Texas

[CacklingRanch]

Welcome all the newbies!

 

[AllenK RGV]

Morning @AllenK@new2this,
Glad you survived the cold too! Forecast says we will get to 32°F for New Years. Not a hard freeze, but enough to kill the tomatoes for good. They are still recovering from the last cold spot. I was hopeful.

Chickens doing well and trying rehydrated alfalfa cubes. They are eating them after picking out the BOSS.

Happy New Year!

Yeah BOSS just aren't doing it for mine either I haven't gotten as far as looking up the New Years forecast but getting tired of hauling in pineapples and other guests to overnight. To be honest this is only the second time I moved em in for the night.

Had a falcon of some type smack into the house yesterday was an interesting thing. No clue why that tiny thing would be so low to the ground as the chicken appear to have a 2:1 weight advantage over it. I got as close as 3 feet from it before it "recovered" and flew into a tree, here is the beastie:

 

[TexasLisa]

I am glad it didn't get your chicken!

You said the chicken was bigger than the falcon. Around here the hawks will eat the head/neck. If the falcon was coming in for a blitz attack, I think it would have stunned the chicken.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I am glad it didn't get your chicken!

You said the chicken was bigger than the falcon. Around here the hawks will eat the head/neck. If the falcon was coming in for a blitz attack, I think it would have stunned the chicken.

I'm starting to lose confidence in the hawk/falcon's ability to poach mine. Pretty much every day we seem to have raptor encounters. We currently have 8 species of raptor overwintering here in the Valley then a 9th that just eats fish. I only run the one type of chicken and they are incredibly alert(Black Sumatra). I imagine my feelings might change if one gets eaten though.

 

[TexasLisa]

I hope your luck holds out for you!

It is never easy to walk around the corner and see a hawk on top of your chicken. I can remember walking into the pen and seeing something on top of my chicken. Talk about being startled. I realized it was an owl...it had practically turned it head all the way around to look at me.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I hope your luck holds out for you!

It is never easy to walk around the corner and see a hawk on top of your chicken. I can remember walking into the pen and seeing something on top of my chicken. Talk about being startled. I realized it was an owl...it had practically turned it head all the way around to look at me.

Wow that would be a sight to see with the owl. I remember someone saying "chicken equal death from either random illness or predators" so I'm prepared. I plan on ordering a few more in the spring if my wife signs on, and since Ideal is near Austin a trip to see old neighbors and her favorite salad in town will probably get me there=)

I still fail to see why hawks are after my chicken in the first place there are thousands of grackles perched on the power lines and in the fields.

 

[TexasLisa]

Maybe you should point them out to the hawks.

If you are going to get chicks, just tell your wife one of your hens hatched them.

 

[GreyhoundGuy]

Hi all. We live just outside Austin, and we're have a string of cold days coming and wanted to check in for advice to make sure our five gals stay okay during the cold.

The low tonight will be hovering around 39 degrees, nothing terrible. But over the course of the next few days, the temps will stay colder than normal:
* Sunday: hi 41 / low 22
* Monday: hi 32 / low 21
* Tuesday: hi 34 / low 22
* Wednesday: hi 49 / low 27
* Thursday: hi 46 / low 28
* Friday: hi 49 / low 34
* Saturday and Beyond: back to normal

Our coop is pretty small, similar to the one pictured here. We don't have the ventilation window at the top, but the rest is very similar. There's no insulation, heat lamp, or anything like that. Just a basic coop and small run. (The girls free range during the day... not sure if they'll want to get out in this cold, though.)

What advice do you have to help keep our flock safe? We're new to chickens in general (since last May), and we're not quite sure what to do to protect them from the temps. Definitely willing to get a heat lamp or other items to keep them safe.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Joel

 

[KatieInez]

Greeting from Oatmeal, Texas! Located solidly on the rockiest soil-less hill in the area, Northwest of Austin by about 35 minutes. Every single day I fight to keep my turkey hen (Hensley) out of my onions and potatoes. I am an old chicken lady at the ripe age of 33. Maybe I'm biased, but my birds are pretty cool.

 

[KatieInez]

Hi all. We live just outside Austin, and we're have a string of cold days coming and wanted to check in for advice to make sure our five gals stay okay during the cold.

The low tonight will be hovering around 39 degrees, nothing terrible. But over the course of the next few days, the temps will stay colder than normal:
* Sunday: hi 41 / low 22
* Monday: hi 32 / low 21
* Tuesday: hi 34 / low 22
* Wednesday: hi 49 / low 27
* Thursday: hi 46 / low 28
* Friday: hi 49 / low 34
* Saturday and Beyond: back to normal

Our coop is pretty small, similar to the one pictured here. We don't have the ventilation window at the top, but the rest is very similar. There's no insulation, heat lamp, or anything like that. Just a basic coop and small run. (The girls free range during the day... not sure if they'll want to get out in this cold, though.)

What advice do you have to help keep our flock safe? We're new to chickens in general (since last May), and we're not quite sure what to do to protect them from the temps. Definitely willing to get a heat lamp or other items to keep them safe.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Joel

Hi all. We live just outside Austin, and we're have a string of cold days coming and wanted to check in for advice to make sure our five gals stay okay during the cold.

The low tonight will be hovering around 39 degrees, nothing terrible. But over the course of the next few days, the temps will stay colder than normal:
* Sunday: hi 41 / low 22
* Monday: hi 32 / low 21
* Tuesday: hi 34 / low 22
* Wednesday: hi 49 / low 27
* Thursday: hi 46 / low 28
* Friday: hi 49 / low 34
* Saturday and Beyond: back to normal

Our coop is pretty small, similar to the one pictured here. We don't have the ventilation window at the top, but the rest is very similar. There's no insulation, heat lamp, or anything like that. Just a basic coop and small run. (The girls free range during the day... not sure if they'll want to get out in this cold, though.)

What advice do you have to help keep our flock safe? We're new to chickens in general (since last May), and we're not quite sure what to do to protect them from the temps. Definitely willing to get a heat lamp or other items to keep them safe.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Joel

Apologies if I don't reply to this properly (I'm still learning).
We've had a couple cold dips in the area recently so your birds should be pretty hardened off by now. When it does dip below normal temps, I make sure to give high protein foods (scrambled eggs mixed with bacon fat, etc and I also treat them to nice bowls of warm oatmeal and mixed tuna). They'd probably do fine without it though, but it makes me feel better. We had a flock in Kansas who routinely weathered the cold, ice, and wind without issue. Unless your birds are young and not fully feathered, they'll probably fare just fine.