Arizona Chickens

[chicksurreal]

Just had to share this precious photo of one good moma hen. This girl is from Maryhysong. .

She's beautiful!

 

[chicksurreal]

I went out this morning to check on the Moringa tree seeds that I planted last week and found this! Yay!

 

[kpgoldstar]

Gallo that is really a bummer about your treadle design. Your grapes look fabulous! They wouldn't make it to raisins around here! I would eat them.

Pipemum, one of my RIR hatchery hens just went broody on me at 9 months old a few weeks ago. I didn't have space or a cage to break her. We took her off the nest every chance we got but we aren't home all day. After a couple weeks we started going out at night and taking her off the nest and placing her on the roost. She eventually broke herself without too much trouble.

All my girls seem to finally be back to normal. No pecking or fighting, everyone is eating and looking happy and healthy! We've had some monsoon moisture up here, even rained today and Sunday which was wonderful. Temps are still between 108 and 112 in the afternoons but my hens seem to be handling the heat just fine. We've been getting 0-2 eggs a day for a month or so. Today we got 4! Everybody laid!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Gallo that is really a bummer about your treadle design. Your grapes look fabulous! They wouldn't make it to raisins around here! I would eat them.

Pipemum, one of my RIR hatchery hens just went broody on me at 9 months old a few weeks ago. I didn't have space or a cage to break her. We took her off the nest every chance we got but we aren't home all day. After a couple weeks we started going out at night and taking her off the nest and placing her on the roost. She eventually broke herself without too much trouble.

All my girls seem to finally be back to normal. No pecking or fighting, everyone is eating and looking happy and healthy! We've had some monsoon moisture up here, even rained today and Sunday which was wonderful. Temps are still between 108 and 112 in the afternoons but my hens seem to be handling the heat just fine. We've been getting 0-2 eggs a day for a month or so. Today we got 4! Everybody laid!

Yeah, it's a bummer; c'est la vie.

Oh, we've eaten so many grapes over the last month, I don't think anyone wants to see another one. They were so awesome though, such a treat to grab a cluster off the vine and eat it with the chickens surrounding and begging for some.

Wow, your temps are still brutal! Cumulatively, we haven't gotten a lot of rain yet, but one good one where it fell somewhere between a sprinkle and actual rain for about three hours. It's nice to have the dust washed off everything; the world seems a bit refreshed. The best part though has been the lower temps. We've been around 100 or lower since the first rain event. Glad your birds are doing well with that terrible heat.

 

[Sill]

I went out this morning to check on the Moringa tree seeds that I planted last week and found this! Yay!

Great to see! Something ate my moringa seedlings I got from the seed exchange seeds.

It also got my luffas and blue potatoes. I'm not a happy gardener.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

I went out this morning to check on the Moringa tree seeds that I planted last week and found this! Yay!

Nice! I managed to keep a few moringas alive that I planted late last winter. Most of the ones I planted in the ground died.

There is one exception that is doing well in the ground and it is almost as tall as me. The moringa trees I kept in pots are doing very well. One is probably about 8' tall now. I did some reading that suggested they should be cut off at about 1m height once they reach 2m tall. Has anyone done this? Seems like such a brutal thing to do but apparently it makes them bushier rather than tall and spindly.

 

[Sill]

Don't forget with these monsoon storms if you have native seeds like tepary beans or devil's claw if the seed instructions say plant with the summer rains NOW is the time to get those seeds started! Soak overnight and plant them!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Great to see! Something ate my moringa seedlings I got from the seed exchange seeds.

It also got my luffas and blue potatoes. I'm not a happy gardener.

Oh, that always makes me so mad! What do you think it was? Birds? Rabbits? Cutworms? Try the potatoes again at the end of Aug. or beginning of Sept.

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Don't forget with these monsoon storms if you have native seeds like tepary beans or devil's claw if the seed instructions say plant with the summer rains NOW is the time to get those seeds started! Soak overnight and plant them!

Good reminder! I'm going to try planting some panic grass this year. I haven't done devil's claws in a couple years but I want to again. For a long time they worked as a fantastic trap plant for hornworms. When I had them planted the moths laid their eggs on them and ignored the tomato plants. I could pick handfuls off every day and feed them to the chickens. Sadly though, after several years of doing that they no longer preferred the devil's claw and started going for the tomato plants again. I think I removed the individuals with genes that preferred the devil's claw, leaving the tomato plants as their most preferred. I'm hoping that if I plant them again enough outbreeding will have occurred that they'll prefer them again. This time I'll let them have them so I can have pollinators for my passion fruit vines.

 

[Sill]

Nice! I managed to keep a few moringas alive that I planted late last winter. Most of the ones I planted in the ground died.

There is one exception that is doing well in the ground and it is almost as tall as me. The moringa trees I kept in pots are doing very well. One is probably about 8' tall now. I did some reading that suggested they should be cut off at about 1m height once they reach 2m tall. Has anyone done this? Seems like such a brutal thing to do but apparently it makes them bushier rather than tall and spindly.

I've got one past the eaves of my house and I know I've got to hack it in half, but I'm just dreading it. I think I can root the cutting, so I'd have two trees, but after babying the darn thing for a year I just hate to do it. It is starting to branch out..but on the very top so I would not be able to reach any pods.

Oh, that always makes me so mad! What do you think it was? Birds? Rabbits? Cutworms? Try the potatoes again at the end of Aug. or beginning of Sept.

It might have been birds but I'm sure it was snails. They have been a scourge in my garden. I do strictly organic so no poisons. Baits only work so well and I usually hand pick them. I can tell when I let them go too long, I get my plants eaten!

Good reminder! I'm going to try planting some panic grass this year. I haven't done devil's claws in a couple years but I want to again. For a long time they worked as a fantastic trap plant for hornworms. When I had them planted the moths laid their eggs on them and ignored the tomato plants. I could pick handfuls off every day and feed them to the chickens. Sadly though, after several years of doing that they no longer preferred the devil's claw and started going for the tomato plants again. I think I removed the individuals with genes that preferred the devil's claw, leaving the tomato plants as their most preferred. I'm hoping that if I plant them again enough outbreeding will have occurred that they'll prefer them again. This time I'll let them have them so I can have pollinators for my passion fruit vines.

I don't know, I think I would prefer some other type of pollinator for the passion vines. Those are some seriously pudgy caterpillars! I've never gotten hornworms on my devil's claw, they seem to prefer the flowing vine/bush (I don't know the name of) I usually plant them next to so my devil's claw grow without getting eaten. I don't usually have tomatoes this time of year so I don't know if those would get infested or not.

It's been a few years since I've grown panic grass, I need to try some again.