Arizona Chickens

[Bobby Basham]

In Tucson, the City Code states that you can have up to 24(?) hens, no roosters. However, our HOA states that you can have a "reasonable" number of fowl, as long as they're not used for commercial purposes/profit.

What is "reasonable?" I could easily have a dozen girls running around back in a big 10' X maybe 30' run. Maybe with some of the noise they make, I can get revenge on the two constantly yapping ankle-biters to my right and the incessant howling Pitbull on the left.

I went out to my mailbox one afternoon to retrieve my mail and the two ankle-biters charged me, so close that I could have punted them like a football back into their yard. And, the young snooty girl was up by her front door on her cell phone. She never called them back, and I yelled at her to retreive her dogs, this is unacceptable, and they are not permitted to run loose.

Miss Thing turned her back to me, still on her cell phone, and walked into her front door, never calling her dogs. Another reason why I can't stand kids to this day...totally disrespectful and think that the world owes them. She probably told her parents that I yelled at her, and they don't speak to me. I don't think they're supposed to be living there in the first place, but that's another story.

Sorry to vent, but I cannot tolerate disrespectful kids. It seems like "time out" doesn't always work, and some of them truly need a good asswhipping or three. What happened to respect your elders? Okay, shouldn't have gone there because that could get some parents riled up. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

 

[Fuzzybird]

I hear ya Bobby!

 

[Phottoman]

Bobby, I am of the same age, respect is totally lacking because parents weren't taught respect, nor morals, so they don't know how to teach THAT either.

I was in a resturant once and there were two kids running around causing all sorts of noise and discontent, one of them even tripped a waitress with two arms full of platters, everything went all over the floor. The parents looked up and started cussing the waitress and accusing HER of causing the two little angels to start crying.

I walked over and took off my belt, and held it under the dad's nose and said ... "If you don't have one of these, you are MORE than welcome to use mine."

They left the resturant at the moment, muttering about how abusive people were to kids these days.

Photto

 

[parentwarrior]

I have a question for everyone. My cage gets muddy from the rain. They like to go under the coop when it rains but there is mud everywhere else. Does everyone just leave the dirt or am I suppose to put something down on the ground of the outdoor cage like hay or straw. I noticed that wet hay and grass clippings stink and I was trying to keep the smell down. I have pine shavings in my small coop area on the floor but I don't thing that would cover my cage area well because of the size. I would think in the winter the ground gets cold to walk on too.

I plan to keep a heat lamp in in the coop area come winter. The floor of the coop is open to the ground below the area where they roost on the one side of my coop. It is like their secret entrance into the coop from underneath...LOL I am hoping it doesn't get too cold come winter but the air flow is nice in the summer.

Also I have Miracle grow bags of dirt. Can I use that to line under the coop? Is that a no no because of the chemicals in the dirt? I was just thinking it would be nice to have soft dirt to scratch instead of the hard packed clay soil we have.

 

[Mikey D]

This is Trixie. She is 18 weeks old today. She is half Ameracauna (mom) and half Bantam Mottled Cochin (dad). Mama Hen Gretchen hatched her from one of the fertile eggs I got from Puffycheeks. I am egg-cited that she squatted today!!! She has been checking out the nest box the past couple days. Hopefully will get an egg in the next few weeks.

Good luck on the blue!

 

[Di Gibbs]

Raid around the chickens?

~Di

 

[Di Gibbs]

Do you have any chick pictures?? She is beautiful.

~Di

 

[Mikey D]

I am hoping to connect with a group of Gilbert AZ chicken lovers to pursue a change of codes. As a group we have more power to convince the possibility of allowing chickens in the SF-6 zones and up not only SF 8 and up. Are there any chicken lovers out there in Gilbert?

Here is a great report I like to share and repost. I found it here in the forum:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2119494

It's a free download very useful in pursuing Town Officials to make a change.

Check out the movie "Mad City Chickens"

It is a documantary about Madison county that ran into the same issue.

VPA put it on at the wine house about a year ago.

 

[sevenrays]

I throw straw in that should actually help with the smell (hay might have to much nitrogen in it that can cause the rotting smell) since the poop wont just sit on top of the hard clay. Please do not use the Miracle grow bags,they are to toxic. When you do deep straw it actually helps the soil underneath stay moist so wormies (which chickens love and are good for them) can harbor there. Mine now after 1 year really start to dig deep into the soil. Like little rototillers. So I suggest straw.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I have a question for everyone. My cage gets muddy from the rain. They like to go under the coop when it rains but there is mud everywhere else. Does everyone just leave the dirt or am I suppose to put something down on the ground of the outdoor cage like hay or straw. I noticed that wet hay and grass clippings stink and I was trying to keep the smell down. I have pine shavings in my small coop area on the floor but I don't thing that would cover my cage area well because of the size. I would think in the winter the ground gets cold to walk on too.

I plan to keep a heat lamp in in the coop area come winter. The floor of the coop is open to the ground below the area where they roost on the one side of my coop. It is like their secret entrance into the coop from underneath...LOL I am hoping it doesn't get too cold come winter but the air flow is nice in the summer.

Also I have Miracle grow bags of dirt. Can I use that to line under the coop? Is that a no no because of the chemicals in the dirt? I was just thinking it would be nice to have soft dirt to scratch instead of the hard packed clay soil we have.

Ideally, the elevation of the run should be slightly higher than the surrounding area so that water can run off before it makes a muddy mess; perhaps you could build it up with a few bags of sand? I added enough soil to my run so that it was originally about one inch higher than the surrounding area. Then I also added sod every winter on top of that. Consequently, the run is now about three inches higher than the area just outside the run. I don't know how many years I'll be able to keep that up before I have to remove some soil. The good thing is that the run never has standing water in it. I don't think I'd recommend adding hay or straw as a means to alleviate the water problem because that will ultimately hold moisture and keep the soil from drying out. Hay can cause it to get pretty stinky too if it gets wet. I think that most folks have just plain dirt on the run floor. Having said all that, every week or so I spread out a fresh flake of alfalfa in the run for the chickens to scratch at.

I don't know about the Miracle grow soil. I'm sure they put fertilizer in it, but I'm not sure in what form or if it's in a form that would be something that chickens might like to peck at. You're right though, they will like having an area with softer dirt for dust bathing. Do they have an area now with soft soil that they dust bath in? Do you compost? Finished compost would be great mixed in with the native soil.