Arizona Chickens

[maggiemooscluckers]

I'll agree it's COLD out there. I also haven't checked the plants. Don't see too much need at this point. They will either make it or they won't. My 23 week old pullets gave me 6 little eggs today. Not bad I think from 8 chickens. They have only been laying for 3 weeks now. I have a question for all of you. How do you find a good home for your roos. I am thinking about giving my roo to a "good flock". He is really good with the girls but I think I may have put the coop just a little too close to the bedroom window. My husband isn't amused with the early morning wake up calls. I am going to give him just a little bit more time to establish a more "regular" crowing time. Some days he's great, other days , not so much. He really is beautiful and so far is easy going with me and he watches out for the girls. By the way, he is a dark brahma named Teddy.( of course he started out as a Thelma!) I'd appreciate any input that you may have. I'd rather keep him but I like being married more!

 

[mclevinson]

Quote:
So sorry about your kid goat. So happy you found (and married) a great guy!

 

[Mahonri]

Well tonight, I'm worried. It didn't get over 45 here today... was it ever this cold in Dec. or Jan????

I've got the water on the garden again, I hope it works. I imagine I've lost all of my seeds and will have to replant those, I'm just hoping I can save the plants.

 

[mclevinson]

Quote:
Lost my last heirloom tomato

. So cold the water in my fountain froze a full inch, and never melted today. It's still 1/2 inch thick! My livingroom has my new tomato, herb pots, moringa tree... I covered the coop on 3 sides with moving blankets held against the wind with bricks of small castlerock. Brrrrrr! The girls came through just fine. Gave them some scratch corn mix this afternoon to try to heat 'em up.

It's suppossed to be even colder tonight.

I never remember it being so cold this late in the season, nor for so long. Did I say Brrrrr?

 

[constance]

Mahonri - If you have it, I have had pretty good luck with a combination of straw and sheets, but I don't know about this freeze. I have loosely staked the seedlings, then put cages around the seedlings and stakes, gently mounded straw around the plants as high as I could to protect the growing tips, then put the blankets over that. Two years ago I went really crazy and put some newspaper layers in there, too. It just stinks to have the new plants die.

Good luck.

 

[dewey]

Hi Anna

It's colder than usual but over the years it does happen. It usually snows a couple of times a year in Phx during the winter, and quite often it hails in June & July during monsoon, even if the NWS doesn't record it. The subtropic desert can be so extreme. Arizona has had the highest and the lowest temp in the nation -- on the same day, lol.

I turned the rabbit barn heater up just a enough to keep it above freezing for them, and the girls are tarped (over several layers of heavy moving blankets) so hopefully they'll all be fine with the drastic temp changes.

I'd use row covers when I planted a lot in Jan. Never an issue unless the winds got bad and blew them off. I grew up around commercial fields and the old orchards here...tending all night fire pots, irrigation, and windmills was really common practice with these types of temps...which really weren't that unusual, there just wasn't official reading stations in those area then.

Just think, in a few months it'll be time to lament the exteme heat again.

 

[S*T*A*R]

It was 9 degrees tonight at 5:00 P.M.!!! It's is FREEZING out there! The weather reports this morning said that if you stood out there for half and hour that you would get frostbite! Half an hour!!!

 

[Mahonri]

Well, I watered but the 2nd area I watered had ice all over everything before I shut it off.

I put towels and sheets over as much as I could. Makes me sick.

As long as I've been here, it's never gotten this cold in February.

It's 35 out there right now, so I'm guessing the low will be somewhere between 24-27. Makes me sad too.

 

[dewey]

22 degrees windchill factor right now at 9:33pm. Considering the coldest temp hits just at sunrise, we're in for a cold night. Friday night promises to be colder. Last night it was 44 degrees in my house. I had to get up out of bed just to get cold, lol. Brrrr.

 

[NoSkiveez]

Have you seen these pics of frozen water fountains on the news? Makes me wish I had one. Its really cold. I mean really really cold!