Arizona Chickens

[Mahonri]

The roos in the neighborhood to the south of us seem to crow all night long... but especially right before sunup and for an hour or so after sundown.... and there are HUNDREDS of them.

... and I can't have a crowing roo.

At present I have a nice Blue Wheaten Ameraucana... I'm just waiting for him to get frisky with the girls... and for my ameraucana girls to start laying. He should also make some lovely chicks with my Blue Copper Olive egger and my Black Copper Marans girl.

Just found out that my Icelandic roo wasn't doing the best of jobs. After 3 weeks of him being gone, only 6 eggs out of 30 developed for nurse Shelly.

 

[hemet dennis]

Hmmm! Probably a street light or billboard fooled him. I live along the freeway and we have those darn electronic flashing billboards that really confused my chickens. We had to get rid of the rooster when ADOT put in those huge sodium lights. They drove him crazy.

I am now chickenless. I was going to start over with a new flock, but then a swarm of bees set up housekeeping in my coop. My wife doesn't want to spend the money to have them removed or exterminated. She wants me to do the job with a can of Raid and a fly swatter. Well I do a lot of dumb things just to keep peace in the house, but that isn't going to one of them.

I got rid of a swarm with wasp killer. I put on a ball cap and a 5 gallon paint strainer and gloves and duct tape. It was easy.

Actually it was a hive in the rafters of a mobile home. So I had to scrape all the honey comb out and reseal the eves up.

 

[Demosthine]

I am now chickenless. I was going to start over with a new flock, but then a swarm of bees set up housekeeping in my coop. My wife doesn't want to spend the money to have them removed or exterminated. She wants me to do the job with a can of Raid and a fly swatter. Well I do a lot of dumb things just to keep peace in the house, but that isn't going to one of them.

I don't recall getting an answer last discussion, but what part of the valley do you live in?

If you (or your wife, rather) are absolutely intent on killing them, you can use bug bombs. Make sure your coop is as enclosed as possible and put one inside. When you set it off, it'll get in all the cracks and crevices, killing anything and everything inside. I would definitely wait a good amount of time before putting any chickens back in it, but that's the easiest and best option if your wife doesn't want to spend money to have them removed.

I'm EMailing a guy out in Scottsdale who specializes in bee removal and has some excellent references. From his site, it sounds like he very interested in preserving the bees that are not Africanized. With the vanishing colonies, that's very important. I'm asked him if he'll meet me at your place to help me remove them. Like I mentioned last time, it is something I would love to do again, but I think you and your wife would be more comfortable having a professional on hand. I'll let you know what he says. Just in case you're interested, it's Michael Foster at BeesBeGone.Com.

 

[squeakyballs]

Hmmm! Probably a street light or billboard fooled him. I live along the freeway and we have those darn electronic flashing billboards that really confused my chickens. We had to get rid of the rooster when ADOT put in those huge sodium lights. They drove him crazy.

I am now chickenless. I was going to start over with a new flock, but then a swarm of bees set up housekeeping in my coop. My wife doesn't want to spend the money to have them removed or exterminated. She wants me to do the job with a can of Raid and a fly swatter. Well I do a lot of dumb things just to keep peace in the house, but that isn't going to one of them.

When I was a kid we lived in a mobile home. One year we ended up with a bee hive underneath it. You could hear them buzzing if you took a bath, their hive was right under the tub. My dad, like your wife, didn't want to pay to have it done professionally. Instead he dropped me off at Ace Hardware to ask them what the best insecticide would be to use on bees. They read me the riot act. I guess my dad hadn't wanted to hear it... anyways, I bought something (it was a white powder).

My dad put it all in the shop vac, stuck a long piece of PVC pipe into the end of the hose, jammed that into the beehive (he made me help), set it to reverse, turned it on, and ran inside.

It worked!

 

[Fuzzybird]

Fuzzybird - I bet your family was impressed!

They were!

I love your avatar! I could so easily do a sand painting of it.

 

[Fuzzybird]

at 1 am this morning mr yellow (my project roo) was crowing. right away i got a box, put him in it, and put him in the laundry room...
if it had been just that one time i'm sure i could forgive him (and hope the neighbors forgave me) but he has been crowing at all hours in the middle of the night at least 3 nights a week and i have no idea what his problem is! the lights are out in the whole neighborhood. does cold make roosters crow? is there an imbalance?

Just the other night my young roo Angel decided to learn how to crow at 3:00am! No moon, no street lamps, pitch dark in the boonies! I wondered then who made up the fable that roosters crowed at dawn? Tumbleweed crows when ever he feels like it.
By the way Angel sounded like someone being strangled!

 

[squeakyballs]

Fuzzy Bird - My Avatar is from a coaster made by Georges Briard. He was a designer during the 50's and 60's. There are loads of awesome things that he made!

A sandpainting of any of his stuff would be so awesome!!!

https://www.google.com/search?q=Geo...dbcc5f71f13552&bpcl=38897761&biw=1217&bih=738

 

[MagicChicken]

Quote:
He knew it was dawn SOMEWHERE. Just not in your yard!

 

[Fuzzybird]

If you would like one I will make it. I am not very expensive. If you don't like what I make you don't have to take it.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote: In the Bible (Old Testament) it says to pray at morning, midday, noon, afternoon, evening, night, cocks' crow and dawn. It indeed lists it as a separate time.