The new guy

Hello to all,
I've been toying with the idea of raising chickens for some time now & I've decided to go for it. BUT, the more I read & the more research I do, the more overwhelmed I become. So here I am. I'm going to need a lot of help & what better place to get TRUE help than here. I don't need a lot. I was thinking no more than 10 laying hens. Id like to raise meat birds also but I live in town so a rooster would be out of the question due to crowing. I don't have a lot of space but my yard has a spot where I could build a coop & provide quite a bit of free roaming space. I suppose I'm just intimidated by everything & I know I just need to take one step @ a time. I need coop designs first I guess. Also how much time needs to be dedicated to the birds? Does the run NEED to be covered? Geez, here I go getting overwhelmed again. I'll quit babbling. So anyway, pleased to meet you all. Signed, the Bird Brained (no pun intended) first timer.

Welcome to BYC, this is the best place to get your answers. There is a seperate thread for Coop designs you should check out. We just started with chickens last July and are having a great time. They are addicting and we had no idea just how fun they are. We have our run covered because we have hawks that would like to make our chickens a meal! We started with 6 pullets and are now at 25 pullets, 1 Rooster and 12 new week old chicks Love getting eggs everyday!!!!!
Use the search window and type in a question and you will get lots of answers. Everytime I need something I come here. Good luck to you. What kind of birds are you thinking of getting? Chicks, pullets, layers, breed?
Welcome!!!!

Good morning,
Thank you for the reply. I live in Michigan, so I'll need a cold hearty bird. I've pretty much narrowed it down to Buff Orphingtons & perhaps some black copper Marans. Only hens for the eggs. Id like a rooster so that I can get some chicks but I don't think the neighbors would appreciate it. I have looked @ the coops page & have seen quite a few that I like. I suppose I am just afraid of messing it up as I build it. I just want my chickens to be healthy & warm. I'm looking forward to doing this & am quite passionate about it. I just don't know how to take the first step.

Welcome to BYC! While you're reading through all of the info here, its easy to become overwhelmed. I've had chickens for almost 6 years now, and my favorite thing about them is how easy they are to care for. I love my birdies, so I spend quite a bit of time with them, but they don't require much attention. They're perfectly happy if all I do is let them out, feed/water them, and then shut them in at night. My hubby built our coop out of material we scavenged from Craigslist, Freecycle and items donated by friends and family (ones trash is anothers treasure!). My run isn't covered, I've never had a daytime predator problem in there, the only issue I have is a couple of my girls fly over my 6ft fence. Which of course can lead to predator issues when not in the safety of the fence. We didn't do any research before buying our first flock. Just built the coop and bought some chickens, which I was actually against. I did not want chickens, and now they've become my hobby. My favorite thing to do now is hatch chicks and check for eggs. Try 'em, you'll like 'em! Good luck!

Hi, welcome to BYC. I'm pretty new here also, this is my first year taking the plunge of having chickens. This site is great and there are tons of people ready and willing to answer any questions. Good luck.

Funny, my wife wants NO part of this either. We have a one year old son, so she's home a lot, bored. I'm hoping this could become something she can enjoy also. I'm going to attempt building a coop this weekend. Ill probably be here often figuring I'm sure to have no shortage of questions. Thank all of you for the responses so far. I truly do appreciate it.

You are going to LOVE chickens!

I'm kind of a cat person, I have dogs too, but I like cats better. (please don't tell the dogs)

I find that the chickens are less work than the cats. I make sure they have food and water and they give me eggs. It's easy. Not to mention, if I sit down on my front steps, they fight over who gets to crawl up on my lap

We have a small log cabin coop that my Hubby built, with a covered run. At first the run was open on the top, but a large bird, a hawk or a raven, attacked the girls from above-it was awful! When I'm home and can keep my eye on them I let them free range. We are it Atlantic Canada, so similar weather to yours. On cold nights I turn on a light in the coop to keep the water from freezing, but they are pretty hearty birds so they can tolerate cold better than I expected. (we have Golden Comet hens and a Barred Rock rooster-and two adorable little babies just hatched)

Good luck with everything. This is definitely the place to hang out if you are looking for information and ideas.

i think you will love it. i'm new too. i have had my chicks for one week now. my run is not covered. i'm kinda worried about that but i'm dependent on hubby to accomplish such a task, so it's a wait & see thing. i am doing heavy breeds for two reasons - i want dual purpose birds (meat/eggs), and i want birds that don't fly so well (since i don't have a top on my run). my breed choices were buff orpington, black australorp, barred rock, and silver laced wyandotte. i'm flirting w/having a rooster & thanks to this site, i'm choosing the buff orpington breed for a rooster choice. they're supposed to be calm & hopefully not mean to the ladies in the coop & not mean to me.
best of luck and have fun

Hemigod said:

I just don't know how to take the first step.

Click to expand...

Jump in head first! That's what I've done anyway. We moved to the country in Colorado in August, and my husband was chicken crazy. At some point right after moving that ended, but I caught the chicken bug.I ordered my chicks one week in January and had them the next. They're living in my still packed craft room, and are about to move to the garage because they're getting so big quickly. We've got 10 Ameraucana/EE, 10 unknown "packing peanuts", 2 barred rock, 2 silver laced wyandottes, and 5 silkies that will be coming next week from the feed store. When all is said and done we'll have 19 more birds than the original plan. At least 9 of the packing peanuts will go in the freezer when they're big enough. The coop is started but not finished, it is framed with regular 2x4s the siding is going to be recycled pallets. The run will be covered. Everything else is still in the air. I figure we'll learn as we go. I've already learned alot from these forums, so you've got a good start just being here.

Hemmigod,

Welcome to BYC! I am also from Michigan and would like to introduce and welcome you to our Michigan Thread as well. We are a talkative bunch but it is very nice to know how much support you have right in your own backyard (sorry no pun).


Here is the thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/233/michigan Please stop in and say hello.

As others have said, there are a ton of ideas in the coop thread. I too feel a little overwhelmed. So what I did was to follow the Michigan thread and when I introduced myself, everyone was so helpful. In fact I found 2 people close to me and they invited me to see their set up. I picture is worth a thousand words, but a visit to someones chicken farm is worth volumes. This way you will always have a network of friends to bounce questions off of and someone close by in case you think you are in trouble.