Newbie from Safford Az

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NeuroticVirgo

NeuroticVirgo

In the Brooder
5 Years
Apr 20, 2014
30
0
22
Hello! Got our first chicks over Easter weekend. We have never owned any kind of birds so this will be a new experience for us. (and I'm a bit paranoid so you may see lots of questions from me, so far the search bar has been helpful lol). From what I've read we have a few hurdles in front of us primarily the Az heat with summer coming and our 2 dogs.
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Also learned recently what chicks look like sun bathing, that was an experience. I'm excited to see them grow. They've already become pretty used to hoping up on our hands when we call for them. If anyone wants to give us some advice for raising chicks in Arizona I'd love to hear it. Glad to have found this website.
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When we got them



3 weeks old. They are still living inside with the heat lamp and small trips outside to play.




 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! What cute chicks, really nice pictures of them! You might like to check out your state thread for chicken keeping neighbors and tips they have for dealing with your weather https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/31227/arizona-chickens and if you do a search there are some nice threads about keeping chickens cool in the summer that may give you some suggestions, ie https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/788391/keeping-chickens-cool-in-summer-heat

For dogs and chickens, some dogs are never safe with them, but this is a nice thread you may find some tips on there to help you with training your own dogs https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/829562/training-teaching-a-dog-about-chickens

And don't forget to check out the BYC Learning Center, lots of good articles on all aspects of chicken keeping you might find helpful. https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center And it is always fun to
 
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Welcome to BYC!

Awww....your babies are adorable! You might want to use sand in your coop and run. I worship sand. It is easy to clean, keeps the flys away, no poop smells, it is soft on the pads, but the best thing is that you can hose it down in the summer and the birds will stay incredibly cool!! The evaporative effect from the water will keep the surface cool and my birds feet are actually cool to the touch in the summer time! No panting from the birds or anything. Of course you have to use a covered run to get this effect. I use sand in my coops, runs and even the nest boxes. I dig it out of nearby arroyo's and dry washes. You can go out into the desert and find a nice vein of it. Pick up a handful and wet it down. Squeeze it and if it falls apart, it is sand. If it clumps, it is dirt. Here is a pic of my sand in my run...



Here is a nice thread on sand if you want to read up on it...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/444759/got-sand-you-should

Enjoy this new adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!
 
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The important things to remember on scorching days is SHADE, SHADE, AND MORE SHADE,. man made or natural . Misting hoses can help, also freeze water in clean milk bottles and set then around where the chickens are. They can lean near them to cool off some. Change out the water often and put ice in it. Chickens especially love watermelon and it helps keep them hydrated.

A fan in the coop - protected from curious chickens is of good use - moving air always feels cooler.

If you have swallow pans - chickens sometimes like to just stand in the water to cool off.
 
1muttsfan said:
Nice pictures! It is always a little shocking to see a big pile of dead birds, until you realize they are in a sun-induced coma.
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Yes this describes it exactly! The first few times I'd go over and move them and they'd get all mad at me lol But I kept trying to make sure they could still walk and weren't doing that because they couldn't. Googled it and nothing but pictures of sun bathing chickens came up. So creepy!
 
I know that this was posted a long time ago but I just wanted to say that I live in Safford too! I just searched the forum and found this thread. Maybe in the future we could do an egg exchange? i would like to try my hand at incubating and also want to introduce different breeds into my flock. I am always so glad when there are others in my area. Hope to hear from ya.
 

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