Arizona Chickens

[Mikey D]

Quote: Thanks, I'll have to check...

 

[parentwarrior]

My Araucana chicken bite is off a bit. Her bottom jaw sits to the side because the curve of her beak isn't right somehow on top. Any advice? I think she is about two months old now. I was going to take her to Dalton Birds in Mesa to see if she could fix her up unless you know someone better. It is not something I can do. Yes I got her at Mesa Feed store, probably why. A factory gal.


I just got a call from Jody at Dalton Birds. They do house calls, $35.00. She has never worked on a chicken before but she said it sounds like something called scissor beak that parrots get. She is willing to see what she can do. Any advice?

Kris Owen

 

[pupeluv]

Well, the coyote did not return last night. Maybe all the birds it got on Monday night kept it full. If I repeatedly went out around the time he is supposed to appear, for a few weeks, and threw rocks and yelled at him, would he get scared and not come back? Or should I just bring someone in to shoot him? 
[/quote]

Coyotes are wicked smart & he's probably already shown your coop to a friend or two. If it were me, I'd concentrate on coyote proofing the coop. My experience in the desert has been that if one predator finds weaknesses, other thieves are sure to follow. In other words, your coop is appealing and terminating this one coyote will just open up the territory for another predator.

Kelly

 

[pupeluv]

The coyote would think you had "baked" him a special dinner.  A goose might deter some predators, but definitely not a coyote.  Geese can be good at scaring small children away.

Llamas will kick a coyote's butt. They're used to guard sheep herds in south america. I don't have the room for one, but maybe someone else does.

 

[Novaleigh]

My African geese were WAY cleaner then my ducks...by a lot! Here is what I have learned owning ducks and geese:

Ducks: Wet messy poop that stinks
Geese: Grassy poop that dries up fast and isn't stinky

Ducks: Root their bills at the base of my plants and trees...tearing up the roots and killing my plants and trees. Also Eat any and all branches they can reach on my young fruit trees.
Geese: Do not bother the roots of plants and trees, but will tear up any branches in their reach.

Ducks: Will poop and mess in their little pond VERY quickly! I have to change the water once, even twice a day!
Geese: Will not mess the water up nearly as fast, plus, their poop isn't as stinky.

Ducks: Will stampede, breaking down fencing. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. (fencing was 2 ft. tall UVA/UVB resistant plastic chicken fencing held up with renewable
bamboo posts. This fencing works great for chickens, turkeys, and geese...but ducks break it!)
Geese: Will not break down fencing.

Ducks: Females have a loud quack all the time for no particular reason.
Geese: Only makes noise when valid flock disturbances occur. Such as an intruder, or when she detects panic in the flock. Geese make great alarm systems!

If I were to do it all again, I would skip getting ducks, and get geese and chickens. The list I made were on my own observances of 6 geese and 2 (now 1, thanks to that mangy mutt!) geese in my own flock.

Hey you know I just almost bought a goose the other day. Real sweet one at Pratts. Are geese cleaner than ducks? Anyone?

 

[pimachickens]

The Tour de Coop was last December - here is a link to their site for this coming extravaganza!

http://tourdecoops.org/

It was a bunch of fun and I got great ideas.

It is an all day self driving affair so...

Don't bring anyone who is not really, really into chickens!!!

It is just better for all concerned.

That was Phoenix, right? I don't know of one in Tucson, LMS. It would be great if there was!

 

[pimachickens]

Floppsy is the App Spitz who has a vitamin deficiency. At least when we give her the recommended Poly-vi-sol she gets better.

I went out this AM to let them out and she was outside the coop 12' away, just sett'n on the dirt.

Very lethargic and she is trembling - mostly her head, neck shoulders area - like she has Parkinson's disease.

Any ideas?

Is this the one that was missing? Could it just be heat stroke or lack of access to water for the time she was gone? I hope she gets better.

