Arizona Chickens

[pdx2phx]

Hi to all of those who have joined/started posting recently!

I'm not getting thread update emails from BYC, so between forgetting to check and work craziness I've been behind!

I meant to post this update a while ago, but we got in 27 chicks from Ideal Poultry this past week. They're all bantys and are doing great so far. We will probably keep 5 or so and rehome the others as needed (we can't have roos)

We have 3 of each

:

Sultans
Buff Brahmas
Red Frizzle Cochins
White Frizzle Cochins
Mille Fleur D'Uccles
Ameraucanas
Buff Japanese
Buff Laced Old English
Silver Sebrights

I will hopefully get it together enough to post some pics soon

Right now they're living the high life in the garage

We caught crickets for them yesterday & today....now that was funny to watch!

On another note, our NH and GLW pullets are both laying now!

The GLW eggs are broken on the tip every time..not sure if she's just laying them and letting them drop?? She scratches out all of the bedding down to the plywood, so that's part of it I'm sure....

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
I lined the bottom of my nestboxes with cardboard to prevent this. I have to replace it every once in awhile but it works great.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
Thanks!
I got the instructions from here:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=39717-how-to-build-a-brood-pen

I liked it because it looks like a mini version of the bigger one we already had.
The instructions were easy to follow and the whole thing ended up costing under $200.
I already had the roofing material (Craigslist) and we used "oops" paint. The most expensive thing was the hardware cloth but we're going to use the excess(+ some) to replace the chicken-wire on the big coop.

 

[pdx2phx]

Quote:
I lined the bottom of my nestboxes with cardboard to prevent this. I have to replace it every once in awhile but it works great.

Ooh...great idea! I will try it

thanks!

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

I'm hardly getting any eggs - it's been this way for a few months now. I get between 2-5 from over about a dozen laying hens (I still have some pullets that hatched in late February and are not laying yet). What's really weird is that my Blue Andalusian starting laying eggs a few weeks ago and was laying about 5 eggs a week - she hasn't laid an egg for almost a week now (she's my only white egg layer, so I can keep track of her pretty easily).




I just finished breaking my little dark blue Ameraucana from being broody, AGAIN. The 2 barnevelders I had would go broody once or twice a year - this little Ameraucana hen has gone broody 4 times this year (4 times since spring!). She lays for about 3-4 weeks and then starts setting again.


I finally put her into a cage for 3 days and she started acting normally yesterday - Today I discovered 1 one of my young Ameraucana mixes is broody now. It would be great if I could use them, but I've found that my chicks raised by hens are never as friendly as the ones we raise in a brooder, and since we don't want skittish chickens, I really have no use for a broody anymore.

 

[Bob's Henhouse]

Becky, nice looking coop.

re: molting, I haven't noticed any molting. I have 2 naked necks that have very few feathers but it looks like they have been pulled by the roos while mating.
re: eggs, I'm getting about 5 dozen a day from who knows how many hens. We quit counting a few months ago. So, if anyone needs eggs, or wants to hatch 'mutts', let me know. Some of the crosses look pretty cool. Have a Japanese that is black with brown mixed in towards the front half of his body.
Anyway, I'm thinking that having a cooler running on the coop all summer probably helps.
I do have a few that are perpetually broody. I try to break them but either they or another one quickly takes it's place.

Hopefully if the weather cools off enough for work to slow a bit I want to build 6 smaller coops/pens so I can put specific roos and hens together.

 

[Bob's Henhouse]

Mahonri ,would you have a talk with these chicks and tell them to quit flopping over onto their backs? I found one of the Ameraucanas doing that, and almost unresponsive when I came in from feeding the flock, and I had just checked on them before I went out.

Not a great pic, but here's an idea of what the coop looks like.

 

[Bob's Henhouse]

It's been modified a few times since I built it, added the 'Arizona' room, added more nest boxes inside and outside, added racks hanging from the ceiling for storing 24 bags of feed, (keeps mice out and keeps them cool ) so there is lots of finishing and clean up to do on it.

 

[Bob's Henhouse]

Mahonri, here are the new hatches. The one closest to the camera is the one recovering from being on it's back.

 

[gckiddhouse]

Quote:
I lined the bottom of my nestboxes with cardboard to prevent this. I have to replace it every once in awhile but it works great.

That is so smart. We got a lot of eggs that were broken at the ends when we were treating the chickens for pests and took all the bedding out of the whole coop. Yeah. They were hitting that wood and cracking. Cardboard would have been smart.