Hello fellow chicken/livestock lovers. I am so excited to find this group & love the permie website.I have to say that its the best social community I have ever found on the web...I feel like I found a great place to meet like minded people. I live in the oler part of scottsdale & found out through the zoning office that we CAN have chickens (the only stipulation is they have clean & sanitary conditions)...who would have thought that snottsdale would allow this...they are usually such beasts about zoning etc.....I wanted to ask some opinions about timing my chick purchase. We are in the process of re-landscaping & I can't see that I would have the hen house ready until about about the second week in may or so. I have read a few tidbits from all of you & books too about keeping the older hens alive in the heat.I am soooo nervous about them dying of heat exhaustion ...I know chickens do have short lives, but I want to give them the best chance possible. I would like to give them lots of natural shade too, so any suggestions on vines that would grow really fast would be great.I bought the plans for the "Garden coop" http://www.thegardencoop.com/I love this design & will adapt it a we bit for AZ sun. So the big question is....how do I time rearing my chicks & this dang heat. I don't want their first week of life outside as juveniles to be when its 100 degrees.Any feedback would be great. BTW I heard a sad story on NPR regarding industrial farming of layers & cruelty. It just made me all the more resolved to raise my own food. Does anyone have a cow for milk??? Te he (i know most of us are backyard farmers)Thanks for the info.....Beth
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I would get them now. You won't have to put them outside for another month or so anyway, just keep them in your homemade brooder (a big box) until then. I would recommend getting them as baby chicks, not as started pullets, my reasoning is that they are much less likely to come home with a disease if they've only been at the feed store for a day or two. They're very easy to take care of, especially if they aren't exposed to any predators.
Hi Beth: I'd recommend starting out with younger chickens instead of baby chicks. Pratt's pets sells them when they are past the precarious baby chick stage. We've tried chicks and so many things can go wrong! Squirrels, owls, self-decapitation thru the chicken wire, overheating, you name it! Just another option for you to consider. eva
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It loves the heat and grows really fast. I loves to vine, and your chickens can enjoy snacking on them!