Seriously contemplating the idea of backyard chickens in St. Pete, Fl

Hi all,

   I live in the city; Saint Petersburg, Fl; and am seriously interested, yet hesitant, about this. I have joined this forum and the keepingchickensnewsletter.com to get as much information as I can first. Both my wife and I love most critters ( we adopt abused strays and once re-acclimated to human love, try to find homes for them; and keep the ones we can't find homes for) and have no children. To both of us though, chickens were mostly just a big bird that made eggs and could be eaten. However, I KNOW that if I get a few chickens, we will wind up making pets of them and  ... well ... lets just say that they will most likely die of old age .. sigh. I DO like the idea of fresh eggs though.

Here in St. Pete, the limit is either 4 or 5 at a time (confusing and contradictory regulations) but I know a few ppl that have a dozen ( I guess no one complained, so they were never inspected). My Wife is NOT too keen on this idea .. yet .. lol. The breeds that I am considering are:

Barnevelder chickens

Buff Orpington Chickens

Wyandotte Chickens

Faverolles Chickens

Delaware chickens

the problem is .. only the Buff Oringtons and the Wyandotte are locally available as pullets ( I really don't wish to fuss w/ chicks or eggs) My research shows me that they are probably the best for me; docile, friendly, not too noisy, or too big.

Some of the problems I foresee are the heat ( most of Florida in June is like training for hell, and by August, you know that you graduated), and expense. I have soooo many questions, which I guess I will be posting in the appropriate forum areas. Hopefully, this site will convince me that this is a good idea ANY advice or encouragement is welcome and greatly appreciated. Thanks

Thank you for all the encouraging replies!! Thia sure does seem to be a friendly forum. In fact .. while doing my research, it seems that Chicken owners are a rather friendly bunch of people in general. So I guess that I would be joining a good group! Further info: I will be 62 and my Wife 57 shortly. My employer went out of business recently, so $ are kinda tight. I was raised in N.E. Ohio, Donna in N. New Jersey .. I was in the last house  in the last development w/ my back yard bordering on several thousand acres of woods; so I have a lot of experience in raising various things (whatever I could catch); Donna is/was a city girl .. the only pets she ever had were 2 parakeets .. lol.

Just got back from the "Chicken Lady", she has a LOT of chickens! I learned something new that I haven't seen mentioned before that all newbies need to know. You have to have perches in the coop, they don't live and sleep in the nest boxes. Oh well, that is all probably more than anyone wanted to know and this probably isn't the place for a chicken diary. So I will just say thanks again for the encouragement.