A few not-yet-chicken-owner questions!

[joey7319]

1) What was the size of your first flock?

2) Do you recommend any chicken that catches fancy, like... well, any from mixes to ornamental, or sticking with a goal? Like all egg-layers, or fryers, or purebred with no mixes?

3) What was your first coop? Did you build it yourself, or bought it? And, how much?

4) What was your first feed for them, and did you end up changing it later? Is medicated better than not-medicated?

5) What would/did you do if a predator got through the coop? Can they cause enough trouble where the entire investment is lost?

I'm quite new to chickens as well, having had them for almost a year now, but here's my two cents:
1) We started with 8 birds (Buckeyes) 1 roo-7 hens, and quickly realized that just wasn't enough. We now have about 40 birds

2) We were going to do just pure breeds for hatching eggs and chicks, but gave up on that. We keep layers, meat birds, mutts and ornamental birds (not to mentions two turkey and four quail). I love them all and pretty much just let the chickens do what they will do. It's alot of fun to see what comes from the eggs we hatch, even if they aren't pure.
3) Our coop was built by us using recycled materials. It cost us nothing but gas money to go and pick up the supplies I got from friends, family, and random places like craigslist and freecycle.
4) For chicks we used medicated chick starter. For adult birds added to our flock after our original 8-we just kept them separated for a few weeks and watched them. They are fed pellets and scratch while in quarentine. When we were sure they were healthy they were added to the flock and fed the same laying pellets and scratch (and various other treats from my kitchen, my birds are completely spoiled ) .
5) We've lost some of our flock to predators. The worst being a coon that killed 3 of my silkies. He got a nice overnight stay in our have-a-heart trap and then went for a swim in the morning. The only real issue we've had with predators has come from the hawks in our area. Obviously the issue is that you can't really do anything about it. I tried hanging CD's and fishing line over my run-but I found the best solution was to buy corn on the cob from the pet store (the whole cobs for feeding squirrel) and hanging it from the trees around my coop. The crows love it, they keep the hawks away, and stay out of my feeders now too

Hope this helps.
Nikki

 

[Revelle]

Eggs-Actly / I love the coop pictures, and the signs!

It looks like a lot of work to build! (But it still looks really nice.

)

Joey / Nice use of crows! I now wonder how many are around here...

I should go stalk craigslist for materials now. Seems to be the best place.

 

[FortWorthChicks]

habitat for humanity has good deals on materials

If you have one in your area I would check into it

 

[Revelle]

Quote:
Oh! Thank you! I just looked it up, and it turns out there's lots of them nearby, including the town right nextdoor.

<3

 

[Eggs-Actly]

Quote:
Revelle - Thank you! It was actually easier than I thought it would be to build. It looks harder than it really was. I only used 4 tools - a cordless drill, a circular saw, a jigsaw and a T-square. The girls seem to like it a lot too!

 

[gryeyes]

1) What was the size of your first flock?
Ummm..... 4 chicks from a feed store, then one died, so I bought some more, then another died so I bought some more, until I had finally purchased 12 chicks, total, with about 4 different hatch dates, about a week or two apart. But (see #5) I lost three from "predation" and that left me with 7 chickens. One was an accidental rooster. I'm keeping him.

2) Do you recommend any chicken that catches fancy, like... well, any from mixes to ornamental, or sticking with a goal? Like all egg-layers, or fryers, or purebred with no mixes?
Dual purpose, not because I ever intend to eat any of them, but they seem less flighty than those breeds just intended as layers. And I wanted all different breeds, because I wanted to be able to tell them apart. I also wanted darker chickens, because I read that white chickens drew too much attention from predators. As I perused more of this BYC information, I've decided I really like the idea of heritage breeds, so I'd like to add some of those to my flock, eventually.

3) What was your first coop? Did you build it yourself, or bought it? And, how much?
I built it alllllll by myself. And I'm a 56 year old former couch potato! The materials cost me about $100.00 and the brand new power tools (cordless drill, circular saw) cost me another $150.00. Not all at once, so the total cost snuck up on me.... and then there was the fence to enclose the run around the coop.... which grew larger so the chickens had more room to run, safely.

4) What was your first feed for them, and did you end up changing it later? Is medicated better than not-medicated?
Medicated chick starter. Changed to grower feed when the first two 50 lb. bags ran out (and the youngest chicks reached 9 weeks of age). JUST changed to layer feed; I added to laying pullets to my flock and the youngest of the original 7 is 17 weeks old, so everybody's on layer feed now.

5) What would/did you do if a predator got through the coop? Can they cause enough trouble where the entire investment is lost?
In my case, the "predator" was my elderly miniature dachshund, 11 yrs old and he turned into a chicken killer. He got into the run and killed his first. I missed a hole in the fence when I enlarged the run, and he killed his second one. The third, he killed when IT got out of the run and ran past him. So now I am VERY vigilant. Plus, I have NiteGuard lights in use around the run fence, because I know there are skunks and racoons and opossums around my house. I put up bird netting over the run, because there are hawks.

But trust me, you'll want to put a chair out, either in or next to the run, to watch your chickens. It's more interesting than TV, with plenty of drama, humor, excitement, and just general enjoyment.

