Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[flower]

When I lived in the woodlands of eastern US my chickens had more problems with predators than weather. Their coop was locked at night, the windows had fine wire mesh and the floor was raised off the ground but was solid.

Over the years I found that heat is the biggest stress factor and once a bird has been stressed by illness or anything it's life was shortened. In my flock only the strong may apply for entrance.

 

[hellbender]

some people here don't have coops at all. their chickens sleep in the trees. but those are heritage chickens or better local mutts. my first chickens were hybrids. they came from the battery farms or similar. they are good layers but need central heating, lol. although they had a coop they didn't go in. it is not rain that they had a problem with but they were soaking wet and it was windy (north wind). that is real pain here, I hate it.

but I learned the lesson and made another coop with covered porch and protected the sides with palm tree branches. it will be good in summer too. they are wiser this year, they gather in there when it is raining or too windy. I never close the door on that porch so my coop is always open. no predators here (just mice and rats but they can always find the way to get in if they want to).

I'll take predators over mice/rats...I have the very easy cure for predators but the mice and rats still find their way into the barns, once in a while.

I think the cold (extreme cold) kills off lots of 'bugs' that would otherwise affect the birds and people.

Good luck. I'm thinking we should have traveled to Greece this winter. Just might do it next year or the year after.

EDIT: the 'cure' we use for predators is dogs. We rarely have to shoot one. The bear that was taken just a while back was taken legally. My daughter was alone, caring for the farm and our neighbor took the bear LEGALLY, with his Bow.

 

[flower]

You're lucky to be able to avoid that Valley Fever. I know of several people who contracted it and spent thousands of dollars to survive it....and one woman who spent over three grand to treat her dog only to have it still die. They were all snowbirds who weren't familiar with desert living and it caught all of them by surprise.

Chicken poop is awesome for our soil! I used deep pine bedding in all of my pens and use the composted material both for my garden beds and to improve the soil in my back yard. I love to give the chickens straw or hay bales to tear apart, poop on, etc. Wherever I placed a bale last year I now have better soil. If I could I would collect all the "turning" produce from the local grocery store and spread across my backyard....but laws now prevent the stores from allowing anyone to take their discarded produce. So much unnecessary waste.

You first story is the reason that I do not go to extreme measures to treat sick birds, just do whatever I can administer. Anyway I can not afford the cost.
And second, I am saddened by the waste in this country. I have read somewhere that more food is wasted than consumed. BTW are those laws new. A few years ago i saw Safeway giving older food away to a few people in the rear of the store.

 

[Pensmaster]

I love gardening, but getting anything to grow here is challenging. Winter is fantastic, as our temps are often 60-80ºF in the daytime and cool weather crops thrive in compost beds, but in the summer....well, our intense heat turns everything to dust. Shade cloth is an absolute must for the majority of plants and only the hardiest, most heat loving crops typically survive. So far I've only had luck keeping Armenian cucumbers and Egyptian spinach alive in the worst part of summer without shading the plants. We've spent the past several months making significant changes to our property in an effort to create more "cool" zones where I hope to maintain an outdoor, raised-bed garden, and my aquaponics setup in inside a block building with lots of artificial and natural light. So far, so good, but gardening out here is very labor intensive. 

If I ever get my other computer data back (I was promised they could retrieve it for me), I'll post some photos of my aquaponics garden so far. 

Does the spinach every get bitter with the heat?

I'll be interested in the pictures of aquaponics do you use fish or is that a different type of gardening

Also my feed store is getting chicks on the 18. Last year they had naked necks. Is there a hatchery I should be leery of? I'll ask where they get theirs from when I'm in next

 

[hellbender]

We don't treat illness in birds...we dispatch them. If a bird has a minor injury, we will spray Blue Cote or other topical ointment but a 'sick bird' will often lead to a sick flock if it's not dealt with NOW.

 

[Phill98]

Thank you all. They spent the whole day out. They have never slent that many hpirs in the rain and that's why I was worried. And of cpurse, they have spaces to go to if they want to take a break from rain.

Here we don't treat SICK birds also. We cull them. The reason is- it's way to expensive and the second and more important reason was already mentioned- sick bird leads to sick flock. Chickens that have scratches or get picked on are sent to quarantine and spend few days or weeks there.

And I don't really like gardening at the moment. Love the lawns, evergreen trees and bushes and am interested in hot peppers and herbs. That's all for now.
But everything grows great here. And I mean everything. Whatever you can think of.

 

[DesertChic]

You first story is the reason that I do not go to extreme measures to treat sick birds, just do whatever I can administer. Anyway I can not afford the cost.
And second, I am saddened by the waste in this country. I have read somewhere that more food is wasted than consumed. BTW are those laws new. A few years ago i saw Safeway giving older food away to a few people in the rear of the store.

I'm not sure how new it is, but I know it's a recent change....just like the new law this year that says we can't buy Tilapia for our aquaponics because the fish is considered invasive. Just plain stupid.

 

[DesertChic]

Here are some recent photos of my aquaponics setup. Keep in mind, nearly everything has been started from seed, and most of the seedlings were seeded directly into the lava rock. (There is no soil at all). I have 16 Tilapia that I bought last year providing the nutrients for the plants. I feed the fish a few times per day when they indicate they're hungry and let nature do the rest.

Two things I've learned:

1. Peas and beans DO NOT seed well in aquaponics and need to be started in soil. One black bean actually sprouted, but all of the others and the peas simply dissolved into mush.
2. Rosemary, the herb, absolute hates me. It doesn't matter where I plant it, rosemary dies in a matter of weeks. The rosemary in in the top grow bed in the photo...dying a slow, painful death.

The large container on the far left at the top is the fish tank. The grow beds are gravity fed and the sump in the bottom left part of the photo returns the cleaned water back to the fish.

 

[DesertChic]

@Phill98 Here is one of the things I love the most about living in the desert SW.



We get the most beautiful sunsets.

 

[Pensmaster]

Here are some recent photos of my aquaponics setup. Keep in mind, nearly everything has been started from seed, and most of the seedlings were seeded directly into the lava rock. (There is no soil at all). I have 16 Tilapia that I bought last year providing the nutrients for the plants. I feed the fish a few times per day when they indicate they're hungry and let nature do the rest. Two things I've learned:

1. Peas and beans DO NOT seed well in aquaponics and need to be started in soil. One black bean actually sprouted, but all of the others and the peas simply dissolved into mush.
2. Rosemary, the herb, absolute hates me. It doesn't matter where I plant it, rosemary dies in a matter of weeks. The rosemary in in the top grow bed in the photo...dying a slow, painful death.

The large container on the far left at the top is the fish tank. The grow beds are gravity fed and the sump in the bottom left part of the photo returns the cleaned water back to the fish.

I LIKE it nice setup. Are you able to keep tilapia year round. What temps do they like? On rosemary plant it and forget it. It doesn't like attention and it definitely likes dry. I've got three plants by the side of the road and they've never been watered. They have taken over the spot. Whenever I've watered others near the house they die. Yours may need some water but dry is good