New to chickens in AZ

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DobieLover said:
He sure looks like a cockerel. Keep an eye on him...
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Thank you for the confirmation. We were hoping for no cockerel's, but I am concerned there is at least one more. I am posting pics of the rest of the chickens. There is one other that I think may also be a cockerel, but not quite sure. Please let me know what you all think. Also, if you can tell what breed they all are, that would be cool too. Sorry about the less than stellar pics, some were more cooperative than others.

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Lpsouth1978 said:
Thank you for the confirmation. We were hoping for no cockerel's, but I am concerned there is at least one more. I am posting pics of the rest of the chickens. There is one other that I think may also be a cockerel, but not quite sure. Please let me know what you all think. Also, if you can tell what breed they all are, that would be cool too. Sorry about the less than stellar pics, some were more cooperative than others.

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None of these are jumping out at me screaming "cockerel".
 
Update:

The chickens are doing well and still growing. We still have the cockerel, but are actively trying to find him a new home so we don't have to cook him. I am a little concerned that we may need to get rid of a few of the pullets as well. We have started to find a good number of feathers laying throughout the run. We have not witnessed any aggression or feather pulling, but I worry that it is happening when we are not around.

We currently have 12 chickens (11 once the cockerel is gone). The coop is an open air 4'x8' coop attached to an 8'x16' run. The run is technically large enough for the 12 chickens (10.66 ft/bird), but the coop is a bit small. We were hoping that having the open air coop would allow for all 12 birds, but that simply may not be the case.

Your thoughts are appreciated. Is it normal to have some feathers throughout the run, or is this something to be concerned about? Will getting rid of the cockerel be enough, or would you reduce the number of pullets as well?
 
Lpsouth1978 said:
Update:

The chickens are doing well and still growing. We still have the cockerel, but are actively trying to find him a new home so we don't have to cook him. I am a little concerned that we may need to get rid of a few of the pullets as well. We have started to find a good number of feathers laying throughout the run. We have not witnessed any aggression or feather pulling, but I worry that it is happening when we are not around.

We currently have 12 chickens (11 once the cockerel is gone). The coop is an open air 4'x8' coop attached to an 8'x16' run. The run is technically large enough for the 12 chickens (10.66 ft/bird), but the coop is a bit small. We were hoping that having the open air coop would allow for all 12 birds, but that simply may not be the case.

Your thoughts are appreciated. Is it normal to have some feathers throughout the run, or is this something to be concerned about? Will getting rid of the cockerel be enough, or would you reduce the number of pullets as well?
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They may be molting. However if you rehome the cockerel along with 2 or 3 pullets, you may find a home quickly.
 
Well... The ladies seem to be doing well and are still growing daily. Food consumption has skyrocketed and they are now going through a 50lb bag every 2 weeks. It looks like we will have to start transitioning them to the layer crumble in a couple of weeks, since we will be out of the Start & Grow and will be down to just a bag of the layer crumble then. It seems a trip to the feed store is in the near future.

We also did some work on the coop and run today, with a bit more to do tomorrow. We have been having issues with pullets constantly hiding under the coop. While this is not a big deal, we were concerned that they might start laying eggs under there and it would be VERY difficult for us to get to those eggs. Due to these concerns, we decided to block access to the space beneath the coop. We then cut a couple lengths of 2x4 and hung them in the run to make some perch swings. None of the girls have jumped up on one yet, but hopefully they learn to use and enjoy them.

As for the coop, we first did a good cleaning. It is amazing how much these little things poop!! We were originally just going to "stir up" the shavings and poop, but ultimately decided to remove it all and spread out fresh shavings and a healthy sprinkling of Sweet PDZ. We then removed the board that was covering the nesting boxes, and put the laying mats in the boxes along with some fake eggs. I know the girls still have a few weeks before they start laying, be we wanted them to feel comfortable with the nesting boxes before then.

The last thing we need to tomorrow is to add a slanted roof over the nesting boxes. We built the boxes with a flat roof on it thinking that we don't get much rain, so it would be fine. Turns out we were wrong. The last rain we got, puddled on top of the boxes and started to warp the wood, then it leaked inside and soaked a portion of the coop and the nesting boxes. The plan tomorrow is to add a small slanted roof on top of the boxes, put tar paper on that and then place shingles. We have all of the materials left over from a large shed we recently built, so we should be able to complete the built in an hour or so.
 

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