Arizona Chickens

[AZBootsie]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Hi everyone. I'm brand new to this forum, I just signed up last week, and I'll do my darnedest to make sure I spell check everything before I post.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I was invited to this thread through in PM from [/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Gallo del Cielo[/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif], so thank you for that. I had no idea there were that many Chicken Farmers in AZ, but I should have known. I live between Kingman (the quick you-know-what stop between Phoenix and Las Vegas) and Bullhead City/Laughlin in the thriving Golden Valley. If you look on a map, north of Interstate 40, there is really only one way to get from Kingman to Bullhead/Laughlin, and that's on AZ 68. We live just north of marker 21.. [/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]My Lady and I are adamant supporters of the Mohave County Fair, and we are both Chairman(woman) heads of committees, she has been the Safety and Security Chairman for five years, I am a past Commercial Vendors Chairman and am now the Parade and Opening Ceremonies Chairman, plus she is the Chairman of the Committees. So we are quite involved.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I wanted to start a small entry into Chickens, but as we all know ... Chicken Math took over ... what started as two RIR two day old chicks too quickly turned into 24 chicks of various breeds, don't ask, I do NOT know all of what I have, but I DO know that we have five Leghorns, and only three of the chickens are named, and that's the first two, the RIR's. "Delicious" and "Delectable," and one still very small Runt (so named because of size), although I believe the Runt is a Banny, thus accounting for the size.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]My fist batch of ten were purchases over a week, and housed in a brooder box in my office/computer room, then I built a chicken tractor from plans I found on line, but I wasn't very happy with that. When they were about nine weeks old I went out and bough another batch of ten, plus I was promised a couple of roosters to be picked up a week later. These had names for a while. In order to know (at that time) which were the rooster, we made little bands for them from wire ties, one was green and one was blue, so they became Mr. Green and Mr. Blue.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]When these guys were about two weeks old we cut these off as they were getting to the point where they looked like they might be getting 'tight,' so rather than take a chance on them growing too fast, we cut those off and made new ones, but those were too loose, and fell off. I decided that we'd know soon enough who was a rooster anyway, so we left them off.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Then I built a second tractor, this one much larger and much lighter, and easier to move.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]At six weeks (and five weeks) old, they were just too crowded in the brooder box (remember, there were five Leghorns) and I decided they needed to be moved outside, but the new tractor wasn't done yet, but I moved them anyway.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I spent a whole day enclosing the tractor (lower half) in chicken wire with the intent of finishing the coop in a week or so. They have plenty of shade with the floor of the coop in place (4' X 4' and two feet off the ground), and eight feet by four feet of running room, so I am not too concerned about them being crowded.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Anyway, I still have tons of work to do, both for the chickens and myself, but eventually everything will get done.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]OK, I've introduced myself.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Photto[/FONT]​

Hello and Welcome!!

Golden Valley!!! I lived there from 1986 to 1997. When we bought our property, you could count the rooftops in GV from Coyote Pass.....I am sure I wouldn't recognise the place now.

 

[pdx2phx]

Quote:

You were right....it was from the umbilical cord spot. It was a lot of intestine for such a tiny little chick (serama). I tried with a wet warm q-tip to gently roll/push the intestine back in, but it was a long length, and every time she peeped she'd push out more of it....

I cuddled her for a good while, talked to her softly and then DH put her down quickly and painlessly.

Sometimes my heart is just too tender for this.....

 

[pimachickens]

Oh, Mahonri and Pdx2phx, I am so sorry for both of your losses today.

 

[pimachickens]

Welcome Phottoman!

 

[parentwarrior]

Lost my first hen to the heat today.

She laid an egg at about 4:45 PM, jumped down from the nest box and died. One of my most beautiful, pretty Icelandics from my NYD hatch.

They've been getting cold, cold water 2-3 times a day but it got up to 111 today and it's going to hit 114 on Saturday.

Makes me sad.

Maybe I should just forget chickens.

Don't give up. I have misters with a fan running through the mist then I covered the top of the cage where the misters are to hold the cooler air in a bit. My guys are hot and pant a bit but not too uncomfortable. They sit under the misters in front of the fan in the shade. I am hoping this is enough, so far so good. I will put a frozen milk jug out tomorrow too. Maybe the fan blowing on it will be cooling. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Mikey D]

Anyone want to help a newbie plan the garden/chicken corner?

I didn't know where to post this, so I figured I'd start with the local gang, since you all seem to know so much, and also enjoy snickering at the newbies! ;-)

Here's the thing: My loving husband has no faith in my ability to keep anything (plant or animal) alive and pretty (despite the fact that I cook for him and he is still around) so he doesn't want the veggie garden/chicken run anywhere front and center in our yard. He wants to basically hide it in a corner behind the shed, which is fine with me since there's some shade there, except that it doesn't seem like there's going to be much room for a garden too.

Since we don't have chickens yet, I'm planning the coop/run to account for chicken math. I want to start with 3 (so 5) laying hens, and since I know I won't be able to kill/eat/give away the older ones once they stop laying, I figure I'll need room for 8. When I'm home, they could free range, but I want to account for having to keep them fenced in the run while we're away/when I go back to work. For confined chickens, I read they need 10 sf per bird. So the coop will be 5 x7 and the run would be 8 x 10, plus they'd have room under the raised coop where I'm planning to put the water/feed. Does that sound right? Too much space? If I do it this way, I have very little room left in the corner for my veggie garden (a total of 48 sf, I wanted about double that). I also need room (how much? 2 sf?) for a worm bin and a small compost pile for the bedding and whatever compostable food scraps can't be eaten by chickens and worms (is there such a thing? I was thinking citrus and banana peels mostly). I have no idea how much space I need for a compost pile, whether it can be up against the wall of the chicken coop, or if I should do a single pile or a three-bin system. Any advice there would be great.

