Hello from Sunny Arizona

[viictoriia]

Good Morning from a warm and sunny backyard in Arizona! The Arizona state slogan is Ditat Deus; meaning GOD ENRICHES.

I am absolutely new at this whole thing... any and all advice is welcome. I have the full support of my husband and family on this. I keep finding a lot of good information here, straight to the point, and it is SO appreciated! I'm a city-girl with absolutely no experience or knowledge in farming. I feel absolutely useless! I'd like to know, live, and experience at least the basics of farming and go from there. I'm here to absorb everything I can to help me get started in my backyard. I think the term used nowadays is Micro-farming... but whatever it is, I want in on the action!

We started off with four pullets in the Fall... we now have 20+ pullets and a Rooster that got mixed in the bunch by accident. Now that he's here, we love him!!! At this time, we are in the process of getting rid of at least 3 of our pullets to be within the restrictions for our yard space. While our neighbors don't mind, we don't want to overstep our boundaries. The pullets are all very happy and we want to keep them that way.

We are prepping our yard to plant a few fruit trees, as well as veggies and herbs. We have to be careful with what we do since we do have a lot of common insects that you would expect to find in the desert or warm climates - for example, scorpions.

If we have their food source available, they will continue to come around. The house has a lot of room in the front yard as well, but we would like to set it up to where the house still has curb appeal without looking like it's mini farmers market available for the neighborhood. Does that make sense?

Please!!! ANY advice, tips, and ideas are always welcomed!!!

-Victoria

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, Victoria, and

! Great to have you in our flock! Sounds like you are carving out a little slice of heaven in AZ! My best advice is to spend some time reading the great articles of the Learning Center here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center
Actually, lots of BYCers are like you - started small and then started expanding into a more rural type of existence. I have always gardened but now the whole self-sufficiency bug has bitten me and now so much of the food we consume comes off our own land.
Best wishes and thanks for joining BYC!!!

 

[N F C]

Hi Victoria, it's nice to have you here!

You might enjoy checking out the Gardening forum here on BYC:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/16176/gardening

BYC also has a sister site you might find interesting:
https://www.theeasygarden.com

It sounds like you have a lot going on, keep us posted on how things are going for you!

 

[drumstick diva]

Glad to meet you Victoria, thank you for joining us at Backyard chickens. I had friends that lived in Scottsdale and then Phoenix. They said the BUG man would come out and spray the yard and everything in it. Nothing moved. Don't think that is beneficial to humans or pets. But they had a million housecats so -

 

[BlueBaby]

Hello, and welcome to BYC! I'm in AZ. too! The chickens will eat the scorpions here, along with other bugs.

 

[viictoriia]

Thank you, I will. My husband's plan is to get us to be self-sufficient and aware of our real needs.

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under Victoria

Welcome!

As you have already received links to some great starting points, I will just wish you all the best.

I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

If you would like to share pictures and stories of your flock, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out