Arizona Chickens

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
Thanks for doing that. Its a nice setup. I love the auto water container. I will have to find one of those. I can see that is really worth its weight in gold!!

Shaun

I got it at Western Ranchman and they had one there the other day when we were there. I also saw someone who took a regular auto waterer and put it inside a 5 gallon bucket with windows cut out - made their own. It is, as you say, worth its weight in gold!

 

[Mahonri]

GC: at present I have a SQ Blue Wheaten Roo that I bought from Jean, Pips & Peeps. She got her stock from Paul Smith I believe, but she did extensive breeding and culling on her line. Paul Smith traces his back to Wayne Meredith. I have two Blue Wheaten Hens and 3 Wheaten hens. 1 of the BW is almost SQ and 1 of the Wheaten Hens I would consider close to SQ. the other 3 hens are so/so. My hens came from Melisa (pasofinofarm) and she has done some pretty extensive breeding on her own also. Her roo named "Uno" was the Blue Wheaten that fathered all five of my hens all over great quality Blue Wheaten hens. She also got hers from Paul Smith in MO. He wasn't selling any W/BW this year as he was hatching his own and then culling for the best.

Here is the genetics.

Wheaten X Wheaten = 100% Wheaten

Blue Wheaten X Wheaten = 50% Wheaten and 50% Blue Wheaten

Blue Wheaten X Blue Wheaten = 25% Wheaten, 50% Blue Wheaten & 25% Splash Wheaten

Blue Wheaten X Splash Wheaten = 50% Blue Wheaten & 50% Splash Wheaten

Splash Wheaten X Wheaten = 100% Blue Wheaten

Splash Wheaten X Splash Wheaten - 100% Splash Wheaten

Clear as mud.

Shaun,

I currently have 3 roos. My neighbors are nice, so far. They really are all wonderful people and the ones in the back get regular eggs to eat!

The Blue Wheaten Ameraucana I got from Jean
A Blue Wheaten Ameraucana I hatched out from my own eggs on Jan 1st. He is in with 2 BW & 3 W pullets, 2 hatched from Jeans eggs and 3 hatched from my own.
One of those hatched from Jeans eggs will be up for sale. ($30 within the next month..) as pretty as she is, she had one feather on one leg and I'm not going to pass that trait on BUT she will be laying very blue eggs and in every other way looks spectacular. There is also a WCBlue Polish X BBL Polish in there and I still can't tell if it's a roo or a pullet.
A French Black Copper Maran... the best of 7 roos I hatched out from eggs I got from Melissa. He is currently in with 4 FBCMaran pullets, 3 GC Marans pullets and a designer GPCochin X LB Leghorn pullet.

Today while DS#1 and I were working in the backyard, our FBCM roo started crowing and he is only 14 weeks old and it just sounds hilarious. I laugh almost every time he crows!

By September the Jan. Hatch should really start laying and I'll be selling Blue eggs AND Marans eggs. Then by November I cull and some will be some nice pullets and keep the 15 best w/bw hens/pullets.

 

[CheerfulHeart2]

rainnotebook - Welcome to the AZ thread!

Hatchers - hope all goes well

Enjaytoo - nice pic's.

gckiddhouse - thanks for putting up your chook nook page. Nice.

Nessa - interesting CL post on quail.

rufus - nice to hear from you on tortoises and on other happenings. I hope the quincera went well. It was also interesting to learn that some of the animals at pratt's are rescued. Is the new church the pink buidling just off I-17. That has been interesting to watch go up. Good luck keeping the fly population under control.

I loved all the tortoise info from everyone else as well. Thank you.

Laree - did you notice we passed 500 pages?

All - today I bought sand to make dust bath's for my sweet ones.

 

[Handmadens]

I live in Mesa and have had chickens or a year. We had our first summer last year. Our coop is in a very shaded area between 2 citrus trees. We make sure they have lots of water and we bought one of those portable misters and when it reaches 95 we turn the mister on. We didn't lose any chickens during the summer but I did notice that they didn't lay eggs as often but other than that they seem to manage thru it just fine. Our chickens are not locked up in a coop all day and I did notice that they loved to hang out under the orange tree. We changed the water at least once a day to make sure it was fresh and cool.

Have fun
Diane

 

[tofuranch]

Quote:

to byc

 

[gckiddhouse]

Well, I wish you all had been standing by the coop today to witness my hens' craziness. Aren't they just so much fun to watch!!? Since you weren't there I will fill you in...

Anyone remember me saying that Penny kicked two eggs out the other day? I was wondering how she knew that they were not developing. Well, here is another possibility...

So, Penny - the BO is sitting on some expensive and precious eggs that are due to hatch on Monday night. But Fiona, the other hen (we only have 2 at the moment) is apparently jealous of all this broodiness. She has been getting in there and laying her egg next to Penny and we have been picking it up. She has never laid more than 3 eggs a week, so we thought we were getting them all.

Today Fiona (Speckled Sussex btw) got up in there with Penny and STOLE an egg out from under her and then sat on it. She tended to the egg and then laid her own egg. She then reached under Penny and got 2 more of her own eggs!! She had apparently entrusted them to Penny until her return. She sat for a while on her 4 eggs. All this, much to Penny's dismay, as you can imagine.

Aren't they just so silly? I don't know how well those eggs are doing under there. She seems to be getting her feathers ruffled a lot between Fiona's jealousy and my DH working on her suite.

Here are some pics of the scene:

The dark egg is stolen. The light egg is the one she just laid:

and she is reaching in for more:

Here's all 4 eggs:

Silly hen:

Hopefully, Fiona will be as enthusiastic about helping to raise all the babies!! Hope you got a kick out of that story!

 

[redrocketrooster]

Handmadens
Your post is really reassuring as this is my first year with my chickens in the summer! Anyways, I hope you have fun on BYC and the AZ thread moves real fast haha.

Haha wow gckiddhouse, that is hilarious! Lets hope it doesn't effect the eggs hatching success!

 

[Mahonri]

One of the reasons I wish I had made all of my nest boxes exactly 12 inches X 12 inches is to keep one hen in a box at a time.

I have a couple that are large like your's GC so we often have egg laying drama.

 

[gckiddhouse]

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Here is the same hen in a 12x12 box. Not sure you can really avoid silly hen-ness.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
A friend made some and I ordered some from here on BYC. If you search for "saddles" or "diapers" you will find a few people who make them. They seem pretty easy if you have a snap machine.