Arizona Chickens

[azurbanclucker]

How many tortoise do you have?

3. one male and 2 females. They're 80-110 pounds and wrangling them is a workout

 

[BlueBaby]

3. one male and 2 females. They're 80-110 pounds and wrangling them is a workout

Use food to make them follow, like they use carrots for the donkeys to get them to go.

 

[azurbanclucker]

Use food to make them follow, like they use carrots for the donkeys to get them to go.

when it's this cold out they are fairly torpid. I didn't have an hour each to get them moving so it's easier to pick 'em up and move them.

 

[springvalley123]

Brrr, is right. It's 41 degrees here right now, but I expect it to drop lower overnight.

Seems it wasn't too long ago, we were collecting blue bunny ice cream containers to keep our flocks cool.....

 

[azurbanclucker]

Seems it wasn't too long ago, we were collecting blue bunny ice cream containers to keep our flocks cool.....

And we'll be back to it sooner than you think.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Supes will be frosted in the morning, that's snow falling.
View attachment 3384365

Beautiful

I had to go wrangle up the living rocks and bring them in. The tortoise shed is out of commission until the weekend so they get to bunk inside the house for a couple days.

We have a tortoise too. We used to use a wheelbarrow to move him into the garage for freezes but he's too big any more. 80-100 lbs too. I buried him in straw for the night and the goofball decided to come out for a snack. So had to wait for him to go back to bed and stuff his house full again.

It was snowing here when I woke up this morning. Melted as soon as it fell though.

 

[CaroleW]

Make sure you are disconnecting hoses from outdoor faucets. I've been doing that for the last couple months be it in Mesa (where I'm only there every weekend or so) or near Prescott (where I am almost full time). I don't have to worry about the pipes freezing so much.

I have some AZ ice tea jugs that I fill with warm water everytime I go out to do chicken chores so I can top off or clean a couple water bowls so I'm not doing everything at one time. Or I wait till middle of the day when it's not as freezing.

When a storm is coming I pre-fill all the jugs in case power out = no well pump = no water. That way I can wait it out for a while instead of hurrying to start a generator. I already have some pre-filled (in a NON-FREEZING LOCATION) just sitting around most of the time.

 

[BlueBaby]

Make sure you are disconnecting hoses from outdoor faucets. I've been doing that for the last couple months be it in Mesa (where I'm only there every weekend or so) or near Prescott (where I am almost full time). I don't have to worry about the pipes freezing so much.

I have some AZ ice tea jugs that I fill with warm water everytime I go out to do chicken chores so I can top off or clean a couple water bowls so I'm not doing everything at one time. Or I wait till middle of the day when it's not as freezing.

When a storm is coming I pre-fill all the jugs in case power out = no well pump = no water. That way I can wait it out for a while instead of hurrying to start a generator. I already have some pre-filled (in a NON-FREEZING LOCATION) just sitting around most of the time.

It's a good idea to keep jug's of water filled and on hand anyways year round as you never know when the water will get shut off because a water main or pipe broke somewhere. This is AZ. where they build or put something in and then expect that it's going to last a thousand year's.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

For my oldest coop run I bought a 10'x20' carport from Harbor freight $99 on sale) and covered the roof with metal sheeting. I added conduit pipe to the roof frame to give extra support for sheeting and used self tapping metal screws. I wrapped it in wire using rebar wire to tie the wire on. I also used T stakes to tie down the structure. Think it was pretty cheap for the strength and space it gives. It's rock solid ands held up for over ten years with no need for repairs.

The east side will be without a solid roof (just hardware cloth) as that side will be protected by a wall and a tree and I want the hens to have access to sunshine when they want it. The top and west side have to be covered. I'd like to use a steel roof/siding panel for the top and extend it out over the coop door but it's very expensive. We'll do that if we can afford it. The rest of the west side will be covered with the marine tarp. The afternoon/evening sun is vicious in the summer and there's nothing protecting them from it on that side. The hens will need to be shaded from it.

 

[azurbanclucker]

It's a good idea to keep jug's of water filled and on hand anyways year round as you never know when the water will get shut off because a water main or pipe broke somewhere. This is AZ. where they build or put something in and then expect that it's going to last a thousand's year's.

Looking at YOU, US 60