Hello from Arizona! :)

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DesertBird

DesertBird

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Hello, everyone! I'm Aly. :) I've been reading posts from this forum since about March of this year, and got our chickens around the same time. This website has been extremely helpful in raising my chickens!
We have a total of 14 chickens; 8 of them (including 3 Roosters) are now about 3 and 1/2 months old, with our Rooster's beginning to crow, and they're Rhode Island Red's. Our other 6 are Plymouth Barred Rock's, and they're about 5 months old - all Hens, and about 3 of them are laying eggs. We tried to get them using nesting boxes, even using ceramic eggs and their own eggs, but they preferred to make a nest nestled into/under our Eggplant plant. lol
My family and I are located in a hotter part of Arizona, and pretty new to owning chickens! We live on what used to be a more farm-focused area, but due to expansion there's now a lot more houses being built near us. We have about 2 acres of pure grassy area with a few trees, and are planning to let our chickens free range after we have it completely locked down from possible cats and what not. They're currently fenced in in our large garden space, in two separate pens separated by breeds, as they haven't been introduced yet since we got them at two different times about a month apart; all of our chickens we got when they were about 1 week old.
It was definitely never expected to own Roosters, as we were told all of our chickens were sexed as Hens, but unless problems arise we're hoping we don't have to get rid of any. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated! lol :)
We also have 1 dog; a female, white, blue-eyed German Shepard/Husky mix from a shelter that we got about 6 and 1/2 years ago and she is now about 7. She hasn't been introduced to the chickens, as we didn't want to risk it.
One of my family members is interesting in getting a few ducks (3-4 females), so we might be adding a bit more to our little flock. If anyone has any advice on ducks, I'd love to hear it! :)

Very excited to read and participate in many more threads from all of the knowledgeable people on here, and hope to learn a lot more! :)
 
A rooster can handle 10 hens, any less and they tend to get over bred .Unless you have enough hens for all the roosters, I would suggest rehoming two of them. If you don't need fertile eggs for hatching or selling - lots of folks forgo having roosters.

The hens will continue to lay just as many eggs, albeit infertile ones, and be much less stressed without a rooster harassing them.
 
Hello and welcome to BYC. Good advice from D/Diva.

You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/learning-center.11/ and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

Each week, various topics are discussed, which can also be a great resource - https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread#post_3239224

All the best

Pork Pie
 
KikisGirls said:
Welcome to BYC!
We are glad you joined.

This should help you find your way around:
Click to expand...

Thank you! :)

drumstick diva said:
A rooster can handle 10 hens, any less and they tend to get over bred .Unless you have enough hens for all the roosters, I would suggest rehoming two of them. If you don't need fertile eggs for hatching or selling - lots of folks forgo having roosters.

The hens will continue to lay just as many eggs, albeit infertile ones, and be much less stressed without a rooster harassing them.
Click to expand...

Thank you! :) I'll definitely look into rehoming them, in that case. They recently started getting a little more aggressive as is, with one of them getting a little too cocky and trying to come after me. lol

Halle the chick person said:
Welcome to BYC Aly
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! :)

Pork Pie Ken said:
Hello and welcome to BYC. Good advice from D/Diva.

You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/learning-center.11/ and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

Each week, various topics are discussed, which can also be a great resource - https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread#post_3239224

All the best

Pork Pie
Click to expand...

Thank you! I'll definitely check out all of those links. :)

BlueBaby said:
Hello, and welcome to BYC! I'm in AZ. too! Why don't you come join us over in our Arizona thread? That way if you have question's about your chickens in our heat and climate, you will be right at home (so to say).

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/arizona-chickens.31227/page-6020
Click to expand...

Thank you very much! :) Definitely will do! It'll definitely be very helpful, considering my chickens seem to struggle a bit.
 
drumstick diva said:
A rooster can handle 10 hens, any less and they tend to get over bred .Unless you have enough hens for all the roosters, I would suggest rehoming two of them. If you don't need fertile eggs for hatching or selling - lots of folks forgo having roosters.

The hens will continue to lay just as many eggs, albeit infertile ones, and be much less stressed without a rooster harassing them.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the question here, but the feed store near my house is getting chicks in a few days, and my family and I were planning on getting 3-4 more hens. Would 14-15 hens be too many for 1 rooster to handle? I'm not 100% on roosters, but I was told their main purpose, aside from breeding, was to guard/watch hens as they free range.
 
BlockedRelic06 said:
Hello, everyone! I'm Aly. :) I've been reading posts from this forum since about March of this year, and got our chickens around the same time. This website has been extremely helpful in raising my chickens!
We have a total of 14 chickens; 8 of them (including 3 Roosters) are now about 3 and 1/2 months old, with our Rooster's beginning to crow, and they're Rhode Island Red's. Our other 6 are Plymouth Barred Rock's, and they're about 5 months old - all Hens, and about 3 of them are laying eggs. We tried to get them using nesting boxes, even using ceramic eggs and their own eggs, but they preferred to make a nest nestled into/under our Eggplant plant. lol
My family and I are located in a hotter part of Arizona, and pretty new to owning chickens! We live on what used to be a more farm-focused area, but due to expansion there's now a lot more houses being built near us. We have about 2 acres of pure grassy area with a few trees, and are planning to let our chickens free range after we have it completely locked down from possible cats and what not. They're currently fenced in in our large garden space, in two separate pens separated by breeds, as they haven't been introduced yet since we got them at two different times about a month apart; all of our chickens we got when they were about 1 week old.
It was definitely never expected to own Roosters, as we were told all of our chickens were sexed as Hens, but unless problems arise we're hoping we don't have to get rid of any. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated! lol :)
We also have 1 dog; a female, white, blue-eyed German Shepard/Husky mix from a shelter that we got about 6 and 1/2 years ago and she is now about 7. She hasn't been introduced to the chickens, as we didn't want to risk it.
One of my family members is interesting in getting a few ducks (3-4 females), so we might be adding a bit more to our little flock. If anyone has any advice on ducks, I'd love to hear it! :)

Very excited to read and participate in many more threads from all of the knowledgeable people on here, and hope to learn a lot more! :)
Click to expand...



HI Aly I am from hot Arizona too! I am in Gilbert where are you? Ive been looking for people to buy chickens from and wondered if ou would ever sell any babies and what kind of chickens do you have? I am also curious how the chickens do n the hot days of summer? Love to hear from ya i am very new to this and love any advice!!
Take care, Shannon
 

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