Texas

[NagemTX]

Rain at home and in Houston where I am.

 

[NagemTX]

Three hrs ago down in Surfside, TX.

 

[texsuze]

Welcome, ATX! Presume you're in a subdivision with fenced backyard vs rural acreage? TSC has lots of good supplies, depending upon which store you use. Just a few random thoughts about your questions:
--Presume you're constructing your own coop/run and not buying the cheaply made, worthless, pre-made doll house coops from TSC. Good plans, photos, advice, etc here on BYC for building your own coop and run--make that investment up front. Predator protection and shade are priorities in Cen TX. Build bigger than you think you'll need, too.
--Fish pond: great to attract wild birds but also pulls in chicken predators like raccoons, skunks, possums, foxes even in a suburban environment. Also can be high maintenance. Ask me how I know. We have a Frog Pond at our house, not at the barn where the chickens live. We do love the FP, as we're birders, but would not recommend one unless you're outside a typical subdivision environment.
--Our hens drink well water. Our humans drink rainwater (10K gallon rainwater tanks, two of them)
--My chicken run is sand (horse arena sand not playground or beach sand). Easy on the feet, dries relatively quickly, easy to pick out poop.
--Roofing--Metal roof over run is good and provides some protection from weather but my run still gets wet in these rare rain events. Use an appropriate insulation underneath the metal roof, it will be worth the effort/cost. Clear roofing does not provide shade unless it is entirely shaded over by trees throughout the summer.
--Shrubs and plants are great areas for free-ranging chickens to get shade, Shade, SHADE(!), plus windbreaks and hiding from aerial predators. Go native if you are putting in new plantings. Check with your local NPSOT Chapter (Native Plant Society of Texas) for advice on plant selection based on soil, sunlight, height, size. Skip the imported, non-native Chinese and Asian plants from Walmart, HD, Lowes. Herbs are fine but probably take up more space if in the run than provide real benefit for chickens. Plan accordingly.

Good luck!

 

[janiedoe]

@Foxsvixen
Welcome to BYC, and to the Texas thread.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

Welcome, ATX!

Thanks! Glad to be here!

Presume you're in a subdivision with fenced backyard vs rural acreage?

Yep, fenced in backyard on a 1/4 acre corner lot in Austin.

--Presume you're constructing your own coop/run and not buying the cheaply made, worthless, pre-made doll house coops from TSC. Good plans, photos, advice, etc here on BYC for building your own coop and run--make that investment up front. Predator protection and shade are priorities in Cen TX. Build bigger than you think you'll need, too.

Current thread for proposed build . Unfortunately did buy a SnapLock coop and a large poultry pen, but now realize the chicken math hit me hard and those items are too small for 10 fully grown birds. Trying to incorporate the pen has made construction more difficult since everything is now mixed materials and having to learn 2 ways to attach hw cloth, 2 ways to attach a roof, etc. About to return hog rings pliers to Amazon since I realized they are the wrong size. Maybe I'll just use the pen for alligators or something (kidding!).

--Fish pond: great to attract wild birds but also pulls in chicken predators like raccoons, skunks, possums, foxes even in a suburban environment. Also can be high maintenance. Ask me how I know. We have a Frog Pond at our house, not at the barn where the chickens live. We do love the FP, as we're birders, but would not recommend one unless you're outside a typical subdivision environment.

Friends just built a stock tank pond in their front yard. They are still within the city, but in a slightly more rural part of the city if that makes more sense. I was planning on having it inside the run and fed with rain gutters off the chicken coop which would mean it is wholly surrounded by 1/2" hardware cloth and aprons, so things that can't get to my birds, can't get to the fish, but I hear you. More of a long term daydreaming question than an immediate planning one.

--Our hens drink well water. Our humans drink rainwater (10K gallon rainwater tanks, two of them)

How do you handle filtration? My experience melting ice for water during the "blizzard" a few years ago left something to be desired.

--My chicken run is sand (horse arena sand not playground or beach sand). Easy on the feet, dries relatively quickly, easy to pick out poop.

Hmm. I see so much conflicting advice on sand. Will have to do some research. Maybe I'll setup half the run with sand and half with a deep litter setup and just see what seems to work for us.

Use an appropriate insulation underneath the metal roof, it will be worth the effort/cost.

Why insulation? There's a decent amount of shade cover from trees and just about everything will be open air.

--Go native if you are putting in new plantings.

Definitely plan to cross reference everything as I have a plan to also redo non-chicken related plants around my property, too.

Herbs are fine but probably take up more space if in the run than provide real benefit for chickens.

Some of the herbs are intended for dual-purpose insect repellent and cooking, of which I do a lot.
So if they aren't good for being in the coop, I might just have them around the coop.

