Arizona Chickens

[EmmaDonovan]

Oh my gosh I feel so stupid. We were looking at ordering from Ideal since those birds are in Texas and we figured that's kind of a similar environment. They list "pullets," which we thought meant started pullets, but they meant female day-old chicks. I know that sounds dumb but keep in mind we're new to chickens. Had to call Ideal to clarify and the customer service person said she gets this all the time and keeps telling them to change the wording on the web site, so at least I'm not the only person getting it wrong.

Anyway. Started pullets at other hatcheries cost 10x as much and also cost hundreds to ship. Yowza. Now I understand why people start with chicks and brooders.

No problem, we can do chicks and brooders but that puts us on an entirely different schedule. If we were to get chicks this month (likely still from Ideal) they wouldn't start laying for ~6 months which would be... mid-August. Oh dear. Hottest, nastiest part of the year. I'm guessing that's not a reasonable time to expect new layers to start laying.

When is the best time for us desert dwellers to purchase chicks?

 

[springvalley123]

Oh my gosh I feel so stupid. We were looking at ordering from Ideal since those birds are in Texas and we figured that's kind of a similar environment. They list "pullets," which we thought meant started pullets, but they meant female day-old chicks. I know that sounds dumb but keep in mind we're new to chickens. Had to call Ideal to clarify and the customer service person said she gets this all the time and keeps telling them to change the wording on the web site, so at least I'm not the only person who gets it wrong.

Anyway. Started pullets at other hatcheries cost 10x as much and also cost hundreds to ship. Yowza. Now I understand why people start with chicks and brooders.

No problem, we can do chicks and brooders but that puts us on an entirely different schedule. If we were to get chicks this month (likely still from Ideal) they wouldn't start laying for ~6 months which would be... mid-August. Oh dear. Hottest, nastiest part of the year. I'm guessing that's not a reasonable time to expect new layers to start laying.

When is the best time for us desert dwellers to purchase chicks?

To have the birds start laying in the fall (or at least before the following spring) I get them earlier in spring, between now and April 1. depending on the breed, they start laying when they reach anywhere from 18 weeks (isa browns, sex links) to 24 weeks (most breeds). The czech breeds I like (sapphire gem, calico princess) are bred for production so start at 18-23 weeks. As a rule if they reach this laying age after the autumnal equinox (sept 20 or so) it gets iffy as to whether they'll lay at that age, or wait till spring. For example I got some leghorns hatching 7/26 or so, and they didn't start laying at thanksgiving or christmas when they'd have come of age, they waited until the days started getting longer. I've had birds hatch 3/26 and start laying by august. They were turkens/ naked necks but any breed you choose should do similarly unless they're a slower-maturing breed.

FYI I just placed a craigslist ad for some midnight majesty marans--I'm looking to reduce my numbers so selling 3-4. They hatched oct 20, age about 16 weeks now. I saw no other craigslist ads for similarly aged birds in the prescott area, but there may be some in your area. Since you're starting out, you wouldn't have someone else's birds possibly getting your existing flock sick, but you'd have to worry about them being healthy, and how well you'd be able to tell that before you brought them home. Just a thought to get you back on schedule.

and, please don't feel stupid, there's a learning curve!

 

[wolfwalker]

Oh my gosh I feel so stupid. We were looking at ordering from Ideal since those birds are in Texas and we figured that's kind of a similar environment. They list "pullets," which we thought meant started pullets, but they meant female day-old chicks. I know that sounds dumb but keep in mind we're new to chickens. Had to call Ideal to clarify and the customer service person said she gets this all the time and keeps telling them to change the wording on the web site, so at least I'm not the only person getting it wrong.

Anyway. Started pullets at other hatcheries cost 10x as much and also cost hundreds to ship. Yowza. Now I understand why people start with chicks and brooders.

No problem, we can do chicks and brooders but that puts us on an entirely different schedule. If we were to get chicks this month (likely still from Ideal) they wouldn't start laying for ~6 months which would be... mid-August. Oh dear. Hottest, nastiest part of the year. I'm guessing that's not a reasonable time to expect new layers to start laying.

When is the best time for us desert dwellers to purchase chicks?

