Hello. I live in Austin, Texas with my sweetheart, Giles, and our 3 large dogs (all from rescue): Asher, a very large, sable German Shepherd; Bella a smallish (only about 80 lbs.) Anatolian Shepherd mix; and, Lily, the little pistol, Anatolian Shepherd.
We are just starting our life with chickens and have given over our guest bathroom to two brooder boxes. One plastic bin is for the "Dots", our currently (as of May 24th, 2010) 4 week old Dominiques from Buck Moore Feed. The other is a nice wooden box (made by the Sweetheart) with our other 6 at about 2 weeks old: 2 'Ameraucanas' - Lucy, the redhead, and Ethel, the blond; with Mildred Cubicle, a Welsummer (from Callahans General Store); and 3 Wyandottes - Daisy and Buttercup, GLW and Little Blue (BW) also from Buck Moore. Basically they all come from Ideal Hatchery, but the feed stores allow for someone like me to get just a few.
[FONT=comic sans ms,sand]We have our coop about 3/4 built which will have an attached pen which will total about 40-50 square feet and plan an attached run that will be 15 feet long and 4 feet wide. My biggest concerns are the heat around here and the predators. I feel pretty good about the predator plan, but will probably have a lot of hot weather concerns getting through this first summer. Especially if it is anything like last year, which was absolutely brutal. I have friends with chickens though and they all have survived![/FONT]

DAISY:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56974_glw_chick_2.jpg

BUTTERCUP:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56974_glw_chick_1.jpg
LUCY:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56974_lucy.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56974_brooder_1.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/56974_coop_pop_up.jpg