Arizona Chickens

[springvalley123]

Interesting. I believe the black chicken thing is a fallacy though based on my own experience so take that with a grain of salt lol.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...lla-a-chicken-that-looks-like-a-crow.1515712/

 

[igorsMistress]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...lla-a-chicken-that-looks-like-a-crow.1515712/

I’ve seen hawks here casually cruising the wind currents followed by a murder of crows. The hawk clearly wasn’t bothered. We’ve had hawks land in our yard twice that we are aware of. One of them was after two black pullets who took cover under a bougainvillea. So that hasn’t been my experience.

Your best bet is going to be lots of cover so that hawks can’t swoop in or dive, but not so large they can roost and then swoop down. Or with multiple layers of cover. In my experience, for free ranging.

 

[springvalley123]

I’ve seen hawks here casually cruising the wind currents followed by a murder of crows. The hawk clearly wasn’t bothered. We’ve had hawks land in our yard twice that we are aware of. One of them was after two black pullets who took cover under a bougainvillea. So that hasn’t been my experience.

Your best bet is going to be lots of cover so that hawks can’t swoop in or dive, but not so large they can roost and then swoop down. Or with multiple layers of cover. In my experience.

That makes sense--any truth to the old rumor, must've been obsoleted just by hawks having to adapt to find their meals.

 

[Happy Novogens]

Also learned that not all Mojave rattlers are equal in toxin amounts.
Article pointed out that Pima, and Cochise counties were in the most dangerous zone. Cochise being the leader of the pack.

Copy and paste.
There is a 10× increased risk of death and a 50× increased risk of intubations if envenomated in Cochise County.
Here are the links for easy access.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/scien...ATBrLArRwtKPraStkKMaEaWOmZJroLUQakSOERbloU0QO
https://birdcageshere.com/2021/07/08/do-hawks-eat-rattlesnakes/

Oooh! That is interesting! I had no idea there was such a variability in venom toxicity. I've forwarded the article on to my son. (He loves all things biology/science related-- even wrote a book about wildlife in the desert.)

 

[EmmaDonovan]

A Mohave bite killed my friend's wonderful, beloved donkey. He weighed 600 lbs and by the time the vet arrived his veins were already collapsing. I really, really hate pit vipers and I hate Mohaves most of all. We kill rattlers whenever we find them on her ranch. It makes me sick to my stomach to kill them but they're just too dangerous to have in proximity to the ranch animals. King snakes and other non-venomous snakes are left alone, of course.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Count me lucky, or somewhat vigilant, but I've free ranged my birds (to just mean backyard, whole yard, not the whole neighborhood) and not a single predator loss. That is, not counting the baby duck hatchlings/eggs that a king snake must've gotten. We had built our first run/coop, and decided against putting hardware cloth under the entire interior of the run, just had an apron. I have crows where I am. I have a lot of deciduous trees in the area the birds are confined to, so I'd think it'd be hard for a raptor to make a swoop at my birds. But, it's a trade off, you have to be able to accept losses. I enjoy seeing my birds out enjoying the yard. I'd love to see some larger predator proof run/coop setups though.

Oh, and in that first setup, we had about 80 x 100 under bird netting to keep out the aerial predators. I lost a whole garden (never sprouted except for a few) to mice who had nested in the garden bed, same timeframe as the king snake. So in keeping any predator out, we have to think about the food chain--another tradeoff for us chicken owners!

I've been really fortunate with hawks too. We get a lot of them here and they love our pine tree, perch on fences and on our house to eye my birds...but we've never lost one to them in the 15 years we've lived in this house. I believe it's our big dogs that roam with the chickens. I'm extra careful with my banties though and I worry about the hawks still. I keep expecting one to get a bird some day, especially as my dogs are getting old. We have 3 right now that babysit the chickens and 2 are 10 years old...still healthy but starting to slow down.

A Mohave bite killed my friend's wonderful, beloved donkey. He weighed 600 lbs and by the time the vet arrived his veins were already collapsing. I really, really hate pit vipers and I hate Mohaves most of all. We kill rattlers whenever we find them on her ranch. It makes me sick to my stomach to kill them but they're just too dangerous to have in proximity to the ranch animals. King snakes and other non-venomous snakes are left alone, of course.

I'm in Pima and we've had a lot of snake problems here. We almost lost one of our horses to one years ago. The bite wasn't that bad except her head swoll so bad she couldn't breathe. We had to bloke her nostrils open with garden hose chunks. We kill them on sight too.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Yep, we had to do the garden hose thing for him, too. He was bitten on his neck. We figured he had his head down and was eating when the Mohave struck him.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Bluebaby, question for you, or anyone. If 10 sq ft per chicken is the general rule of thumb for minimal run space for standard chickens, what is the minimum for Bielefelders? They are so much bigger than most chickens. Do you use a different rule of thumb for run and roost space for them?

 

[springvalley123]

Bluebaby, question for you, or anyone. If 10 sq ft per chicken is the general rule of thumb for minimal run space for standard chickens, what is the minimum for Bielefelders? They are so much bigger than most chickens. Do you use a different rule of thumb for run and roost space for them?

I can't speak about Bielefelders, but in general, the activity level of the bird is very important, so is personality. For example, I had andalusians, about 4.5 lbs per hen. They needed a lot of space because they're not super nice to each other and a bit nervous, and like to roam. I had amberlinks that were about the same size as the andalusians, and they were so calm you could put them in a smaller space than the andalusians.

 

[BlueBaby]

Bluebaby, question for you, or anyone. If 10 sq ft per chicken is the general rule of thumb for minimal run space for standard chickens, what is the minimum for Bielefelders? They are so much bigger than most chickens. Do you use a different rule of thumb for run and roost space for them?

My coop with attached run is 8' x 4' for the tall walk in coop, and 8' x 16' for the attached run. There are 5 hen's and a rooster in it, plus 6 pullet's and a cockerel in it also right now. They like to roost on top of the wire dog crate's that I have in the run, so I had to lay board's over the top of them. I have attached some hardware cloth to the sides of one of the dog crate's and use that one for my chick grow-out pen. The other dog crate is in there to either hold a naughty bird or to use as a broody breaker pen.