 

[SC_Hugh]

1) What was the size of your first flock? My wife and daughter brought home four chicks for Mother's Day 2009. Our 2 Dominiques are laying well and one of the Cochins is laying now, the other Cochin is Little Ricky (we wanted four hens!), but Ricky is good 99% of the time.


2) Do you recommend any chicken that catches fancy, like... well, any from mixes to ornamental, or sticking with a goal? Like all egg-layers, or fryers, or purebred with no mixes? My wife wanted good looking chickens, she doesn't like the "plain" white ones (Leghorns). We are planning to add 2 Easter Eggers (blue/green egg layers) and 2 Golden Sex-Links (great brown egg layers and no possibility of another rooster) at the end of this month. Mutt chickens kind of scare me if they are totally random, like the thought of Dominique/Cochin chicks? No one has them and I can guess why...ugly. Maybe, cross a Cochin with a Jersey Giant and get a huge Cochin/Giant cross and that might be some good eating. On the subject of eating, ours are all for egg laying or family entertainment. No one gets eaten at our house, all egg laying pets.

3) What was your first coop? Did you build it yourself, or bought it? And, how much? First coop is a 4'x7' kid's playhouse that my dad and I built in 1992. Our kids are 15, 18 and 21 now, so the playhouse was up for grabs. Tall enough to stand up in, lots of windows, cute and built strong. Cut a hole out for the pop door and added a 4'x15' chicken run using new wood and wire, that cost about $200. I am building a 4'x4' second coop for the 4 new chickens and attaching to a chicken tractor run that will be secured with hardwire cloth

4) What was your first feed for them, and did you end up changing it later? Is medicated better than not-medicated? Our feed store sold us the medicated feed, chicks ate that bag until it was gone and then we bought another bag of chick starter - non medicated and then they moved on to layer crumble and now they are on layer mini-pellet. I think I will do the same with the new chicks.

5) What would/did you do if a predator got through the coop? Can they cause enough trouble where the entire investment is lost? We lock up the chickens every night. Chicken run is closed and all coop doors are locked. Coop and run are in a fenced side yard inside a fenced backyard. Dog proof area that is not predator proof, so the coop has to be the strong hold. I don't want to loose what I have, so I spent the $$ on a secure run

Enjoy,

Hugh

 

[patandchickens]

1) What was the size of your first flock?

Three just-started-laying pullets (ISA Browns) from the feedstore. I just wanted them for eggs, since who could possibly *like* chickens? Me, for one, as I discovered after about the first five minutes

I did wait until the next year to upsize, though, with IIRC maybe 20 chicks, mostly sussexes.

2) Do you recommend any chicken that catches fancy

Provided you've researched it somewhat first. Sometimes temperament, or behavior, or cold- or heat-resistance, or things like that, are significant considerations depending on your situation.

Whether to start with one breed or several is a personal thing. I like the approach of 'auditioning' several breeds that research has made seem the most appealing; but there are plenty of other ways to proceed. It would be real smart not to get too many chickens at first, though. A dozen is a good number. THough, remember that if you order straight-run, some (possibly most) will be roosters; and even if you buy sexed pullet chicks, some may STILL end up being roosters.

3) What was your first coop? Did you build it yourself, or bought it? And, how much?

My initial 3 pullets lived in an existing building for a few months, with an area cobbled together from kennel panels for a run. Then I built them a tractor. Then I realized it was not all that functional or efficient in my situation. Now all my chickens live in a building and I sold the tractor. OTOH I have built another, very differnt tractor

5) What would/did you do if a predator got through the coop? Can they cause enough trouble where the entire investment is lost?

Predator-proofing, BEFORE you get chickens, is probably the biggest and best thing you can do for your flock. Like, SERIOUS predatorproofing, not "gee I don't see many raccoons around here and nobody in the neighborhood has a dog and I bet this chickenwire will stop everything else because hey Joe down the street only uses chickenwire and his chickens are still mostly alive". Yes, a predator can (and often DOES) kill your whole flock in one go. And then, not only do you have dead chickens and a mess of repairs to do, you also have a predator (possibly plural) who know where the buffet is... making them more determined next time, even if you've beefed up your defenses.

Good luck, have fun, and (obviously) do get chickens

,

Pat​

 

[fordmommy]

Quote:
No, I haven't seen a single cent from that person. Who knows if I ever will.

But the good news is I have gotten some new pullets. And even sold a few of them. And I have eggs under a broody and will be ordering more babies in the next week. I still think of my to favs, but life goes on.

I'd like to share with you what I did with their bodies. You know that here in Wisconsin the ground was WAY too frozen to bury my girls. And I didn't want to just throw them in the bump. And I couldn't eat them. I called one of your local petting zoos that has Lions and Tigers and stuff and asked if they wanted my girls for a meat donation. And they agreed. I take my kids there AT LEAST once a year. So the circle of life continues.

 

[Revelle]

Eggs-Actly / Woo! Awesome, I have those tools... somewhere.

Gryeyes / I think my dad'd like watching them just as much!

And wow, why did the first ones keep on dying? :x

SC Hugh / That's a nice looking coop, and the big roo has such a pretty sheen on it!

Ford Mommy / Poo on the dog's owner.

(I didn't think that one through when I typed it...

Not literal meant!) And I'm glad you shared what you did. I would've never thought of that! It's a wonderful way to make their deaths not in vain. Thank you!

Thank you for all the replies and advice!