OKchkman's Member Page

This is the story of our chicken experience...

             It actually started 8 yrs. ago when my wife and I bought our 1st home. I told her I wanted to raise a few chickens since we had a nice size backyard. Due to the ordinances in the city we moved to I could not have any chickies (yet). As the years passed we moved to a small town. After a few months of settling in I called city code official and asked about having chickens in town. I was told that as long as they were penned up and would not disturb my neighbors then I could have them. He also said that if the coop was going to cost $500 or more, then I would have to get a building permit. Being in the construction trades I was sure I could build a coop for less than $500. About a year and a half passed before I started to take action on this hobby.

           FEB. 2010 -  Now after reading most of everone else's coop building/ chicken raising experiences, I'd say I did things rather unconventionally. Before I even had built a brooder I bought 4 RIRs, a heatlamp, outdoor thermometer,cedar chips, a feeder, a waterer, chick starter feed, and a really big plastic tote. We set up the chickies in the large tote in an unused room in our house for about 3 weeks. This gave me time to build a descent size brooder. I have a utility shed in the backyard(8x12) used for tools and such, so I took a corner and built my brooder.  40 inches by 30 inches by 16 inches tall. I also raised it off the floor about 14 inches. The chickies loved it. I even put a big stick in it to act as a roost. I knew I only had about 5 weeks to build a hen house and pen. The only days I had to work on it were the weekends.