New to chickens in AZ

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Lpsouth1978 said:
The Chicks are doing great outside and seem to be handling the heat well so far. We have only lost one chick, and that was after being caught by one of the dogs. The chick found a hole in or run and escaped. The dog found her and wanted to play. He ended up braking her hip, so we put her down.

On the other hand, we did lose one of our older girls on the 4th, and two others don't seem to be handling the heat very well. All of the struggling pullets are Production Reds, so I think they are not very heat hardy. Hopefully they make it through alright. We already have the giant shade cloth over the entire side yard, open air coops, and a misting system. We have doubled the misting and give them watermelon a couple times a week. We also added more watering stations (beyond the auto watering systems we already had).
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Add some ice to the water to help cool it off for them, too. One of the AZ. Ladies held a thermometer by the surface of one of her water stations that was in the shade yesterday and it read 102 degrees. So if ice would not have been added, her chickens would have been basically drinking hot water in the heat.
 
BlueBaby said:
Add some ice to the water to help cool it off for them, too. One of the AZ. Ladies held a thermometer by the surface of one of her water stations that was in the shade yesterday and it read 102 degrees. So if ice would not have been added, her chickens would have been basically drinking hot water in the heat.
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Agreed. I add frozen water bottles to the water- which gives them about 4-hours of cold water. Thankfully I work at home and can swap the frozen bottles.
 
It has been quite a while since I last did an update. Things are going well overall! We ended up with a total of 38 chickens by the end of the Phoenix summer. We lost 2 of the older girls to the heat, but all of the new pullets made it through the summer with apparent ease. We did lose one chick to a water bucket that broke and fell on her. :(

The current issue is with RATS!!! We just watch them on the chicken run cameras every night. They have not harmed any chickens at this point, but they are eating a TON of food and have been stealing eggs and hiding them (though not well). We have been attempting to trap them, but with no success. We also ordered a couple of the large Grandpa's chicken feeders and will be replacing the feed buckets with those. We will also be shoveling out any and all feed from the ground of the run this weekend.

Unfortunately, because the chickens have the entire side yard as their run, there is NO way we can rat proof the run, so eradication is the best bet. Hopefully, eliminating access to the feed will move things in the right direction. Any other ideas or pointers to help with the rat problem are greatly appreciated.
 
Lpsouth1978 said:
It has been quite a while since I last did an update. Things are going well overall! We ended up with a total of 38 chickens by the end of the Phoenix summer. We lost 2 of the older girls to the heat, but all of the new pullets made it through the summer with apparent ease. We did lose one chick to a water bucket that broke and fell on her. :(

The current issue is with RATS!!! We just watch them on the chicken run cameras every night. They have not harmed any chickens at this point, but they are eating a TON of food and have been stealing eggs and hiding them (though not well). We have been attempting to trap them, but with no success. We also ordered a couple of the large Grandpa's chicken feeders and will be replacing the feed buckets with those. We will also be shoveling out any and all feed from the ground of the run this weekend.

Unfortunately, because the chickens have the entire side yard as their run, there is NO way we can rat proof the run, so eradication is the best bet. Hopefully, eliminating access to the feed will move things in the right direction. Any other ideas or pointers to help with the rat problem are greatly appreciated.
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I'm sorry for what you're dealing with. :( :hugs

Feeders are mentioned here, but this is the most complete article about rats I've ever seen. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/rat-control-the-video-series.1337456/
 
Lpsouth1978 said:
It has been quite a while since I last did an update. Things are going well overall! We ended up with a total of 38 chickens by the end of the Phoenix summer. We lost 2 of the older girls to the heat, but all of the new pullets made it through the summer with apparent ease. We did lose one chick to a water bucket that broke and fell on her. :(

The current issue is with RATS!!! We just watch them on the chicken run cameras every night. They have not harmed any chickens at this point, but they are eating a TON of food and have been stealing eggs and hiding them (though not well). We have been attempting to trap them, but with no success. We also ordered a couple of the large Grandpa's chicken feeders and will be replacing the feed buckets with those. We will also be shoveling out any and all feed from the ground of the run this weekend.

Unfortunately, because the chickens have the entire side yard as their run, there is NO way we can rat proof the run, so eradication is the best bet. Hopefully, eliminating access to the feed will move things in the right direction. Any other ideas or pointers to help with the rat problem are greatly appreciated.
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Do you have cats? I have a Tom and a female that generally stay outside at night. Sometimes one or both sleeps in the run. They have never harmed a chicken, even a baby chick, but they have been the best rodent and snake deterrents ever.
There are also box traps (like you may see beside commercial buildings) the rodents can get in but cannot get out. You can get something similar like this
Screenshot_20231031_141417_Chrome.jpg
 
janiedoe said:
Do you have cats? I have a Tom and a female that generally stay outside at night. Sometimes one or both sleeps in the run. They have never harmed a chicken, even a baby chick, but they have been the best rodent and snake deterrents ever.
There are also box traps (like you may see beside commercial buildings) the rodents can get in but cannot get out. You can get something similar like this
View attachment 3672655
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We bought a case of that a couple of years ago and it worked as we found mice bodies, but then it stopped and it dawned on us, Stella, the new barn cat found the coop. 😊
 

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