Arizona Chickens

[LadyKotaDoria]

I'm in the Valley, I am planing on a mister to deal with the heat. We are interning winter, I'm not to worried about winter, summer on the other hand is another subject.

I am also concerned about predictors. I live in the hunting grounds of a great Horned owl and at lest 2 hawks that winter here. As a full grown chicken will they reman on there dining list? I am quite sure that they are on the owl. He is big, when he lands on the wall in back I see its full size. Coyotes I have always back of mind. I have always had big dogs, such as Great Danes, no problem with coyotes. Now I have a small dog. People around here are afraid of coyotes making them brave and bolder then they should be. They are afraid of me, they know my body language, I will not be there 24/7. I have a covered run.

I have been thinking about getting a DOG again so I can leave the chickens out of the covered chicken run longer. Has anyone found that their dog is a deterrent to predictors? I want to wait a couple of years, right now before I add to my family again, any animal is a commitment. Note that we do not have the coyote population as Sun City West, they have a lot of bunnies and golf course habitat. Even if you do not see them they are there as well. A daytime snatch and run is Possable.

 

[Mahonri]

On one of the few occasions that my chickens were free ranging in the backyard, our Golden Retriever ALMOST got a hawk that was diving down for one of the chickens. She loves the chickens and would actually let them walk over the top of her while she was napping!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

On one of the few occasions that my chickens were free ranging in the backyard, our Golden Retriever ALMOST got a hawk that was diving down for one of the chickens. She loves the chickens and would actually let them walk over the top of her while she was napping!

Yes, hawks and owls are everywhere. And what they cannot carry off they will stay to dine upon. Great horned owls are "killing machines" according to Arizona Game & Fish. Coyotes are in most areas of the city...you don;t usually see them because or the most part they operate at night. And they will take easier prey when it is available.

 

[Arizonachicken]

I'm in the Valley, I am planing on a mister to deal with the heat. We are interning winter, I'm not to worried about winter, summer on the other hand is another subject.
I am also concerned about predictors. I live in the hunting grounds of a great Horned owl and at lest 2 hawks that winter here. As a full grown chicken will they reman on there dining list? I am quite sure that they are on the owl. He is big, when he lands on the wall in back I see its full size. Coyotes I have always back of mind. I have always had big dogs, such as Great Danes, no problem with coyotes. Now I have a small dog. People around here are afraid of coyotes making them brave and bolder then they should be. They are afraid of me, they know my body language, I will not be there 24/7. I have a covered run.
I have been thinking about getting a DOG again so I can leave the chickens out of the covered chicken run longer. Has anyone found that their dog is a deterrent to predictors? I want to wait a couple of years, right now before I add to my family again, any animal is a commitment. Note that we do not have the coyote population as Sun City West, they have a lot of bunnies and golf course habitat. Even if you do not see them they are there as well. A daytime snatch and run is Possable.

Welcome to BYC! We had a great horned owl take an adult guinnea, and hawks take full grown hens. As for coyotes, they're sly little things. Once, one injured my mom's small dog. They hung around for about a week waiting for another opportunity. We had a large dog, too, about 120 pounds. The coyotes would actually team up to distract to large dog. We heard a ruckus outside and one coyote looked liked it was caught in the fence, flopping around and yipping. As the large dog went over to investigate, another coyote came out of the bushes from the other way and went after the little dog. We scared it away, but not before seeing the "hurt" coyote hop up and run off, too. That was in the country, maybe the desert dwellers are different.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I'm in the Valley, I am planing on a mister to deal with the heat. We are interning winter, I'm not to worried about winter, summer on the other hand is another subject.

I am also concerned about predictors. I live in the hunting grounds of a great Horned owl and at lest 2 hawks that winter here. As a full grown chicken will they reman on there dining list? I am quite sure that they are on the owl. He is big, when he lands on the wall in back I see its full size. Coyotes I have always back of mind. I have always had big dogs, such as Great Danes, no problem with coyotes. Now I have a small dog. People around here are afraid of coyotes making them brave and bolder then they should be. They are afraid of me, they know my body language, I will not be there 24/7. I have a covered run.

I have been thinking about getting a DOG again so I can leave the chickens out of the covered chicken run longer. Has anyone found that their dog is a deterrent to predictors? I want to wait a couple of years, right now before I add to my family again, any animal is a commitment. Note that we do not have the coyote population as Sun City West, they have a lot of bunnies and golf course habitat. Even if you do not see them they are there as well. A daytime snatch and run is Possable.

Welcome to BYC and our AZ thread! As the others have said, the owl is potentially trouble. The level of risk from the hawks to your adult birds will largely depend on the species of hawks. Of our two most common, Red Tailed and Cooper's, the former is the greatest threat and would definitely take a full grown chicken. We haven't had any problems with Cooper's harassing our older chickens. Our dog definitely helps to limit hawk intrusion into the yard, but as she ages she spends much less time outside (especially in the summer). I'd imagine she'd be a good deterrent to coyotes, but they seem to patrol the neighborhood mostly at night and early morning. Good luck at keeping them safe.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I went out in the yard and saw lots of black feathers under the tree where the chicken waterer is.
My first thought was that a something got a chicken. When I got closer I saw that the red I thought was blood, was red feathers and it was obviously the remnants of a red-wing black bird.
I figured the dogs or chickens must have caught it but I hadn't seen any in the yard. About then, I saw a black feather float down from the tree so I looked up. Yuck. There were a couple of bird legs dangling from branches and a couple bunches of feathers. So now I'm thinking a hawk (hopefully a small one) caught the bird and ate it in the tree above the chickens. I wonder if the chickens had enough sense to hide and I'm hoping it sticks to small birds. I'll have to keep an extra close eye on the 9 wk olds when I let them out for play time.

