Arizona Chickens

Hello AZ. Spent yesterday morning working on yard cleanup after the gulley washer we had during the week. My son brought over the new rooster and a pullet. The roo is a pretty bird and an Nn. The pullet must have come from one of the EE girls they have because she’s got muffs. She’s adorable! There was a third bird the kids thought was a pullet, but when I saw the pic it screamed roo. I looked at him when they got here and showed them how they can tell he’s a boy. He didn’t stay, and I’m happy with just the six birds total. The existing flock pretty much ignores the roo, but they go after the pullet so I’m going to keep an eye on her for a few days. She’s got plenty of sass so I’m too concerned. I saw one of the Nn eat a feather yesterday and the feed they’re getting is only 16% protein, Chewy sent the wrong thing, but I didn’t want to throw it out and didn’t have anyone to donate it to. So I’m going to mix the feed half and half with the correct 20% feed and hope that helps. I’ve been giving dehydrated bugs/worms but apparently not enough.
 
Hello friends! Doing some research for my brother and his family who are looking to start a coop in the valley. I read through this thread a bit, does anyone have suggestions for chicken sellers who have reasonable pricing and a high success rate at sexing the chicks?
Also any suggestions for breeds that are more hardy in the heat? From what I’ve researched we were looking at Ameraucanas, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and Red Sexlinks. Are these acceptable breeds for the heat?
Thank you in advance!
 
Hello AZ. Spent yesterday morning working on yard cleanup after the gulley washer we had during the week. My son brought over the new rooster and a pullet. The roo is a pretty bird and an Nn. The pullet must have come from one of the EE girls they have because she’s got muffs. She’s adorable! There was a third bird the kids thought was a pullet, but when I saw the pic it screamed roo. I looked at him when they got here and showed them how they can tell he’s a boy. He didn’t stay, and I’m happy with just the six birds total. The existing flock pretty much ignores the roo, but they go after the pullet so I’m going to keep an eye on her for a few days. She’s got plenty of sass so I’m too concerned. I saw one of the Nn eat a feather yesterday and the feed they’re getting is only 16% protein, Chewy sent the wrong thing, but I didn’t want to throw it out and didn’t have anyone to donate it to. So I’m going to mix the feed half and half with the correct 20% feed and hope that helps. I’ve been giving dehydrated bugs/worms but apparently not enough.
We sure did get rain & wind!
Would love to see pics of your new birds!
 
Hello friends! Doing some research for my brother and his family who are looking to start a coop in the valley. I read through this thread a bit, does anyone have suggestions for chicken sellers who have reasonable pricing and a high success rate at sexing the chicks?
Also any suggestions for breeds that are more hardy in the heat? From what I’ve researched we were looking at Ameraucanas, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and Red Sexlinks. Are these acceptable breeds for the heat?
Thank you in advance!
Hello, and welcome! Most breed's of chick's are hard to sex at a young age. Auto-sexed breed's can be sexed at hatch. There is a difference between those sex-link's and an auto-sexed breed.
 
Hello friends! Doing some research for my brother and his family who are looking to start a coop in the valley. I read through this thread a bit, does anyone have suggestions for chicken sellers who have reasonable pricing and a high success rate at sexing the chicks?
Also any suggestions for breeds that are more hardy in the heat? From what I’ve researched we were looking at Ameraucanas, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and Red Sexlinks. Are these acceptable breeds for the heat?
Thank you in advance!
How nice of you to help them out! Welcome to BYC.

I always vote for Naked Necks but they’re not for everyone. Honestly, the fluffier the chicken the harder the heat is on them. I’ve had hatchery chickens that were hot as expected and did just fine. I’ve also had pure australorps that were touted as heat tolerant all over the place but died while the hatchery birds made it through the same summer. The hatchery birds weren’t nearly as fluffy. Fluff means dense feathers based on what I’ve come across while plucking.

When it comes to sexing chicks the only guarantee is if you have sex links. Anything else will have a margin of error. I have purchased chicks at TSC as well as at feed stores and all were supposed to be pullets. Each time I ended up with a roo. These are usually purchased from hatcheries and most have a good rate of accuracy. It just depends on what gets picked out of the bin.
 
Hello friends! Doing some research for my brother and his family who are looking to start a coop in the valley. I read through this thread a bit, does anyone have suggestions for chicken sellers who have reasonable pricing and a high success rate at sexing the chicks?
Also any suggestions for breeds that are more hardy in the heat? From what I’ve researched we were looking at Ameraucanas, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and Red Sexlinks. Are these acceptable breeds for the heat?
Thank you in advance!
Welcome!
I used to have sapphire gems (Hoover's hatchery). they are a sex link that did better in the heat than a lot of birds. My midnight majesty marans (also hoover's) are doing pretty well also. I'm up north where it's cooler and cools off much more by roost time, but my Ameraucana-like olive egger (ear muffs, beard, pea comb) does by far the worst in the heat compared to all the other breeds I appear to have. Much worse than an Andalusian---those were by far the best in the heat. I'm guessing that with a coop (co-op I assume), they'd want high production birds, like most sex links. Many of the small farms (in africa for example), use swamp coolers or other means of cooling the large barns of birds though.
 
We sure did get rain & wind!
Would love to see pics of your new birds!
The rooster is obnoxiously friendly and the pullet is skittish so I couldn’t get a good pic of her little face.
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