Depends on the breeds you are looking for. While I hatch several hundred a month, I don't sell them normally until they are at least 6 weeks old. As far as coming into lay, down souoth, we run around 20 degrees cooler, so the extreme heat up near Phoenix does not effect them for start of lay

 

[AngBantamLuv]

Yippee!! So.. spoiled chicken soap opera.. Elsa, the splash cochin, has waited daily at the coop door for me to take her out and put her in her brooder. She screamed and squawked and flapped around if she had to walk around w the D'uccles.. well.. she has decided today, now at a mature 20 weeks, that she is a chicken!! Woohoo!! She is hanging w the big girls, didn't even stay in the coop in the morning! The big girls (who are smaller than she is) are gently preening her and all squooshed up together w her. Happy dance! Only one cage to clean!! Btw, there is plenty of space, but evidently they like to stand in the same spot!!

 

[CaroleW]

I had to cull Crested Cream Legbar after a week of quarantine/hospital care. She just wasn't able to stand or do anything on her own and was not gaining any strength.

And my Silver Spangled Hamburg who turned out to be cross beaked at 7 week old (now grown) - top beak broke off and hanging by "skin of her teeth". I had been hand feeding her with wet mash for a few days to see if I could tame her enough work on her beak before the break. She would have none of it when I tried to cut it off the hanging piece. So I left her alone for an hour, came back and she had lost the hanging part. I washed it and used a little Vetricyn Plus to disinfect and a little EMT Gel to help the wound heal. By next afternoon she was able to go back to the egg layer flock. I was a little worried about using the EMT Gel because I didn't want to seal anything inside like food particles that might cause infection. But it turned out ok (the wound was bleeding a little so I think that cleaned it out somewhat along with Vetricyn).

 

[BlueBaby]

I had to cull Crested Cream Legbar after a week of quarantine/hospital care. She just wasn't able to stand or do anything on her own and was not gaining any strength.

And my Silver Spangled Hamburg who turned out to be cross beaked at 7 week old (now grown) - top beak broke off and hanging by "skin of her teeth". I had been hand feeding her with wet mash for a few days to see if I could tame her enough work on her beak before the break. She would have none of it when I tried to cut it off the hanging piece. So I left her alone for an hour, came back and she had lost the hanging part. I washed it and used a little Vetricyn Plus to disinfect and a little EMT Gel to help the wound heal. By next afternoon she was able to go back to the egg layer flock. I was a little worried about using the EMT Gel because I didn't want to seal anything inside like food particles that might cause infection. But it turned out ok (the wound was bleeding a little so I think that cleaned it out somewhat along with Vetricyn).

Sorry that you lost your CCLB, and had that beak trouble with the SSH. Are the rest of your flock doing ok up there?

 

[springvalley123]

Hi fellow Arizonans,
I'm selling a few/four of my midnight majesty marans pullets. That'll get me to where I want to be numbers-wise. They're about 16 weeks, having hatched about 10/20/2020. I got them at Cal-ranch, who got them from Hoover's. FYI, the barred one, should be a cockerel but is not growing like one as of yet so I'm keeping my hopes up, but that one will be free if someone can deal with a cockerel. Please PM if interested.

 

[turkey girl 0964]

We are in Tucson.

 

[BlueBaby]

We are in Tucson.

Welcome to the AZ. thread. What breed's do you have?

 

[CaroleW]

Sorry that you lost your CCLB, and had that beak trouble with the SSH. Are the rest of your flock doing ok up there?

CCLB was never very outgoing or sturdy compared to the others that she arrived with from the hatchery. I don't know if it's typical of the breed or just this individual. She laid fewer than 6 eggs so she may not have been up to par. I figure saving 1 out of 2 in my hospital isn't bad.

Roger and his egg laying ladies are all doing well. I dug some ditches to handle drainage of the ~12" of snow as it melted off the pole barn roof. So they have some more "lazy river" areas off of that to explore.

The Barred Holland flock is doing pretty well. I've started to collect some eggs to hand off to Parront to hatch but they seem small compared to the rest of the eggs so I may wait for them to lay bigger eggs. I may be too soon for them to have good hatching eggs.