Hello everyone. My girlfriend and I jumped in as chicken mommies a few weeks ago after both wanting chickens for several years. We have 2 Gold Stars and a Rhode Island Red, purchased from an urban farm store in St. Paul, Minn. The chicks are now about 5 weeks old and have transitioned to their coop outside, which I have been building for the past month. What an experience! We have already utilized many of the BYC resources, learning what we needed to prior to getting the chickens, making brooder plans, trying to get our dog adjusted to life with chickens, waterer ideas, ideas for the coop, etc. Figured its now time to join the BYC community and start interacting!
My chicken coop was fashioned off of two coops that I liked on the coop page. I can post pictures if anyone is interested. I'm happy with its progress. The best advice that I can pass along to someone trying to build a coop with very very limited carpentry skills (and a mild perfectionist personality) is what my dad told me after I bugged him a few times for advice: "Melissa, it's not a church, it's a chicken coop." :) So I live by that mantra right now and will have a plaque made up for the coop when its done.
Oh yeah, so we're urban chicken keepers. We live in South South Minneapolis (which sounds better than "suburbs"). Our backyard is small and our neighbors are close. But our city allows us to have 3 chickens and no pre-requisites, so we just went for it. We'll eventually have a run attached to the coop because we dont have a fenced yard. And there are hawks eyeing up our poor girls.
Thanks for all the great advice so far!!
