Raising Chickens in Florida

[freespiritfriesians]

I live in Wellington, FL and am looking to get some laying hens.

 

[Chick-N-Eggs]

I live in south west florida sarasota County and I was just wondering if anyone can help me my two americanas stopped laying eggs about 3 months ago one stopped and one was laying everyother day now nothing for like I said 3 months is it true they will stop due to the heat? for the last week we have had nice cool no humidity weather does anyone know how long we have to have cooler weather for them to start laying again. any help would be greatly appeciated.

 

[iamcrzymom]

Hi FreeSpirit - I am in Wellington also!

 

[AnnikasMommy]

*waving my hand in the air* i know where it is! i'm in geneva.........almost NO one knows where that is lol

i keep or have kept a bit of everything down thru the years......never had a problem with any breed, frankly. when it's hot, they all feel it.
lots of shade, lots of cool fresh water...that seems to be the ticket here

ha ha ha I'm originally from Geneva too funny and your right now one knows where is it.

Back on topic, thank you for starting this thread, it has really enlightened me. I'm now in NWFL and we are going to raise chickens for eggs. I'm not sure I can do the meat thing because well my chickens will have names and I just can't do that. We are not allowed roosters in our area so we won't be breeding. This winter has been awful so I'm thinking I will have to find breeds that can stand the heat, well ventilated coops and also what to do in the event of hurricanes or freezes.

 

[shuching]

Can you describe me how to raise chickens? I move from Pinellas park to New Port Richcy this summer, and have a backyard with tree and like to do it.
[email protected]

 

[mossyroo]

Quote:
That's not a question with a simple answer. Spend a couple weeks stuying these forums and you can begin to get a pretty good idea.

 

[liveoakchick]

Hi Everyone -

My family and I just moved to Osceola County about 1 year ago. We live on a 5 acre piece of property on a private lake. We do have neighbors as all of the home sites on my side of the lake are a minimum of 2 acres. But we do not have any restrictions as far as live stock goes. And all of my neighbors are anxious to get fresh eggs every week in the near future. I purchased 12 / 1 week old chicks of different breeds (at least two of each breed) and have them inside in a large container. My husband built a nice large coop that allows for shading, protection from predators and elevated laying boxes. We hope to be able to allow the grown hens out to roam free during the day when we are outside with them. But for now I place their protective "brooding" house inside the coop during the day so that they can experience the sunshine and fresh air outside. But bring them inside at night and have them under a heat lamp. My question is this - because I am in Central FL and it currently is in the 80's during the day and 60's at night, how old until they can actually start staying in their coop? I am very protective of them already and they seem very happy and content in their brooding box but I don't want to deny them the freedom of being outside if that is where they want to be. Most everything I have read about moving them outdoors was written by / for people in much cooler climates. I am prepared to keep them inside for several weeks if necessary. And one other thing - can you handle them too much? I love holding them and petting them but don't want to over do it. I have a 10 year old Shetland Sheepdog and he really enjoys watching them in the box. He is scared of them somewhat but they seem very interested in him. I am careful never to leave the two unattended "just in case" but have a feeling they will be fast friends as the chicks get a little older.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

[azygous]

Congratulations on your first post and welcome to BYC!

Lucky you for being new chick keepers and having the good fortune to live in Florida where the climate is tailor made for raising baby chicks!

You can move your chicks out to the coop right now. They need no heat at all during the warm part of the day, so they can be outside playing in their run. At night, they may still need heat for a couple more weeks. Usually, by age four to five weeks, they can endure night time temps in the low 70s with no problem.

You can judge their heat needs by their behavior. When chilled, they tend to group together closely for warmth. But all chicks generally sleep together in that formation anyway.

Instead of a heat lamp in the coop, I suggest the "chick cave" method using an ordinary heating pad. Get a small piece of field fencing, or make a frame from three 1" x 4" pieces of scrap lumber (free at any lumber yard). Fashion this frame into a "U" shape and drape the heating pad over it. Cover the pad with an old towel to keep the pad clean since the chicks will be climbing and sitting on top of it, as well as hovering under it. Stick a thermometer inside the "cave" to calibrate the temp to around 80 - 85 inside then set the control to maintain it for this next week. Next week lower it if you see the chicks beginning to want to sleep outside of it when it comes dark. Keep lowering the temp each week until they begin sleeping at night outside of the "cave".

