Arizona Chickens

[MandyFitch]

Thanks for the photos, I bet they are EEs.

 

[pastrymama]

Anyone need a few more laying or soon to be laying hens? I really need to cut my layer flock in half. I am so busy with the kids and tons of other commitments that I don't have time to dedicate anymore. Send me a PM if interested. I am in north phoenix right off the I-17.

Available hens:
Basque
Ameraucana
Super Blue Egg Layer (SBEL)
Sulmtaler
Brahma
some super cute blue banties

All birds are just a year old or less. I won't be asking a ton per bird, I really need to downsize. These are ALL Breeder birds, not feedstore or hatchery birds.

 

[Twinklin]

Twinklin, my EE looks very similar to Eleanor. I've never noticed that the EE's like ours can look so much like a Welsummer's coloring till now. Probably because I've never really looked at a welsummer before!

Yep, there was a point when they were very young before Eleanor's muffs came in full force and Tea's comb was non existent that they were hard to tell apart without seeing their leg color.

 

[Angelray]

Yep, there was a point when they were very young before Eleanor's muffs came in full force and Tea's comb was non existent that they were hard to tell apart without seeing their leg color. 

I also raised my welsummer with an EE and in the beginning we had the same problem!

 

[WestSideChicken]

Found something strange tonight... Went out to tuck in the chickens for the night. They were already in the coop, so I locked them up. Then I checked the little ones in the old mini prefab coop that we decided to use as a grow out now that the new mansion size one is almost done. When I lifted the lid I saw some sleepy 8 week old chicks and a brown egg! All I can guess is that the other day when I let them have some interaction time with both coops open in the run at the same time that Taco my BR snuck in and laid her egg in the pullet cage. Either that or I have the earliest laying chicks in the world! How that fat hen squeezed up there I have no idea!

 

[roostereggs]

Hello!
I am new to BYC but have been doing 'chicken research' for a few months because we just bought a house in the East Valley that came with 8 chickens and their own personal bodyguard...errr...guard dog.

They were in terrible shape when we first got them, but seem to be doing much better on chicken feed plus fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, suet, leftovers, and a whole lot of TLC! And I hand feed them bugs Their only source of feed before this was corn. According to neighbors, they are in the 3 to 8 year age range, but we average 4 eggs per day from 7 hens.

My next project is working on their housing. They are in 2/3 of a three-horse corral (36' x 12') with metal roof, and a ton of chicken wire/hardware wire around it. The problem is they have little shade and I am not sure how they have survived summers without it. :'( I am hoping to put corrugated tin on the west side, and hang sun shades or something on the south side because they only have 24 x 2 feet of shade during the day. Or possibly grow vines up the south side.

Does anyone have advice on how to enclose the space more but still have good ventilation?

Thanks!

 

[MagicChicken]

Hello!
I am new to BYC but have been doing 'chicken research' for a few months because we just bought a house in the East Valley that came with 8 chickens and their own personal bodyguard...errr...guard dog.

They were in terrible shape when we first got them, but seem to be doing much better on chicken feed plus fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, suet, leftovers, and a whole lot of TLC! And I hand feed them bugs Their only source of feed before this was corn. According to neighbors, they are in the 3 to 8 year age range, but we average 4 eggs per day from 7 hens.

My next project is working on their housing. They are in 2/3 of a three-horse corral (36' x 12') with metal roof, and a ton of chicken wire/hardware wire around it. The problem is they have little shade and I am not sure how they have survived summers without it. :'( I am hoping to put corrugated tin on the west side, and hang sun shades or something on the south side because they only have 24 x 2 feet of shade during the day. Or possibly grow vines up the south side.

Does anyone have advice on how to enclose the space more but still have good ventilation?

Thanks!

Sounds like you are doing well by the chickens. Congratulations!

I am guessing that your corral is oriented east-west (narrow ends to east and west). If this is true they may be just fine. They have a 2' strip of shade now - in the winter when the sun is at a low angle - but they should have more shade as the sun gets higher in the sky in the summer. Shading the west side is highly recommended.

Oddly, I have found it helpful to shade the North side as well as the west side, because that hot late afternoon summer sun blasts in from the northwest from April through mid-September.

You could hang a vertical strip of shadecloth on the south side so they have some options about sun vs. partial shade vs. full shade.

On my breeding pens, which are mostly going to get winter use, the sun blasts in the open south side and the pens are only 6' deep so they have no shade for several hours mid-day. I am putting an 18" horizontal strip of plywood across the front starting about 18" off the ground, at the height of a roosting chicken. (The pen roosts are 18" off the ground.) This throws a strip of shade into the breeding pen and also helps protect roosting birds from direct winds coming from the south.

Growing stuff up the wire is great, as long as you can keep the plants alive and leafy. Backup shade sources are always helpful. Plants have a way of defoliating just as their shade is most needed. Mine are always getting stripped by ants. And if the ants don't get them the caterpillars do. I am a big fan of shadecloth

 

[Twinklin]

So the girls decided to protest yesterday and not 1 of the 3 laid. The EE has only laid 2 so far skipping a day in between and so she has a pass but the other 2 are in trouble. They're normally very consistent. Typically they don't skip a day unless they lay very late the day before and they'll lay up until 4pm usually. they both laid by noon on Monday but yesterday zip zilch nada. I just hope they didn't sneak off to a hiding place to lay them. Maybe it being a darker cloudier day yesterday threw them off.

 

[ctroyer]

Hello!
I am new to BYC but have been doing 'chicken research' for a few months because we just bought a house in the East Valley that came with 8 chickens and their own personal bodyguard...errr...guard dog.

They were in terrible shape when we first got them, but seem to be doing much better on chicken feed plus fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, suet, leftovers, and a whole lot of TLC! And I hand feed them bugs Their only source of feed before this was corn. According to neighbors, they are in the 3 to 8 year age range, but we average 4 eggs per day from 7 hens.

My next project is working on their housing. They are in 2/3 of a three-horse corral (36' x 12') with metal roof, and a ton of chicken wire/hardware wire around it. The problem is they have little shade and I am not sure how they have survived summers without it. :'( I am hoping to put corrugated tin on the west side, and hang sun shades or something on the south side because they only have 24 x 2 feet of shade during the day. Or possibly grow vines up the south side.

Does anyone have advice on how to enclose the space more but still have good ventilation?

Thanks!

Hello and it is great that you have taken such good care of the chickens. I think that would have been daunting to buy a house and inherit chickens before I actually did the research and decided we wanted chickens. To keep the girls cool in the summer besides the shade I would also consider shallow dishes or pans that you can put water in for them to cool their feet. We just got chickens this summer and were worried about the heat and found that our chickens never panted in the coop once we added this. They would just go stand in the water for a bit and be perfectly content. Good luck!

 

[pipemum]

Hi roostereggs! Once you get coop secure, you can definitely try growing vines and plants up the sides. I have a Tombstone rose and some other vine crawling up my coop--but it's been a fight! As Magic mentioned, ants/chickens/sun/heat all want a piece of the vines! Shadecloth is the bomb-diggity. I also used some of the reed fencing cut to fit the sides of the coop. Right now most of it is rolled up, waiting for next summer. And wow, your house came with chickens AND a dog? Was the dog also in bad shape?

Pastrymama, I'm possibly interested in a super blue layer. What do they look like? How much? And would only taking one be possible, or is that a bad idea? I might be coming up to Phoenix for an Ikea run in the next couple of weeks.