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Newbie in chicken land!

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Hello and welcome to BYC! :frow

Congrats on your new chicks! :jumpy You might like to chat with your neighbors in your state thread of AZ here.... https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/arizona-chickens.31227/

Make yourself at home here and if you have any questions about your chicks along the way, be sure to ask. Welcome aboard!
 
Kskiba said:
I am new to chickens! Have wanted them for years but finally convinced my husband that we should pull the trigger!
We have 4 new baby chicks, live in good ol’ az where it is good and hot so any wisdom on keeping them healthy and happy in the heat is greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Welcome to BYC!! What breeds do you have?
 
Glad to meet you, and welcome to BYC.

If you have not already built a coop and run, you may want to look for coop designs for hot dry weather. Here are some articles and links that might help:

Ventilation (important to chicken health), with helpful links to coop designs organized by climate (because what is just right for my New England hens won't work for my brother's Arizona chickens)

Farmers Almanac on Building Coops (Includes size requirements!) Allowing plenty of space for chickens is really important because, even as chicks, they will start pecking each other or plucking their own feathers, or become unhealthy if they are overcrowded. Here is a link to Colorado State Extension's publication on space and temperature requirements for chicks as they age.

As for cooling, the things I recall discussed from last summer, which was hot, even here in New England, were:

1. Spray water over the ground to create a cooling environment for the chickens.

2. Texas chicken air conditioner: Take a jug or bottles of water and fill them nearly full with water. Then pop them in your freezer over night. Set them out in a shady spot for your chickens to sit near and enjoy the coolth.

3. There seems to be some difficulty with fans because chickens are such dusty birds that they create a lot of dust that gets into the fan motors and cause overheating as the fans struggle to work and exhaust the heat against a coating of dust. You may find some folks have been successful with fans, though, by using the SEARCH button to look for posts (different from articles, so just enter the term and search).

To look for articles on your own:

A. Use the SEARCH button, but use the Advanced Search choice, and select ARTICLES at the top of the box. Just enter your keyword(s) and scroll through your results!

B. I find it helpful to notice the rating and reviews. All articles are by BYC members, and all the reviews/ratings are as well. The ratings help a newbie like me sort the most useful and reliable articles.

C. You can bookmark the articles or posts you think you want to refer to again using that bookmark icon at the top of articles or posts. You can find them again by clicking on your own avatar and looking at the list of bookmarks you have built up!
 

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