New to BYC site

aglover24

Hatching
5 Years
Jul 21, 2014
2
0
7
I am a newbie. Reading and learning as much as I can before I start with chickens. I am currently in process drawing ideas to build my new coop and run. My main concern is the heavy rains and warm summers we have here in florida. Glad to be here.
 
Welcome to BYC! Our Learning Center is a good place to start. You should especially check out our section on Housing and Feeding Your Chickens at https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/housing-and-feeding-your-chickens When you build your run, I would suggest putting a roof over it (especially with your rains). It's amazing how fast that chickens can turn damp ground into a mud hole. You might also want consider covering the floor of your run with fine pea gravel or coarse river or construction sand which will drain very well when wet. You should also use hardware cloth to cover your run, not chicken wire, as there are just too many predators that can either tear through chicken wire, or else squeeze through the openings in the mesh. If you're undecided about the kind of chickens you want to get, Murray McMurray has a very good chick selector at http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/chick_selector.html to help you determine which breeds are best for you. Just be sure to click on "show more characteristics. You can also look up these breeds in our Breeds section by clicking on the icon at the top of the page, or research them on the internet. If you have any specific questions, just post them on the forum, and I'm sure you'll get lots of replies. We are here to help in any way we can. Good luck with the building of your coop and run and in getting your flock.
 
Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Good luck with the coop build! Definitely stop by your state thread and chat with your neighbors on how they do things and survive your climate. Kelsie has left you with the link.

Enjoy this new adventure you are on and welcome to our flock!
 
Thank you so much for this information. I will keep you posted with my progress. Thank you
 
Welcome to BYC from a fellow-Floridian!

Here's one more site to check out various breeds while you're deciding what you want: I referred to this chart constantly while I was doing research into what might fit our needs.

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

Once you get your chickens, read up on how to keep them cool with these crazy hot/humid summers we have. You can get a lot of information about that (or anything else) by using the "Search" box located right under the BackYard Chickens logo on the top left of the screen.

Glad to have you here!
 
You might consider a raised coop so if your ground really floods it won't seep into the
structure.

I've read that some people put in "French drains," alongside their runs to handle very wet weather. I can tell you honestly I have no idea what a French drain is.
 

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