I'm new

I'm Jenny and "sort of" have 12 chickens. I'm sure you are wondering about the "sort of" part. I had wanted some chickens but I have MS and other medical issues and am just not able to take care of them myself. My husband is still working a job that takes a lot of time. He had said as soon as he retired we would get some. In steps my best friend of 30 years, Donna. Donna moved from CT to a house she built right next door. Our back yard gates are right across from each other. Donna thought chickens sounded like something she would like to have so we made a visit to a farm store that had some babies. That did it and the research began. We wanted chickens that were what we called lap chickens. After checking some things out we got 3 chicks of 4 different breeds. We were told to be prepared to lose up to 50%. We wanted 6-8 so 12 sounded like a good number. Donna and I have bot shown dogs and the breed that Donna had the mortality rate was very high. So because Donna had such a great experience taking care of a small animals we still have 12 chickens left after 4 weeks. Now they're all named, the coop has been built and the run for them is in the process of being built. Now, I have my chickens, I can hold them, feed them, care for them, hopefully someday be able to gather their eggs but, not be totally responsible for them. Last night we just sit and watch them for like 2 hours laughing the whole time. My husband even came and watched for a while. He is helping build the run. We're excited for the future to see how things turn out.

Hi Jennifer, so glad you joined BYC. I have my first flock as well. I am sure it is more good luck than good management but my mortality rate isn't what I expected. The 25 baby peeps are now 25 comical looking 3 week olds.

Welcome to BYC.
I hope you enjoy the heck outta your birds!

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

Thank you all for the welcome! I think this will be a neat venue to get info and exchange.
Now, a question. This morning a lady getting chicken feed told me we should not use chicken wire to enclose the run. She said to use chicken netting, somebody else said rat wire. What do you all use. Why do the make chicken wire if you shouldn't use it? We don't want to take unnessary risk. We got these peepers to 4 weeks of age and now they're named so we certainly want to at least make it hard for some critter to have them for dinner! Suggestions?

read some of these:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/newsearch?search=chicken+wire+vs+

Hi, and welcome to BYC!!!

Nice to meet you Jennifer and Donna. Welcome to Backyard chickens. I too, used to show and breed dogs in the olden days (late 60's to early 80's) and know about mortality issues in many breeds.

It is probably called chicken wire, because it will keep chickens in place UNLESS they choose to fly over. It is very flimsy wire. It will NOT stop any predator from breaking through. Many chicken folk consider 1/2" Hardware cloth to be the gold standard. It costs more but, lasts much longer,. If it is securely affixed to a wooden frame it can withstand most predator attacks. With bears & cougars - all bets are off.

You can check out the predator threads and coops section for ways to increase security for your chicks. Above all Welcome to Backyard chickens.