Greetings @Hope49 from the front range in Colorado, north/NE of Denver. Welcome to the Colorado thread. Really great bunch of folks here and they'll willingly help with any chickeneering Q's you might have. If you wish to avoid being told what you can and can't do on your own property, then you'll want to purchase outside city limits, and NOT in a PUD (Planned Unit Development) as virtually ALL of them have HOAs (Home Owner's Associations - read "gestapo") that require monthly or annual dues be paid for them to restrict and rule your every move.
You can see my coops by clicking the link in my signature. The overall climate here is similar to SoCal... dry, DRY, DRY! We do get rain, and we do get snow (sometimes a lot all at once) but our sunny days number well over 300/year. Even when the temp is sub zero (rare where you wish to move, and when it does happen, normally not more than a day or three), the chickens will normally be just fine as long as the coop has adequate (or better) ventilation to let moisture out. It's the moisture build up that causes the issues of bad air and frostbite/freezing of combs/wattles/toes. There's a ton of information here on the site discussing it, and of course an entire coop building thread filled with ideas.
Hope your move goes well! Hope you find the ideal property here that will suit you for many years to come!
Greetings also to @StelleKitten ! Colorado is a HUGE state, not quite as large as TX of course, but when you ask where's a "nice place to live" here, you can choose from Alpine tundra to desert.
I mean the options are pretty wide! You have narrowed them down a bit by saying no sand, hate heat, want a farm w/birds and cows. The biggest thing you'll have to deal with will most likely be "sticker shock". Land here is far from cheap. In fact it's quite expensive for "good" land. If you use
http://www.landsofamerica.com/ or
http://www.zillow.com/ and look at both states in comparison, you'll find properties that meet your desires far less expensive in TN than here. I'm in the process of selling my 1.4 acre place here right now for over 200K to buy a 30+ acre place in TX or KY for <$160K... As for heat, both CO and TN have heat too. We've been a week+ in the 90s here as I type. The one advantage is it's a dry heat, not humid. If you don't want heat, I might suggest you look for a place west of the front range (up in the mountains) but east of the western slope (high desert). It's a LOT cooler during summer at higher elevations... but of course that ALSO means it's a lot colder in the winter months as well. There's also more moisture at elevation than out on the plains east of the rockies (more snow in winter). We here out east rely on the snow pack melt for most of our water.
