and over. Then a vet made the comment to me that the big reason infestations and diseases seem to come back out of nowhere is that people do the area the animals live in, but forget about their cars and walkways, and other places the animals have been, even for a quick minute. Flea bombing the car worked wonders. The suggestion is that maybe cars (if they were transported) and anywhere the chickens have been, even for a minute, might harbor bad bugs that will return to make the flock sick. Just an early morning thought (at only half coffee capacity).

Excellent thoughts for half coffee capacity

I have shoes I wear only in my backyard and typically don’t let anyone out with my flock for the reasons you’ve mentioned. When I moved here we also had a new neighbor move in across the street. Come to find out he was dumping literally pounds of pigeon feed in his yard every day for the wild pigeons. I had a huge problem with them coming into my yard to eat chicken feed and once the people moved away it was even worse. There were easily 20 pigeons that died in my yard last summer alone. Eventually they were unable to fly so if I could catch them I’d throw them over the wall to the front yard and hope one of the neighborhood cats would get them. Otherwise they eventually couldn’t walk either. I called to see if I could get a necropsy on one of them but covid prevented it so I ended up putting down my entire flock of chickens. The only other place I ever got actual birds from was someone here and she doesn’t have issues in her flock. Otherwise I hatched my own eggs or eggs from people I trust. The difference is that her chickens are kept in a run, mine aren’t.

I am outside well before sunrise on a regular basis and I’m hearing a lot more roosters around the neighborhood, so there are quite a few people around here keeping chickens. If wild birds visit them, then come here they can spread disease. Rodents as well. Shoot even the wind can carry Marek’s in the dust and dander. This is why I really wanted to try out the EFs. They are supposed to be heat hardy and have disease resistance to Marek’s among other things.

 

[Coffee N Chickens]

Excellent thoughts for half coffee capacity

I have shoes I wear only in my backyard and typically don’t let anyone out with my flock for the reasons you’ve mentioned. When I moved here we also had a new neighbor move in across the street. Come to find out he was dumping literally pounds of pigeon feed in his yard every day for the wild pigeons. I had a huge problem with them coming into my yard to eat chicken feed and once the people moved away it was even worse. There were easily 20 pigeons that died in my yard last summer alone. Eventually they were unable to fly so if I could catch them I’d throw them over the wall to the front yard and hope one of the neighborhood cats would get them. Otherwise they eventually couldn’t walk either. I called to see if I could get a necropsy on one of them but covid prevented it so I ended up putting down my entire flock of chickens. The only other place I ever got actual birds from was someone here and she doesn’t have issues in her flock. Otherwise I hatched my own eggs or eggs from people I trust. The difference is that her chickens are kept in a run, mine aren’t.

I am outside well before sunrise on a regular basis and I’m hearing a lot more roosters around the neighborhood, so there are quite a few people around here keeping chickens. If wild birds visit them, then come here they can spread disease. Rodents as well. Shoot even the wind can carry Marek’s in the dust and dander. This is why I really wanted to try out the EFs. They are supposed to be heat hardy and have disease resistance to Marek’s among other things.

The wild birds have started coming around here more since the chickens arrived. Hopefully they won't carry something to my flock, too.

Somebody around here was selling Egyptian Fayoumis and I thought about them before falling in love with these leghorns.

Since the neighbors got a rooster, my rooster has been doing a lot of crowing. Not sure if they're talking or trying to decide who is King Roo. Since I can only hear their rooster if I go outside and listen, I'm not sure which of the two is the noisier. Probably Big Ben. The third rooster off in the distance seems to be staying out of the conversation.

Luckily I found this forum and got chickens from a chicken show breeder instead of the ones at the swap meet. May have dodged a bullet there.

 

[igorsMistress]

The wild birds have started coming around here more since the chickens arrived. Hopefully they won't carry something to my flock, too.

Somebody around here was selling Egyptian Fayoumis and I thought about them before falling in love with these leghorns.

Since the neighbors got a rooster, my rooster has been doing a lot of crowing. Not sure if they're talking or trying to decide who is King Roo. Since I can only hear their rooster if I go outside and listen, I'm not sure which of the two is the noisier. Probably Big Ben. The third rooster off in the distance seems to be staying out of the conversation.

Luckily I found this forum and got chickens from a chicken show breeder instead of the ones at the swap meet. May have dodged a bullet there.

