What I’ve learned from being an observer

[Roosterinthecity]

Hi-
I’ve been reading posts for almost 2 years now. I’ve seen many great ideas and have scratched my head on other ideas. I use to have chickens as a kid, and finally 30+ yrs later, decided to do it again after moving to Arizona and buying a house.
Now the neighborhood I live in is quite…well, HOA wise….cant really do much. But after learning that a neighbor had mini goats, I got some hatchlings. Well one ended up being a rooster, so Mo wears a crow collar. In the year and 3 months that I’ve had chickens, I’ve only have received one complaint from the drunk grandma across the street. Of course Mo or the ladies pulled his crow collar off and he went verbosely megaphone crazy. Well, chickens grow, and I had a small coop made of fir wood. It was small. Hard to clean. Cleaning it everyday after work sucked. I was on my hands and knees crawling through poop. Got worse when I somehow ended up with 3 Muscovy ducks.
I saw idea on here. Resin coops. Now it took months to find a resin coop. Many had been discontinued. I could only get one that would fit in a specific area to stay hidden within the yard walls because any visibility peaking above the wall and it would be a No-No and the HOA would…..
Well…it’s crazy buying a storage shed for over $600 and then basically destroying it by putting holes in it. But it works. 9 chickens, 1 rooster, 3 ducks….and a tortoise now live in this enclosure with the resin shed. I want to say thanks for all the great ideas and the shortfalls.
The ducks have a little above ground storage bin pond. I placed a sand pit in a corner. In the prices of using the pvc pipes I still have to make perches.
The shed has two vents on the same side. And I used an exhaust for them to use as a way to enter and exit. It’s just the perfect size. I placed a plastic shelf in there and some buckets for them. They don’t really use the buckets, they like the far left dark corner which is the hardest place to collect eggs from. Maybe if I put like a cat litter tray in that corner…make it easier to get to.
This is Tucson Arizona, so yes it gets hot, but chickens are not that stupid…right? They spend the day outside. The trees give them shade. The vents stay open and their enterance/exit does as well. Sure it gets cold, but chickens are hardy and it never really drops below 32 in the winter. As long as they are protected from the strong cold drafts.
Funny thing, in the past months, I have noticed many of the neighbors now also have chickens. It’s nice to see what ideas I get from them by being mosey and looking in their yards like a stalker.
The run was created from pvc and chicken wire. Tied with wire strips. Zip ties in this heat won’t last. The run is 4 foot tall, so I can still be on my feet and not knees. Flies? Yes there are some, but the chickens and ducks live to eat them. Probably end up hanging some water bags eventually. This wasn’t an easy process. The resin shed took 2 hrs to set up. Then to make holes and set it up took about another 2 hrs. Digging in the Arizona ground sucks, but that’s what I did. Leveled it out, placed some bricks down and then a treated wooden board as the sheds base. That took like 6 hrs. The pvc and chicken wire was an ordeal. Took close to 8 hrs in a Sunday and then the very next Sunday I had to re do the whole thing. But it’s done. I seriously don’t want to put more work into it, but if I see some other good ideas….
The dog igloo is for the tortoise. He sleeps and eats in it. The chickens don’t go in there although they want his food. He has a heat lamp in there for the winter time. And for the summer time I plan on using frozen gallons of water placed around the area.
Well, here’s to work work work in order to keep the butt nugget layers happy.

 

[featherpickingfool]

Wow, really a well written and pictured article. Thanks for the write up.