Arizona Chickens

[NoSkiveez]

208 isn't far from me. I'm at 194.

We have field mice. I dislike mice in the house. When we moved in here we sealed up all small holes and it took care of that problem. We get them inside the wall from time to time. We think the go in thru the attic. We haven't put any poison out because I am afraid one will die in the attic and smell or attract other unwanted bugs. Plus our dog thinks its a bonus when she finds something dead to eat, as if she doesn't get enough as it is.

 

[rufus]

Yes, I think the bird is a Harris Hawk. Hopefully, it will eat some of the pigeons and feral cats in the neighborhood. My chickens are condemned to the coop until they leave.

I am real reluctant to put out poison for rodents. I put poison under our house in Overgaard when people were dying of the sickness carried by the deer mice. I am not sure what name they finally gave it, but we are not to call it the Navajo flu.

I inadvertently killed off the squirrel population. I really didn't want squirrels under my house either, but the neighbors were feeding them and thought of them as pets. Of course, I never fessed up to it.

Mice you can kill off with a constant trapping program, but roof rats are another thing. If you think of a way of getting rid of them without poison, let me know.

Rufus

 

[Bob's Henhouse]

Rufus, I think they called it the Hantavirus.

We have field mice too. Every now and then one gets in the house, and even more in the garage. The king snakes get into the garage, and a 3 1/2 footer went crawling across the living room a while back and my SO about had a heart attack. It was pretty funny. I cornered it and carried it back outside. Wish I could get the chickens to chase down the mice like I've heard and seen, but they only eat them when I catch and kill them for them. I really think I need to quit feeding them so well!

The mice and prairie dogs just have too much fun eating my garden and trees. And then the birds eat the fruit the other critters can't reach. Makes one want to give up.

 

[mclevinson]

We just moved to this house in August. At our last house the cat brought me gophers, sometimes 2 a day. He just discovered mice somewhere and is now bringing them home.

 

[mclevinson]

I promised to update you on 1/2 hardware cloth (cage wire). The cheapest I have found is at Higley Feeds. They will special order it for you. 1/2 X 1/2 x 48 by 100 ft is $100. No shipping. Delivery in 8 to 10 days. Noskivvies, that means my coop should be ready in about about 11 days. This is about half or a little less than half the cost of Lowes or Home Depot.

Looks like my husbands love of fresh roasted turkey is negated by his desire to be chickenless. I'm going to be toughing out the coop building on my own.

 

[Mahonri]

Tucson Tofu!

I thought you had an incubator! Yikes! Anyone have an incubator in Tucson?!!

Glad you liked the eggs. I should have gone down early, hiked Piccacho and then did the trade.

As for the 12 week old you gave me, She is beautiful! She looks a tad lonely, but I've checked her over from head to toe so I think in a couple of days she'll go in with the non-aggressive Polish. I hope it's a SHE!!

We decided that her mama is the White Crested Blue roo X BBL Polish that looked splash and then the daddy has to have been the French Black Copper Maran when they were free ranging and I wasn't looking because there is no way the Ameraucana could give that coloring... but there are no leg feathers so that's weird cuz he's got a ton and all of his chicks I think have had feathering on the legs. So she'll probably lay brown even though her ear lobes are whitish.

 

[squeakyballs]

my broody decided she can't handle a dozen eggs. She pushed a few over to the side and was sitting on those instead of the main pile. I put 6 under her and brought the rest inside.

Are they still good, even though she sat on them for somewhere between 1 and 6 hours, then let them get cold?

My old neighbor said AGES ago that he has an incubator. I'll have to see if I can get in contact with him... he is hard to find sometimes. I don't know if he is reliable when it comes to incubating the eggs.

Otherwise, does anyone else want to give it a go? I'll split the chicks with you!

 

[squeakyballs]

Quote:
I almost brought you an extra polish to go along with her, but I wasn't sure if you're wife would kill you or not! I know you mentioned you were a tad overrun

Too bad she won't lay blue eggs! I know that is what you were hoping for... brown polish eggs would be fun though

The egg she came from was small and I think cream coloured.

 

[a2ms4chickens]

Quote:
Sorry I missed you! I did meet Gallo del Cielo, today. If you were there before 11:00 am I was clerking for one of the judges. Afterwards, I may have been sitting down by the big white trailer. We were there from 8:30am to 5:30pm, so it made for a long day. Gotta be back in the morning so my DS can enter the junior show.

My DS sold his light brown dutch pullet, and bought a polish cockeral and 2 pullets. Now, where to put them?

Angie

 

[squeakyballs]

Quote:
Sorry I missed you! I did meet Gallo del Cielo, today. If you were there before 11:00 am I was clerking for one of the judges. Afterwards, I may have been sitting down by the big white trailer. We were there from 8:30am to 5:30pm, so it made for a long day. Gotta be back in the morning so my DS can enter the junior show.

My DS sold his light brown dutch pullet, and bought a polish cockeral and 2 pullets. Now, where to put them?

Angie

Ooh! Good luck!