It's that easy, and they have the benefit of having dark at night so they are able to establish day/night patterns, and there's no danger of heat lamp consequences.

It sounds like your dog may make a perfect chicken guard dog. You seem to have heaven on earth!

I almost forgot - you can't handle and cuddle and love chicks too much. Some may like it a lot more than others, but they all benefit from it.

 

[billyboy1111]

I'm thinking of buying a rural home in or close to kissimmee florida and was wondering if I could have backyard chickens. I've read some of the regulations but don't understand them very well. I was thinking of the small chicken coop with 3 or four chickens and have worked with them before so I know how to treat their diseases and so forth. I am very unclear as to the legality of all this so if anybody can pitch in with some info, I'd appreciate it and thanks in advance.

 

[Bigapes]

Hi Everyone -

My family and I just moved to Osceola County about 1 year ago. We live on a 5 acre piece of property on a private lake. We do have neighbors as all of the home sites on my side of the lake are a minimum of 2 acres. But we do not have any restrictions as far as live stock goes. And all of my neighbors are anxious to get fresh eggs every week in the near future. I purchased 12 / 1 week old chicks of different breeds (at least two of each breed) and have them inside in a large container. My husband built a nice large coop that allows for shading, protection from predators and elevated laying boxes. We hope to be able to allow the grown hens out to roam free during the day when we are outside with them. But for now I place their protective "brooding" house inside the coop during the day so that they can experience the sunshine and fresh air outside. But bring them inside at night and have them under a heat lamp. My question is this - because I am in Central FL and it currently is in the 80's during the day and 60's at night, how old until they can actually start staying in their coop? I am very protective of them already and they seem very happy and content in their brooding box but I don't want to deny them the freedom of being outside if that is where they want to be. Most everything I have read about moving them outdoors was written by / for people in much cooler climates. I am prepared to keep them inside for several weeks if necessary. And one other thing - can you handle them too much? I love holding them and petting them but don't want to over do it. I have a 10 year old Shetland Sheepdog and he really enjoys watching them in the box. He is scared of them somewhat but they seem very interested in him. I am careful never to leave the two unattended "just in case" but have a feeling they will be fast friends as the chicks get a little older.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Hi there,

I'm experiencing similar questions. Rats? Flies? Raccoons? Hawks? I'm in the suburbs of Pinellas Co/ Largo Fl. We live in a traditional neighborhood, not a big acreage area. I have a decent size yard and have chosen a sunny side yard area for my new girls. We plan to plant some additional palms out there as well as utilize some massive sunbrella sunshade fabric sails.Our concerns aren't the cold weather which seems to be the saturated info I find when reading about housing new chickens. We chose this corner for it's security from our downpours and heavy thunderstorms. (A Cat 2 or above and the girls will come into the garage.) It's also the least likely to affect the neighbors and a heavy traffic area for the family so we all stay involved in the upkeep. I'm VERY concerned about the massive rodent population in the area as well as raccoons. I spent 6mo and 1500$ last summer repairing AC duct damage and excluding the rats from the attic, garage and yard. The neighbors' fruit trees are bitter sweet. None the less, we've seen NO evidence of rats for several months now, but I'm concerned my new girls will lure them back.
We're converting the kids' Little Tykes plastic playhouse log cabin into the coop.I'm looking for nearby chicken people to chat with about their trials and errors in regards to these topics.
My 6 chicks were obtained May 9th at 7 days old. We're zoned to permit 4 hens. The farm I got them from advised to get two additional to account for "loss". Heartbreakingly, we're about to lose one....our little Sussex, that my 9 yr old named "Chickaletta". She's been docile and the easiest to hold since day one. She is also the same size as the day we got her and the others have all but tripled in size. I'm going with "failure to thrive" or at least what I'm telling my kiddo. Chickaletta is in a separate brooder now for fear of the others overwhelming her and we just want to let her go peacefully. Her breathing appears labored, she's extremely lethargic and like I said, she's just tiny.

We hope to complete the coop this weekend and set it up right outside the back door as a larger brooder since the girls are looking cramped. I'm researching the chicken cave in hopes to swap it out for the lamp. The run will be complete soon enough, but until we just let them free range in the fenced yard with the family standing by in the evenings.

I'm totally open to any and all suggestions and criticisms of my current plans. I'm looking for tried and true plans for fly control as well.