Arizona Chickens

[Demosthine]

ThANKS ! Can't wait to see your pics!!!

Well, I finished the majority of the Feed Fermenter this morning. I made a Member's Page with a pretty good detailed description and the photos. I will need a few more photos for the two alternative methods of draining it, as well as the final method I'll use with the eye bolts. If you have any more questions, let me know. I'll add anything necessary to clarify it to the fermenter page as well. Enjoy!

 

[Mahonri]

Quote:
OK, I'm still trying to figure it out, back to read it again.

 

[maryhysong]

OK, I'm still trying to figure it out, back to read it again.

here's a condensed, easy posting about making FF http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html

 

[maryhysong]

Good points on the deep litter. I had forgotten to mention the extra microbes and keeping down the parasites. Reading from Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens this morning pointed out the wonders of the deep litter method. It sounds so wonderful, I want to find a way to make it work.

Although I live in an area with houses surrounded by brick walls, I am fortunate that my property was landscaped for some privacy. I have 15-20' oleanders surrounding the entire backyard fence line. When I run my sprinkler's my entire yard drops several degrees and it feel so much better. Amazingly, the couple of fans on the back porch manage to drop that temperature even more. Even so, my coop is placed along the wall of the house, under the shade of the porch. I would much rather it be always shaded and allow them to be accustomed to the cold than to have to fight the heat. As I always say, you can always put more clothes on, but you can only take so much off before it becomes indecent. Of course, that's a whole lot sooner for some of ugly folks...

This seems to hold especially true for the chickens. Look at the old stories and they are raising them in -30* weather with no more than insulating a proper coop. No heater and all the fancy stuff.

I have two coops at the moment; the old one is 4x5 feet, one section is solid to protect the roosts from cold winds. There is a door on each side parallel to the roosts for air flow without putting a draft right on the chickens. It is moveable and sits right on the dirt. Because the ducks water is up hill from this coop a little water always seems to find it's way underneath and keeps the soil and lower layers of litter moist. My other coop is bigger and up on legs with wheels. (I may give it a plastic skirt on two sides for the winter to cut the draft) It has a wire floor so self cleaning. I toss old nesting material out and add litter to the ground underneath. This area stays real dry so I sprinkle occasionally when cleaning out waterers. At the moment the two coops are on an area where I will be making a garden, so both pen areas have become my compost pile; anything I'd put in compost goes in here except coffee grounds and tea bags; silly ducks try to eat tea bags with strings. Those go in the worm boxes. Otherwise, straw, shredded paper, weeds, spent garden plants, leaves, old horse manure, ect. where it's building up and staying damp from the duck water it is composting nicely and the soil is getting soft (was concrete hard caliche and rocks to start) I go out occasionally and loosen things up with my digging fork. Some areas are still pretty hard so I'm concentrating on them now. The chickens love to scratch and dig in all this stuff; I trust them to eat what's good for them and skip anything poisonous.

 

[Demosthine]

here's a condensed, easy posting about making FF http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html

Yup, that's one of them I referenced a few posts back. It was an excellent summary!

 

[Fuzzybird]

Hey, You know the Serama eggs I won when I won the short story contest in the hatch-a thon? I got them in the mail yesterday!
I am not comfortable hatching them but decided to go ahead and try. You folks that raise Seramas can you tell me if they need anything different than the normal egg that is incubated? You know hotter or cooler temperature, more or less humidity? hatching time earlier or later? I hope I can pull this off.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Hey, You know the Serama eggs I won when I won the short story contest in the hatch-a thon? I got them in the mail yesterday!
I am not comfortable hatching them but decided to go ahead and try. You folks that raise Seramas can you tell me if they need anything different than the normal egg that is incubated? You know hotter or cooler temperature, more or less humidity? hatching time earlier or later? I hope I can pull this off.

Same temperature/humidity/time. They may be small, but they are still chickens.

 

[flower]

These are my seram NN crosses. They are tiny but tough little buggers that I hatched from eggs shipped from OK, starting their third year.

 

[Fuzzybird]

Thanks!

 

[desertmarcy]

Hi all, maybe someone already posted this, I can't keep up with this thread. If so, here it is again:
POULTRY SHOW THIS COMING WEEKEND!!

The Tucson Poultry, Pigeon and Fancy Fowl Club is holding their 42nd annual Winter Show this Saturday and Sunday, November 17-18, at the Pima Country Fairgrounds, Thurber Hall.

If you have never seen poultry other than from a commercial hatchery, come on down and see quality birds! WOW what a difference!
There will about 1000 birds entered. Admission is FREE. Parking is FREE. There will be many raffle items, including a quilt, cage, and bird raffle. On Sunday a 4’ X 6’ steel framed wire cage with door and latch will be raffled off. This cage can be taken apart and transported. There will be some birds for sale at the show. And a bake sale.

Saturday judging begins at 9:00 am; junior activities 10:00 am; closing 5:30 pm.
Sunday hours 7:00 am to 1:00 pm. Junior Show at 8:00 am, Awards Ceremony at 10:00 am, Grand Raffle at 11:00 am

I'll have a bunch of my birds entered. Hope to see you there!