I can’t say for sure it was the pigeons that made my flock sick, but I definitely have a strong suspicion and they do share some diseases with chickens. It wasn’t just a few either, more like 3 or 4 dozen at once that would come in to feed and run the chickens off the food. They would swarm it like rats and eat as fast as they could. There are definite changes I’ll be making to my routine with the new girls though, hopefully to help prevent that from happening.

I suspect you might have, yes. I haven’t ever been to a swap for poultry but I’d rather see the conditions the flock lives in if possible. Or start with chicks that haven’t been outside to mingle yet.

Roosters do seem to discuss things with each other Foghorn Leghorn was always my favorite cartoon when I was a kid and I thought about getting some white L thorns, but then I found the Turkens and really liked those so went that route for a while. Leghorns are supposed to be very good layers and heat tolerant as well. I imagine they may be a bit easier to deal with as they are a bit heavier than the EFs and not as flighty. I may have to clip wings on the EFs to keep them in the yard, but that’s ok. If you enjoy what you have that’s what matters most.

Keeping chickens is a constant learning process I think. What works for one person doesn’t always work for everyone else.

 

[BlueBaby]

So far, mine are only expenses. Nobody has laid an egg yet, and I'm planning a larger coop. But they're fun to be around, nice to hold, and I love to hear the rooster crow in the morning. He's at it right now. Happy.

The spreadsheet has columns for more than just tracking egg counts. The following link is from the person here who shared it, and tells what all it contains:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...and-income-from-chickens.124260/#post-1481311

 

[springvalley123]

Good morning AZ. I heard on the news, after reading in the OFA, that our winter is going to
warmer and drier than usual. While the drier part doesn’t bode well, warmer means I can sow some veg seeds early so that’s what I’m doing today. Already have some cukes, carrots, lettuce and garlic in. Artichokes and broccoli are doing quite well. Today I’m starting a couple types of tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, squash and Armenian cukes. The herbs are all doing great, I planted some strawberry roots yesterday so hopefully those will too.

The ducklings are growing growing growing! They’re five weeks now and still hesitant to go outside. I coaxed them out with peas in a bowl of water yesterday though. Hopefully today they’ll manage to brave the outdoors for a bath.

Hubs surprised me yesterday with four Egyptian Fayoumi pullets on order for delivery in April. I’d been talking about giving them a try for their heat hardiness and disease resistance, and wanted to breed them with a bantam Turken roo, but breeding and hatching are off my list for a while. I’m going to give these little ones a try and see how it goes though, my coop will have been empty for more than six months and sanitized twice between flocks. Hopefully that’s enough.

Have a great weekend everyone!

That's wonderful about the fayoumis! I'd read about their disease resistance too, and their heat tolerance--a great choice!

 

[springvalley123]

Excellent thoughts for half coffee capacity

I have shoes I wear only in my backyard and typically don’t let anyone out with my flock for the reasons you’ve mentioned. When I moved here we also had a new neighbor move in across the street. Come to find out he was dumping literally pounds of pigeon feed in his yard every day for the wild pigeons. I had a huge problem with them coming into my yard to eat chicken feed and once the people moved away it was even worse. There were easily 20 pigeons that died in my yard last summer alone. Eventually they were unable to fly so if I could catch them I’d throw them over the wall to the front yard and hope one of the neighborhood cats would get them. Otherwise they eventually couldn’t walk either. I called to see if I could get a necropsy on one of them but covid prevented it so I ended up putting down my entire flock of chickens. The only other place I ever got actual birds from was someone here and she doesn’t have issues in her flock. Otherwise I hatched my own eggs or eggs from people I trust. The difference is that her chickens are kept in a run, mine aren’t.

I am outside well before sunrise on a regular basis and I’m hearing a lot more roosters around the neighborhood, so there are quite a few people around here keeping chickens. If wild birds visit them, then come here they can spread disease. Rodents as well. Shoot even the wind can carry Marek’s in the dust and dander. This is why I really wanted to try out the EFs. They are supposed to be heat hardy and have disease resistance to Marek’s among other things.

Let's hope that the newer chicken owners (new roosters crowing) put pressure on the losers who feed the wild birds/pigeons to cut it out!

 

[igorsMistress]

That's wonderful about the fayoumis! I'd read about their disease resistance too, and their heat tolerance--a great choice!

I sure hope so! I’m still researching them but from what I’ve been reading they sound promising.