 

[azmotogirl]

My Araucana chicken bite is off a bit. Her bottom jaw sits to the side because the curve of her beak isn't right somehow on top. Any advice? I think she is about two months old now. I was going to take her to Dalton Birds in Mesa to see if she could fix her up unless you know someone better. It is not something I can do. Yes I got her at Mesa Feed store, probably why. A factory gal.


I just got a call from Jody at Dalton Birds. They do house calls, $35.00. She has never worked on a chicken before but she said it sounds like something called scissor beak that parrots get. She is willing to see what she can do. Any advice?

Kris Owen



REPLY:
We have one that has a severe "cross beak" and we have not had to do anything. She will be 19 weeks on Monday and is bigger than one of the others we got at the same time. (we only added three so one is bigger and one is smaller) My point being, our chick was able to get enough food and water to "keep up" with the others of the same age. As long as she is healthy we will leave her alone. (my husband thought we should cull her when the deformity showed up at about 8-9 weeks but I just couldn't do it as long as she was able to get enough food and water)

I do go out and soften some of their food with some water every now and then just so she has an easier time getting enough to eat. She seems to be able to eat more and have an easier time that way.

Hope this helps!

 

[parentwarrior]

My Araucana chicken bite is off a bit. Her bottom jaw sits to the side because the curve of her beak isn't right somehow on top. Any advice? I think she is about two months old now. I was going to take her to Dalton Birds in Mesa to see if she could fix her up unless you know someone better. It is not something I can do. Yes I got her at Mesa Feed store, probably why. A factory gal.


I just got a call from Jody at Dalton Birds. They do house calls, $35.00. She has never worked on a chicken before but she said it sounds like something called scissor beak that parrots get. She is willing to see what she can do. Any advice?

Kris Owen



REPLY:
We have one that has a severe "cross beak" and we have not had to do anything. She will be 19 weeks on Monday and is bigger than one of the others we got at the same time. (we only added three so one is bigger and one is smaller) My point being, our chick was able to get enough food and water to "keep up" with the others of the same age. As long as she is healthy we will leave her alone. (my husband thought we should cull her when the deformity showed up at about 8-9 weeks but I just couldn't do it as long as she was able to get enough food and water)

I do go out and soften some of their food with some water every now and then just so she has an easier time getting enough to eat. She seems to be able to eat more and have an easier time that way.

Hope this helps!

Thanks! I feel better knowing yours is fine. I know when I called the bird store they said if I brought her in they charge 7-10 dollars. I thought that was pretty cheap. The large parrots have this problem too. I may try it once but if it stresses her out too much I may not do it again. I bought two chicks at the time and she is much larger than my barred rock, they were the same age days old. I thought they should be about the same size as an adult so I am assuming she is eating ok since she is so big so quickly.
Kris

 

[Fuzzybird]

My African geese were WAY cleaner then my ducks...by a lot! Here is what I have learned owning ducks and geese:

Ducks: Wet messy poop that stinks
Geese: Grassy poop that dries up fast and isn't stinky

Ducks: Root their bills at the base of my plants and trees...tearing up the roots and killing my plants and trees. Also Eat any and all branches they can reach on my young fruit trees.
Geese: Do not bother the roots of plants and trees, but will tear up any branches in their reach.

Ducks: Will poop and mess in their little pond VERY quickly! I have to change the water once, even twice a day!
Geese: Will not mess the water up nearly as fast, plus, their poop isn't as stinky.

Ducks: Will stampede, breaking down fencing. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. (fencing was 2 ft. tall UVA/UVB resistant plastic chicken fencing held up with renewable
bamboo posts. This fencing works great for chickens, turkeys, and geese...but ducks break it!)
Geese: Will not break down fencing.

Ducks: Females have a loud quack all the time for no particular reason.
Geese: Only makes noise when valid flock disturbances occur. Such as an intruder, or when she detects panic in the flock. Geese make great alarm systems!

If I were to do it all again, I would skip getting ducks, and get geese and chickens. The list I made were on my own observances of 6 geese and 2 (now 1, thanks to that mangy mutt!) geese in my own flock.

Thanks Nova. Next time I see a goose I like I may look into it. My hubby says NO but I don't always do what he says!