Arizona Chickens

[Billiam]

I just have to say how impressed I am with my five Black Australorp chickens. While I was researching what breed I wanted, I knew I wanted a good egg producer. Everything I read about them said to expect five eggs a week per bird. Well, I constantly get five eggs everyday and nearly two weeks at a time. When I don't get five eggs in a day I usually get four and very rarely does that happen two days in a row. I seriously get between 33 to 35 eggs a week with these five girls. All the eggs we can't eat we give them to family and friends and the rest I take to work and accept "donations" which help pays for the next months feed. I am loving these BA's!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: A few years back we had a birthday party for my youngest at a sortof dude ranch in Bumble Bee. They have several ranch dogs that are trained to scent (and stay away from) rattlers. Apparently rattlers are very stinky. Anyways, whenever they find one, they behead it and put the dogs in near the headless (and therefore harmless) rattlesnake while it flops around in rigor mortise. The dogs all have shock collars, and if/when they go anywhere near the snake, they get a very strong zap. The dogs ALWAYS wear the collars, so they are always aware that they might be zapped for going anywhere near a rattler. Maybe a dog trainer would be able to figure out how to transfer that into also preventing their humans from going near rattlers.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Ok, so someone either sqeezed to hard pushing this egg out or it cracked from falling of the coop. I actually think that it may have fallen out when one of the girls was jumping out of the coop to come get food or something. Who knows but what I do know is that I have gotten 4 eggs so far today. 3 are from layers that just started in the last week. One is a 1st time egg (olive easter egger next to green egg from adult easter egger), one is severely deformed, one is cracked and the other from an adult. I should get one more adult egg today and perhaps another young ones egg. I love having chickens. My chickens are the easiest pets I have.

Not all that uncommon; especially with girls new to laying.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: Nekton MSA for the soft shell layer. (I may have already told you this.)

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Sonoran Silkies I have been trying to read the whole Painted Silkies thread. Slow going but I have learned about black breeding to the paints and the controversy about using white. I wanted to know if you or Aurorarose use black or white to breed with the paints and if you do paint to paint? I assume to use either black or white the hen or rooster in question should also have black or white parents? Here is better pictures of my paints I got from the eggs I got from aurorarose. I guess I have a Loud paint? Daisy was born white and now shows she is a paint. Can you tell by the pictures if PoppyCock is a cock? I am pretty sure Daisy is a hen. They are now 15 weeks old.

I can't speak for Danyell, only for myself. I am not sure on gender of either. Look at combs (or post photos), and feel the distance between their pubic bones. Larger, looser spacing indicated female (room to lay eggs). Tighter, firmer spacing indicates male (no need to expand to let an egg through).

The one bird is indeed very LOUD. The other looks like maybe blue spots?

A fair amount of my breeding is experimental--what happens IF... So, I have some unusual pairings, and once I have some data to report, I will do so on the club website. I do have some more normal pairings.

There are really two types of breeding to whites. The first is breeding to a white that came from a paint breeding, and the second is breeding to a typical white that did not come from paint breeding. I'd have to go back and look at what people have reported from the first of these, but these birds are almost certainly dominant white. The second type of breeding to white brings recessive white into the mix, and I don't really think that is a good plan. It is a lot like blindly grabbing a can from your pantry and adding it to your stew. Might work really well (can of carrots added to a beef stew), and might be a disaster if it happens to be blueberry pie filling and a curry stew. And with a different bird, it is like an entirely different unknown can that you are adding. The unknown genes that you added can come back to haunt you in a generation or two, and you will also start getting some recessive whites out of your paint breedings.

Those who have bred paint to paint have overall not been very happy with the results. Pigment holes on feet and in eyes are more common and abundant, and type also seems to be affected. Those who have bred to black seem overall much happier with their offspring.

 

[AZBootsie]

Bootsie, thought you might like to see the marans we got from you. One of the hens is a blue orpinton. One of the hens are not in the picture for she was laying. We get eggs almost everyday but not aways the same hen. Do have two that lay adult colored eggs now tho.

Thanks Fuzzy!!

They look just like the ones I kept. Out of my 3 WMs I get 2 eggs a day also. Though not as SOP looking as I had hoped for, their eggs are beautiful!!

Once I get some of my chicks weeded out, it would be great to mate them with either a Wheaten Am roo, or a Blue Am roo and make some Olive Eggers.

ItsredCandy- Love your Olive Egg!! My Granddaughter fell in love with my only Olive laying pullet and took her home. Anxious to breed some more.

 

[AZBootsie]

I just have to say how impressed I am with my five Black Australorp chickens. While I was researching what breed I wanted, I knew I wanted a good egg producer. Everything I read about them said to expect five eggs a week per bird. Well, I constantly get five eggs everyday and nearly two weeks at a time. When I don't get five eggs in a day I usually get four and very rarely does that happen two days in a row. I seriously get between 33 to 35 eggs a week with these five girls. All the eggs we can't eat we give them to family and friends and the rest I take to work and accept "donations" which help pays for the next months feed. I am loving these BA's!

I was drooling over those last pics you posted. Just love their looks!! One day I will have to get some.......soooo many breeds, so little coop space!!!

 

[pupeluv]

I miss horny toads; we had loads of them when I was a kid in Texas; have only seen a very, very few in AZ.

We used to have tons of them here 30 years ago but land development has made them disappear. I believe they're critically endangered in AZ now. I remember when I was a child finding one on our doorstep, sick and with a mangled back leg. We kept it in an aquarium and fed it meal worms and wild caught crickets until it got better, then we released it. This was around 67th Ave & McDowell, believe it or not. THat was a developing area back then.

To my sorrow, I haven't seen one in many years.

 

[Olive Hill]

Hi AZ peeps, I hope you don't mind a Michigander sticking her head in for a moment -- this came to me via some Border Collie groups I'm a part of, but any and all help would be appreciated. There are a couple dogs missing in the Wilcox AZ area, following a tragic car accident near mile marker 351 on I-10 today. One dog was killed in the crash, three captured and in the hospital and these two are at large. They belong to an agility trainer who was also with them in the accident. There are search parties out, but I thought if any of you are in the area you might keep your eyes peeled.

 

[pdx2phx]

Come home from work and our broody EE has a chick! I can't believe it.....it's been so hot/dry that nothing has been developing or hatching lately.

Do you think we're ok to leave her outside with the chick in this heat, or should we bring the chick inside and brood her ourselves?? I'm worried about the heat and access to water. Mama is just inside the coop so others are free to come/go and I'm worried about the chick getting squished or needing fluids sooner than normal.

I really don't wanna do a house broody again - that was such a nasty stinky mess last time. What do you all think??