So yeah, I'm not even a chicken mom yet, and already the birds have way more space than the garden that's supposed to feed my family. I think I'm in trouble.... Anyone here sew chicken diapers for inside the house? (I'm joking... But then again... Wouldn't that solve the space issue outside?) Oh gosh help me.

If you figure you are gong to eventually wind up with 8, plan for 16 - 20!

Not kidding!

 

[Mikey D]

Quote:
Have you ever nuzzled your nose right into the neck of one of your chickens? I do that occasionally when I check them at night before locking them up (the roost is right at head height). I think they smell awesome. Well, that does sound a bit weird now that I think about it.
Ummmm....

Gallo....

Yes I have.

I actually have a pretty sensitive beak myself & use it to detect illness in my family;

and my flock.

 

[Mikey D]

So 10 hens can hang out happily in 32 sf of space under the coop and not have issues? I'm thinking maybe I should see if I can make the chicken space smaller -- if I can get it just right, I'm hoping to be able to have two separate garden beds: 1 on each side of the coop so that they can access one or the other but not both. That way, one can be planted for us, the other can have cover crop for the chickens to forage, and then I can switch the next season.

And is it naive to believe what I read about chickens leaving the garden alone if you never feed them from it? Like if I don't give them lettuce or carrot tops, they won't bother them in the garden? (Read that in Jessie Bloom's book about free range chicken gardens...)

Your chickens will absolutely leave your garden alone!

Right after they have denuded it of everything living including the earthworms!

 

[Mikey D]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Hi everyone. I'm brand new to this forum, I just signed up last week, and I'll do my darnedest to make sure I spell check everything before I post.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I was invited to this thread through in PM from [/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Gallo del Cielo[/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif], so thank you for that. I had no idea there were that many Chicken Farmers in AZ, but I should have known. I live between Kingman (the quick you-know-what stop between Phoenix and Las Vegas) and Bullhead City/Laughlin in the thriving Golden Valley. If you look on a map, north of Interstate 40, there is really only one way to get from Kingman to Bullhead/Laughlin, and that's on AZ 68. We live just north of marker 21.. [/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]My Lady and I are adamant supporters of the Mohave County Fair, and we are both Chairman(woman) heads of committees, she has been the Safety and Security Chairman for five years, I am a past Commercial Vendors Chairman and am now the Parade and Opening Ceremonies Chairman, plus she is the Chairman of the Committees. So we are quite involved.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I wanted to start a small entry into Chickens, but as we all know ... Chicken Math took over ... what started as two RIR two day old chicks too quickly turned into 24 chicks of various breeds, don't ask, I do NOT know all of what I have, but I DO know that we have five Leghorns, and only three of the chickens are named, and that's the first two, the RIR's. "Delicious" and "Delectable," and one still very small Runt (so named because of size), although I believe the Runt is a Banny, thus accounting for the size.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]My fist batch of ten were purchases over a week, and housed in a brooder box in my office/computer room, then I built a chicken tractor from plans I found on line, but I wasn't very happy with that. When they were about nine weeks old I went out and bough another batch of ten, plus I was promised a couple of roosters to be picked up a week later. These had names for a while. In order to know (at that time) which were the rooster, we made little bands for them from wire ties, one was green and one was blue, so they became Mr. Green and Mr. Blue.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]When these guys were about two weeks old we cut these off as they were getting to the point where they looked like they might be getting 'tight,' so rather than take a chance on them growing too fast, we cut those off and made new ones, but those were too loose, and fell off. I decided that we'd know soon enough who was a rooster anyway, so we left them off.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Then I built a second tractor, this one much larger and much lighter, and easier to move.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]At six weeks (and five weeks) old, they were just too crowded in the brooder box (remember, there were five Leghorns) and I decided they needed to be moved outside, but the new tractor wasn't done yet, but I moved them anyway.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]I spent a whole day enclosing the tractor (lower half) in chicken wire with the intent of finishing the coop in a week or so. They have plenty of shade with the floor of the coop in place (4' X 4' and two feet off the ground), and eight feet by four feet of running room, so I am not too concerned about them being crowded.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Anyway, I still have tons of work to do, both for the chickens and myself, but eventually everything will get done.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]OK, I've introduced myself.[/FONT]

[FONT=arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif]Photto[/FONT]​

Welcome Photto!

I too got a bit crazy - but it was all planned...right?

 

[Mikey D]

Lost my first hen to the heat today.

She laid an egg at about 4:45 PM, jumped down from the nest box and died. One of my most beautiful, pretty Icelandics from my NYD hatch.

They've been getting cold, cold water 2-3 times a day but it got up to 111 today and it's going to hit 114 on Saturday.

Makes me sad.

Maybe I should just forget chickens.

So sorry Mahonri.

I haven't seen mine in a few days and am worried as well.

We turned off the swamp cooler which was cooling the coop / run (exhaust from the house) so now all they have is shade and a mister.