New to this whole thing...

Hi everyone,
My name is Michael and I am just getting in to this hobby. I am an active duty serviceman overseas, and I'm interested in the homestead lifestyle for when I get back stateside. On a whim, I started doing research and came across this site. I re-purposes some old pallets into a coop today. I only have a year left here, so I kept it simple. What do y'all think??

Hi Michael, welcome to BYC

It would make an interesting temporary shelter for a couple of birds, would it have an attached run? It would likely need some work to make it predator proof. I always like to re-use materials if possible.

Hi Michael! How are you finding Naples? My brother worked over there for about 3 years and enjoyed it.

I'm a firm believer in re-using materials whenever possible. It makes a lot of sense, especially in your short-term situation.

Be sure to check out the Learning Center...there are articles there to cover every topic possible.

Thanks for joining us, it's nice to have you here! Have fun with the chickens!

Naples is a crazy experience. Some good, some bad. Making the most of it though! Sorry about the coop confusion. I could only upload one pic. I added front and rear walls to the lower half, sealed all the cracks with silicone, moved the ramp inside, and will build a run tomorrow. I plan to run it alon the back wall of my house near the corn rows. I'll update with a pics later.

Looking forward to more pictures! Do you know what breed of chickens you'll be able to find?

Hi, and welcome to BYC!

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

Welcome to Backyard chickens. Thank you sincerely for your time in service.

Near corn rows, I suspect one of the predators around will be raccoons- they love corn and chicken. I think we really need to see the rest of the coop before we can advise you.

I can say you will keep out more predators if you use 1/2" hardware cloth instead of chicken wire on your coop or as run fencing. .

Hey everyone. Thanks for the warm introduction. I spent the weekend working on the coop and it's almost ready for me to start looking for some birds As far as breeds that are available out here, I'm kind of gonna have to wing it. I don't speak enough Italian to have ANY kind of conversation about chicken breeds lol. I used google translate to see that there are definitely some good varieties available on their version of craigslist. If possible I was thinking of starting with 2 Orphingtons and 2 Australorps. Honestly though, my next door neighbor has a few chickens and offered to pick up a few birds for me. I think I might just use him as an intermediary since he has way more experience than I do. I might have to bring my cleaning lady to end up translating lol!!

As far as the cage goes, I attached a somewhat recent picture. I have a hinged back door, and will be building the nesting boxes this week. I put the same kind of door permanently attached to the front of the coop with a small doggy door style opening. I plan to build a chicken run and connect it to that doggy door. I'm sure that I will have to modify a few things slightly after I see it in use, but I feel confident that I could have birds living comfortably by this coming weekend. I just need to get my water situation sorted out. I was thinking the PVC pipe with chicken water nipples attached. I have another PVC stack for an "automatic" gravity fed feeder. Again, i'll update it with pics later. It's kinda heavy, so I haven't moved it outside yet. Waiting for my Navy bros to come over and help! If you have any first time advice please let me know! I'm hoping to get friendly birds to introduce my inftant to wish me luck!