 

[janiedoe]

Good morning. I'm hoping everyone is doing okay after the storms last night. Y'all have a great day.

 

[texsuze]

Hi, ATX, just a quick couple of answers to questions.

If your run roof gets shade all seasons most of the time then insulation won't be needed for heat abatement, but it does help eliminate drips from condensation. We used a leftover roll of wafer-thin insulation from our barn build underneath metal roof for last year's run extension project.

Herbs around the outside of the run would be nice. Chickens love to 'assist' in gardening efforts.

Yes the Big Texas Freeze was murder on us. Eleven days without heat, light, power, pumps or water until we could borrow our neighbor's ("Saint Curtis"!) portable generator to operate a tiny space heater for 4 hours a day.... Could write a book on that. Our rainwater is filtered through a couple of micron filters, plus passes through a UV filter before we use it in the house. Only twice in the last 16 years have we needed to switch back to using well water, due to extreme drought. Holding our breath for 2024.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

So far I've been buying everything from Tractor Supply in Cedar Park. I live in Austin, but open to driving up to about 2 hrs if there any suggestions wrt local mills or particularly good places to get supplies

We generally get all our hardware and lumber at Woodson's, saves on the gas going to Waco (but I'm not familiar with Austin)

I was thinking of setting up a rain collection system in order to help avoid flash-flood like conditions drenching the run. Anyone successfully do this in Central TX? If so, how did you size rainwater capacity? How do you avoid mosquitos? I'd prefer not to use mosquito chemicals. I see people selling ~50 gallon drums on Craigslist

As far as flash flooding, I think this year has proven that no matter how prepared you are, sometimes mother nature will win, lol. On our property we pour bleach in the ditches (my birds to not have access to these parts of the property) that hold water to kill any mosquito larvae, it helps control the numbers, but they are still here.

How do you keep your run dry? I am thinking of trying an organic composting deep litter setup and my understanding is rainwater will make it stink to high heaven

I have a metal roof over my run, does it keep it completely dry, no, but areas, yes. This month though I can honestly say it has been saturated from all the rain. I use course mulch in my run along with leaves, grass clippings and any yard waste I rake up, which really keeps everything in balance and my garden beds love the end result every spring. I'll be adding about 16 cft this weekend to get it back in check.

In the interest of providing a happy healthy fun environment, I wanted to provide enough fun areas for exploration with organic matter that the chickens won't just scratch in the grass(soon to be dirt) 24/7. I saw people mention banana plants earlier in the thread. Is this just the same decorative plants you can find at Home Depot/Lowe's.

This is all dependent on the size of your run. I know a lot of folks say chickens will kill everything, this is not always the case. The size of my flock varies depending on the time of year (spring and summer it is much larger with chicks and grow outs). In general I have around 12 full-time ladies. I have a 20x26 run and an attached 20x36 chicken yard that has a gate I can close to keep them out if need be. In my run I have a large Texas sage bush, it's been there over 2 years (there is no grass in the run) in the chicken yard I have 2 crepe myrtle trees (been there over 2 years also) and a new peach tree, it has tons of grass that I hate mowing in the summer, lol. The plants do need some sort of fencing around them until they are established and grass covers the base.

 

[ATXInstantFlock]

Herbs around the outside of the run would be nice. Chickens love to 'assist' in gardening efforts.

It might end up being more for us than the chickens, but this is also our backyard, so figure some plants will help spruce up the decor.

Eleven days without heat, light, power, pumps or water until we could borrow our neighbor's ("Saint Curtis"!) portable generator to operate a tiny space heater for 4 hours a day....

Oh my goodness, we only lost heat and power for about 50 hours, but with a 5 yr old and a 5 mo pregnant wife, losing water right after that was brutal. I felt like I was manually flushing toilets for about 3 days straight until roads were safe to bring girls to my SIL!

We generally get all our hardware and lumber at Woodson's

Wasn't familiar with that place, but I'll check it out if we are ever near one.

I have a metal roof I use course mulch in my run along with leaves, grass clippings and any yard waste I rake up, which really keeps everything in balance and my garden beds love the end result every spring. I'll be adding about 16 cft this weekend to get it back in check.

I usually let my mulching mower feed it back into the lawn, but I'll have to sacrifice some to the run. Might check in with the coffee shop at the bottom of the hill about getting some of their used grounds, too.

This is all dependent on the size of your run. I know a lot of folks say chickens will kill everything, this is not always the case... The plants do need some sort of fencing around them until they are established and grass covers the base.

Thanks for sharing your setup! Looks great!

 

[texsuze]

Just came across two different ads in the 'Buy-Sell-Trade' section to sell/rehome chickens in both SA and D/FW area if anyone interested. One ad in "Animals for Rehoming" and one in "Chickens 8 Wks and Older". Wish I had room for more