Two days ago the wife and I were sitting outside watching chicken TV when a Cooper's swooped down on a mockingbird that was on the ground right in front of us. The hawk missed the mockingbird in the first pass but swerved back and whacked it as it tried to fly away. There was an impressive explosion of feathers as the hawk caught it in mid-air and took it to the top of the utility pole to eat. Unlike us, our chickens were completely unimpressed. There has been a Red Tailed hawk soaring above the neighborhood for the past week or so and that thing has the chickens hanging out under cover most of the day. Hopefully your hawk was a Cooper's too. Although, I'd bet your smaller 9 wk olds would be on the Cooper's menu for a while. Good luck!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Yo AZ folks!

I thought I would say 'Hi' as I haven't been on in a while! I did my move to Georgia, but still have DH and chickies in AZ.

I hope we're all reunited soon but for now I just get to come back and visit every month or so. I miss them all so much!

I'm sure I've missed tons....losses and sadness and new faces, chickies and adventures!

I hope all my AZ peeps have a great Thanksgiving and I will be thankful to have my DH and feathered family all in one place! It's just too quiet out in GA....I'm missing out on all of the daily chicken drama!

Oh, I almost missed this! It's so good to hear from you. I'm glad you'll all be together for Thanksgiving!

 

[Demosthine]

I'm in the Valley, I am planing on a mister to deal with the heat. We are interning winter, I'm not to worried about winter, summer on the other hand is another subject.
I am also concerned about predictors. I live in the hunting grounds of a great Horned owl and at lest 2 hawks that winter here. As a full grown chicken will they reman on there dining list? I am quite sure that they are on the owl. He is big, when he lands on the wall in back I see its full size. Coyotes I have always back of mind. I have always had big dogs, such as Great Danes, no problem with coyotes. Now I have a small dog. People around here are afraid of coyotes making them brave and bolder then they should be. They are afraid of me, they know my body language, I will not be there 24/7. I have a covered run.
I have been thinking about getting a DOG again so I can leave the chickens out of the covered chicken run longer. Has anyone found that their dog is a deterrent to predictors? I want to wait a couple of years, right now before I add to my family again, any animal is a commitment. Note that we do not have the coyote population as Sun City West, they have a lot of bunnies and golf course habitat. Even if you do not see them they are there as well. A daytime snatch and run is Possable.

As mentioned above, the predators are everywhere in the valley. I use to live at 27th Avenue and Indian School Road. We saw coyotes wandering around surprisingly often. I worked nights, so I was out and about or driving to work late at night, getting home in the earlier morning. They are bountiful in town, you just rarely see them because they have SO much cover and camouflage. Phoenix is a prime spot for them because there are large amounts of strays, pest birds like pigeons, and small pets to prey on. The alleys, vacant lots, and city parks are great spots for them to hide at during the day. I've seen them at all three locations. I saw them the most at the city park at Bonsall Park South at 59th Avenue and Bethany Home Road. They love the birds that are there and enjoyed the water, too. I use to meet my ex-girlfriend there many early mornings.

There were a few attacks in North Phoenix, North Peoria and West Peoria this summer. Those are the three key spots I recall. Of course, Sun City is always complaining for the the reasons you mentioned above. No fences, lots of small pets and rabbits, plus the golf courses.

In terms of the dogs, they can be a great deterrent from the predators. The end of our street is State Trust Land, so we see all sorts of animals wandering around. Out of the last fifteen years, we've only had a coyote go wandering through the back yard once. It was at my parents' house (three houses away) and it was during a short period where they did not have a dog. We have never had any predator birds or coyotes in the yard when we had a dog. Not to say a hungry enough coyote won't, but it hasn't happened to us. Up until this last year, we always had Golden Retrievers in the family. We bought a German Shepherd mix April of last year and he couldn't care less about the chickens. We acquired a Siberian Husky about six months ago and she has extreme interest in them, unfortunately. She's the one that is the one we have to watch carefully right now. They are both still pups, though, so they should only become more docile as they get older.

 

[Mootworm]

Hi everyone,
I'm new to both Phoenix and chickens. I was wondering if any of you can recommend a few good local breeders? Or a quality source that you've used/heard good things about. I'm looking at getting a few silkies and maybe a buff Orpington or two I'd rather not order them online because a) I don't like the idea of shipping the poor chicks and b) most of them have minimum orders of 25. Also, you never really know the quality of bird you're receiving. I'm super excited to start my adventure as an urban chicken farmer and I want to do it right! I've already learned so much from this site and I appreciate all of your help!

 

[Mahonri]

I did get a chance today to go out and open up the 2nd pop door and the only ones who took advantage of the semi green grass by the coop were 5 of the 9 Icelandics... so I ran in and got my camera.

This is Phyllis... She has a "do"




Here is a "group shot" from left to right. Arby, Blackie (original huh?), Blucy, Cloud and the tail end of Goldie.



Whitney is the one with the white tail, included in the pic is "Rose" the large Icelandic behind the run fence with the HUGE Rose comb... include also in the pic is the tail end of Larraine, my Australorp and Blue, my EE. Blue has YET to lay an egg. She came out of one of 'bargain's eggs.




Here is another shot of Phyllis

And Blackie, walking away. I had a black hen larger than her that had a huge crest and she laid very large eggs like Rose, but one day she just passed away for seemingly no reason.



Phyllis eating some bread, with Blucy and Cloud getting ready to take a piece of bread out of my hand!



Cloud, Phyllis and Goldie.



Goldie, Arby and Cloud



Goldie, Arby and Blucy


Another shot of Phyllis and her amazing crest.


Not pictured are Ida and a couple of others.