Arizona Chickens

[MSD Northern AZ]

Chaste Trees caught my attention - We are in Northern AZ and have a chaste tree for shade for our birds. I've googled and haven't seen any posts/articles about it being toxic. Does anyone know if they ARE toxic?

 

[igorsMistress]

Chaste Trees caught my attention - We are in Northern AZ and have a chaste tree for shade for our birds. I've googled and haven't seen any posts/articles about it being toxic. Does anyone know if they ARE toxic?

I have several and my chickens don’t eat from them. They’re pretty good about knowing what’s ok and what isn’t.

 

[igorsMistress]

Morning AZ. I lost one of my EE pullets to the heat yesterday I brought her into the house, used a syringe to give electrolytes and tried some molasses water; poor thing. It makes me think twice about whether to keep chickens in our climate any longer.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

I am very sorry for your loss, igorsMistress. You did everything you could for her and made her as comfortable as possible. She was fortunate to have someone who cares about their animals.

You also motivated me to run out and make an extra ice run to our coop here. That's my greatest fear right now, especially since this is their first summer and they are young. It does make me wonder about keeping them here, too.

 

[igorsMistress]

@EmmaDonovan thank you, at least she’s not suffering now.

I changed tactics and decided to put a small amount of water in the pools, then add ice more often. They can spread out more and have access to that cool water for a longer period. But I use about half of our chest freezer to make ice for them every day.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

I sprouted some for bread last week and they did ok. I bought these from Amazon

I bought these and they have germinated! Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[igorsMistress]

I bought these and they have germinated! Thank you for the suggestion.

My pleasure

 

[City farm]

Chaste Trees caught my attention - We are in Northern AZ and have a chaste tree for shade for our birds. I've googled and haven't seen any posts/articles about it being toxic. Does anyone know if they ARE toxic?

They are a great tree for a run. They are not toxic. You can use the berries after the flower is done in a tea infusion. It is also call Munk tree.
We have the Arabian lilac which is evergreen here in Mesa. It has a pretty purple color in the cooler weather and deep shade for the flock in the summer. Plus they don't eat this tree. I do keep fencing around the base so they don't dig.

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Another storm blew through yesterday. Went from, "Hm, looks like it's starting to rain a little. I'm just going to go out and check on the chickens..." to "OMG the wind shredded the tarps!!" in about eight minutes.

We held onto what was left of the tarps for dear life. Felt like sailors on a deep sea fishing boat during a storm. Edit: apparently there were wind gusts around town up to 60 mph! Lots of trees down and other damage.

It wasn't as bad as the last storm and we managed to keep the coop and chickens relatively dry this time but we obviously need to come up with something better, like maybe a corrugated panel roof.

We also need to add more gravel in the pathway next to the coop. We still ended up standing in mud and water. Thought I'd fixed that. Lessons learned.

 

[springvalley123]

Another storm blew through yesterday. Went from, "Hm, looks like it's starting to rain a little. I'm just going to go out and check on the chickens..." to "OMG the wind shredded the tarps!!" in about eight minutes. We held onto what was left of the tarps for dear life. Felt like sailors on a deep sea fishing boat during a storm.

It wasn't as bad as the last storm and we managed to keep the coop and chickens relatively dry this time but we obviously need to come up with something better, like maybe a corrugated panel roof.

We also need to add more gravel in the pathway next to the coop. We still ended up standing in mud and water. Thought I'd fixed that. Lessons learned.

View attachment 3889045

The shredded tarps may have saved the frame of the coop (gave their lives so to speak). If you do metal or anything stronger than tarp, the frame might not be able to take the force of the wind. Twisted frame, or blow-over of the structure. I forget--is this a flat top, or does it have a peak? This is where I love the hoop coop idea, the roundness means you can use shade cloth and keep it bone dry inside, and the shade cloth still allows air circulation that helps to avoid the shredding that tarps suffer.