Arizona Chickens

[Puffycheeks]

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.

YOU CAN DO IT!!!

 

[notinoz2007]

Quote:
i have another female reject if you want me to drop her off to you. at least then you can make up for one of the olive eggers who wont be laying eggs, lol. and these rejects were really thrown out because of grey legs, they are going to have great feather color tho if they are anything like the rest of the hatch.

 

[notinoz2007]

Thanks for the kind remarks everyone. Yes I'm very proud. To be honest I was a bit surprised that he drew this to such detail. I guess I didn't realize the impact of raising chickens would extend to this level of him understanding. I just wonder how many other five year old's understand what chicken eggs are and where the come from. He is five years old and loves drawing.

that is just absolutely amazing that he even drew the development of the egg! i keep looking at that picture and smile every time. way to go little man!

 

[notinoz2007]

stopped by the feed store today to stock up, saw they had chicks. go SOOOO excited they had 2 light brahma supposedly females so i bought them and 2 ee's to keep them company. i had been trying to order from ideal but they were always out. woohoo... also got all the wood to make a starter coop for my mom, she's been wanting chickens ever since she stayed with me this spring and now finally has a yard of her own for them, right next door to me, lol. at least the neighbors wont complain.

a little help/advice??: i havent had many issues with my yard smelling bad or "like chickens" but my mom said something about it yesterday and then today when i got home from work and opened the back door. whewww... very strong ammonia odor. not sure what i'm doing differently. i have less chickens than before so it cant be that. any ideas?? i did recently dump 2 bags of sand in there for dust baths, does sand smell? anyway, i completely raked out all the coop & run and sprayed down the roosts. turned the nest boxes upside down and got every nook and cranny of everywhere. letting it dry this evening and going to sprinkle DE tomorrow when i put it all back together.

 

[maryhysong]

I do deep litter in coop and run, which means piling in more carbon type litter; straw, shredded paper, wood chips, sawdust, shavings, leaves; anything like that I can get. Just sand is like having a litter box. This blog has a great article on deep litter; http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogsp...howComment=1353038612119#c1217801890122522461

 

[notinoz2007]

thanks, i put that on my list of things to read... right now i'm reading about fermenting feed.

My project rooster, Mr Yellow, was crowing last night at midnight. then again this morning at 4. has anyone had this issue? what can i do to stop him, this is not the first time... what the heck is up with this bird? I really need to keep him until i set NYD eggs, but with him doing this he's gonna get fried really soon.

 

[Fuzzybird]

Quote: Thanks Puffycheeks. Its been almost a week now in the bator.

 

[Mama Hen Chris]

My Daphne is really a Dabney. Thought I heard a crow 2 weeks ago but then only clucking like my hens. No doubt today of the gender. Will see if Cecilia (all gray) and Penelope (gray with white neck) will be needing their names changed too.

 

[AZKat]

Tracy: Sure! I'll be glad to take her! Give me a call and we'll work out a time. You can come in and take a look at my floor, while you're here.

For keeping smell down, I've had good luck with putting Sweet PDZ under the perch, and spreading a generous amount of DE around the rest of the coop and run.

 

[notinoz2007]

i did notice this morning that the school behind me irrigated their lawn so that was probably part of the smell yesterday, but i still think i need to straighten things out around my yard. I use DE a lot. what is sweet PDZ and where can i get it?