Greetings from Tennessee!

Howdy! Another new chicken owner here... we just moved to Tennessee from Texas and bought a house that had a coop already. I'm not sure they housed chickens because the wire used was very large in the coop. I think the previous home owners might've owned guineas.

Anyway...We've done improvements with chicken wire and hope we've made it predator safe. My chickens are about three weeks old right now and beginning to get feathers. We have Buff Orpington's, Easter Eggers, Black Australorps, Speckled Sussex - 15 total chicks.

The broader is located in the coop but they are trying to fly and I think it's only a matter of time before I'll need to remove the walls... the coop is fairly large so I'm hoping I can just keep the pad we have on the floor down with shavings and the lamp on and they'll hangout where they want.... but not try to escape when we open the door. Eventually they'll be able to enjoy a fenced yard that's 40'x50'. I wish I could let them free range my whole property but there are neighborhood Dogs around...and I don't think they would be safe.

I spent a lot of time reading about breeds and probably not enough time reading up on how to best care for them... I was worried about predators and warmth... but I didn't think about diseases and pests. We didn't treat the coop at all before putting them in there. I have no idea when it last had chickens or guineas... I didn't realize my coop could have cooties!! Reading up now on how to prophylactically treat them for mites/parasites.

Any advice would be appreciated! Looking forward to chatting and learning more!

Hi and welcome to BYC - thanks for joining us and congrats on your move!

These links may be interesting:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-and-raising-chicks
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/raising-your-baby-chicks
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/...ks-the-first-60-days-of-raising-baby-chickens

You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre - https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread#post_3239224 - this could be helpful in terms of advice with predator proofing things.

All the best
CT

G’Day from down under pixelchick Welcome & Congratulations!

As you have already received links to some good starting points, I will just wish you all the best.

I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

If you would like to share pictures and stories of your flock, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out

Chicken wire only keeps chickens inside. It does nothing to keep predators out. The best wire is 1/2" hardware cloth securely affixed to a frame.