Nevadans?

[SunnyDawn]

Hi everybody! It sure is a gorgeous day today! Is it this pretty all across Nevada? We have a few clouds out there now but it's supposed to get up to 74 degrees here and I'm sure a lot warmer down south. Wish I didn't have so many chores to do, it would be a great day for a drive.

 

[Penturner]

Thanks Peep Show, I read that to everyone here at home and it gave us all a good laugh.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Good luck with those poor eggs Penturner! That may explain my past experiences with hatching shipped eggs!

Peep_Show, too funny!

 

[Knemeyer]

I am new to the forum, but have been checking out the coop designs on this site. We found a 6x12 shed on Craigs List and are now starting work changing it over to a coop. I would welcome any advice on the changes we need to make, run design and chicken breeds. I would especially love to hear from fellow owners in the Las Vegas area because of our special weather conditions. I am looking forward to owning chickens for eggs and as pets. I would like to start with 8 and eventually add more later on to total 12 which won't include a rooster.

Specific questions I have are 1) What special improvements did you make to your coop to accomodate Las Vegas weather conditions 2) What are your thoughts of starting with chicks vs. slightly older birds 3) What breeds do good in the Las Vegas area

Thanks for any advice and looking forward to learning from all the forum members!

 

[SunnyDawn]

Welcome to the Nevada thread Knemeyer! OK where are all the Las Vegas folks at?

 

[Peep_Show]

Knemeyer, Welcome!

Yes, the weather gets nice and roasty-toasty here in the LV area....enjoy the halcyon days now as that long season called Hell is just around the corner. So the main thing to keep in mind for your coop is SHADE, SHADE, SHADE! One nice benefit of our 100+ days and very warm nights is if you go with chicks during this time, you don't have to harden them off so much in a brooder. You might want to consider sticking with "lighter" hens as extra weight = extra stress on hot birds....although some folks do manage to have the heavier/giant breeds. (Suggestions for LV: sex-links, ee's, leghorns, australorps, marans)

Other ways to deal with the heat:

Elevated coops
ice in the drinking water
misters
frozen milk/water jugs
feeding frozen watermelon
shaded damp sand
a kitty litter pan made into a wading pool
air circulation, so LOTS of ventilation in coop....lots of folks have open-front coops.

Keep us posted on your endeavors!

 

[Penturner]

Welcome Knemeyer, Besides all the extra special tricks listed below. I wanted to give you some more specific thoughts on just what "ventilation" is. For those Las Vegas viciously hot days it would mean something like walls that come completely down leaving nothing but wire. or have the coop for the milder weather and a run that they can stay in all night on those nice 90 degree nights. I was there a couple of years ago and I think it was 96 at 4 in the morning. At the very least you need openings at the bottom of the walls as well as at the top so as hot air rises out the top it draws in fresh air at the bottom. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[Penturner]

Well I just found a pair of Seramas, They offered to tape a box of eggs inside the box with the live birds as well hoping that the box is handles nicer since it is live animals.
I am waiting for payment info and a grand total right now. Man this has been some sort of search. i am starting to think Seramas are a mythical bird. Anyway with a bit of luck I might get all the birds I am searching for out of this one deal.
Big bird is looking smaller and smaller every day next to those bantams. He needs some other Seramas around or he will get an inferiority complex.

 

[Knemeyer]

Great advice! What I have planned right now for ventilation is the following: a 24x24 window on the north and east side; 2 small louvered vents I plan to put at the top of the double doors on the south side; and a turbine vent on the roof. Pennturner I didn't even consider having vents on the bottom. That is a great idea. I think most people drill round holes at floor level with hardware cloth covereding them. Would that be sufficient and on how many walls? I don't have anything on the western wall because that will get afternoon sun and most of the heat. This wall is next to my garden so the bottom half of the wall will be shelted by the garden fence/vining plants and I plan to direct the vining plants to climb the upper half. They will have a pretty large run which I plan to shade half of it with a metal roof that will reflect the sun/heat. I might put misters in the run at a later date. I know my relatives in Kansas and Oregon do that for their chickens.

Peepshow-the breeds you mentioned, do you have a good local source for those? Jones Feed is near me and they have the Araucanas, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons and Barred Rocks. My neighbor has someone he goes to, but I haven't been there yet. He got Black Sex-Links and Rhode Island Reds from them. His Sex-Links are very friendly and seem to be good layers but I haven't seen much info on those.

Thanks for the great advice and would welcome more!

 

[SunnyDawn]

Sex links just means they've taken 2 varieties or breeds and crossed them to produce chicks that can be easily sexed at hatch (ie; the cockerals have different markings/coloring than the pullets do). Blacks are a cross between a Rhode Island Red or New Hampshire rooster and a Barred Rock hen. They are not all black but are mostly dark colored when grown. Red & golden sex links are a cross of different Road Island and/or New Hampshire varieties.
They are all great layers and are well suited to the heat of your area. Buff Orpingtons, on the other hand, are not well suited for hot areas. They do very well in colder areas becaue they have a thick layer of down and feathers. They will also lay well through much of the winter because of this. As I'm sure you know, here in Reno we unfortunately get both heat in summer and very cold temps in winter. So I do have Buff Orps but I have to be careful to give them ways to cool off when it gets over 80 like Peep_Show mentioned (sometimes over 100 here too but not quite as hot as you get down there and not as often).
The pure bred Araucana is extremely rare in the U.S. so when a feed store or a hatchery says they have Araucanas or Ameraucanas (actually two different breeds, but both lay a blue egg or mostly blue with a slightly greenish cast) they really mean they are EEs. An EE or easter egger is just a mixed bird with ameraucana or araucana (usually ameraucana since araucanas are so very rare) in their mix. They can lay a green, brown, blue, white or even a pinkish colored egg. Since most feed store owners don't know this much about the history of the breeds they sell I don't bother correcting them about the true breed of ameraucanas, araucanas and EEs. It is really the hatcheries' fault for misrepresenting their birds not the feed store's fault. They are just repeating what the hatcheries have told them.
I do have EEs and I am getting some purebred ameraucanas in a couple of days (from a breeder). I have Rhode Island reds and Golden sexlinks as well as Marans, Welsumers and Blue Orp crosses. I had some Plymouth Barred Rocks but I lost them recently. This mix gives me a huge variety of color in my egg cartons which is what I want but since you want heat hardy birds I would stay with the sexlinks, Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rocks. The EEs have a rose comb and don't throw off the heat as easily as a large comb will. The Rhode Island Reds and Sexlinks are the best layers of all these breeds.
Well now you have a lot more info on the breeds you mentioned, good luck with your new flock whatever you decide.