New chicken keeper in Texas

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ChicksInTexas

ChicksInTexas

Chirping
5 Years
Sep 8, 2015
5
2
59
Texas
Hi! I moved out onto 10 acres this summer and decided I wanted to raise chickens, so a friend gave me a few Rhode Island Red / Ameraucana eggs to incubate and I hatched 5 chicks at the end of July. They're now about 6 weeks old, and I'm pretty sure at least two are baby roos.
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I just finished their "big kid" house last night and moved them in (and more importantly moved them OUT of my guest bathroom ;)). Anyways, I frequented BYC enough during the making of my coop that I figured it was high time I finally actually joined!
 
Such cuties! What part of Texas are you in? I've just started my first little backyard flock in College Station after living in big cities all of my life. Loving my little chickens, but still adjusting to the Texas summer heat!
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Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Yes, I see two roo's in that bottom pic. Real cutie pies you have there! Thanks for sharing.

If you have any questions about them or anything else, feel free to ask around the forums.

Welcome to our flock!
 
I'm near Willis in the Sam Houston National Forest. I spent a good five years in College Station though :). You never really get used to the heat (or the humidity), you just learn to deal with it or stay indoors. I'm a little concerned for my chicks though. Obviously they're very shaded in their coop, and there are large trees near it to shade it, and we have a fan in their coop (it's a big walk-in style), but they're used to being indoors where the hottest it would get it 80 during the day while we're at work. I'm also the person who makes sure my dogs always have access to come in to their own air conditioned room with a running water fountain rather than being stuck outside in the heat all day, whereas everyone else is like "they're just dogs, they can deal", so I may be overreacting :).
 
Chickens are designed to adapt to the heat and the cold. As spring turns to summer and fall turns to winter, their bodies learn to adapt to the temps. Temps over 100 can be dangerous for poultry. You won't have to worry about sub zero temps either, however my birds have seen -30 and did quiet well. (I did add some heat lamps until the temps returned to -10)

You might consider keeping your birds on sand. As long as sand is shaded, it is a great medium to use on the floors especially in warm climates. If you hose down the floor when it gets into the 90's and you put a giant fan out there, the sand gets really cool. Like going to beach and you stick your feet into the cool sand. I use sand, hose it all down and use a fan and my birds never pant. They stay nice and cool.

You are best to let your birds adapt to all temps. Healthier for them and good for survival.

You might also stop by the Texas thread for help from your neighbors and how they keep cool in the summer...https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/44/texas

Good luck! :)
 
I don't think you're overreacting, but I'm probably biased because I worry too much. We moved our chickens outside about a month ago and I've been sneaking home every day at lunch time to put ice cubes in their water, hose down the run, and give them frozen watermelon treats. Spoiled chickens!
 
Thanks for the information! Fortunately we have REALLY sandy soil on our land even though it's in the middle of a national forest - like our driveway looks like a white-sand beach driveway.. so that'll be easy to come by. I like the idea of just keeping it hosed down and keeping a fan near by so they can cool off when they need to. And thanks for directing me to the Texas thread!
 

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