Recommendations for someone new

[KyCoop]

My concern besides the pre fab is your choice of first time chickens. Leghorns. They are not the best choice for just free ranging in a backyard. They are extremely flighty and vertically take off and easily clear 8 ft. And they are not long laying or long lived. I just lost my 2 Leghorn girls last week. They stopped laying last year and they died at 4 yrs old.
With that being said given the right set up for them , we have a 7ft chicken yard fence, they are so fun, curious, pushy, mean to other chickens and beautiful. We loved them.

 

[ChikkieBrikki]

My concern besides the pre fab is your choice of first time chickens. Leghorns. They are not the best choice for just free ranging in a backyard. They are extremely flighty and vertically take off and easily clear 8 ft. And they are not long laying or long lived. I just lost my 2 Leghorn girls last week. They stopped laying last year and they died at 4 yrs old.
With that being said given the right set up for them , we have a 7ft chicken yard fence, they are so fun, curious, pushy, mean to other chickens and beautiful. We loved them.

Good to know; I've always known them as the standard "white egg" chicken, and while it may mostly be in my head, I tend to lean toward white eggs more. If any other breed lays large white eggs with a better temperament, I'm open to hearing them and looking into them.

 

[ChikkieBrikki]

One of the easiest and the best bang for your buck is to get a shed and convert it.

I'm in Florida, so hot and humid, and you definitely want lost of ventilation. But protection from sun exposure is important too. Where you place the coop in a hot climate really matters. Deep shade is best.

To convert a shed, keep in mind that ventilation should be placed up high under the ceiling, and you need overhangs to keep rain out of the hardware cloth covered openings.

Alternatively, you can knock one wall out and have that connected to a roofed run area. That is a nice way to have a cool, fresh coop.

Any kind of prefab is going to be too hot and too difficult to ventilate without running into design difficulties (such as wind blowing directly on your hens on the roost).

Keep in mind, a starting number of chickens almost always turns into "Remember when we were only going to keep __ ?!"

Thank you for the advice. The shed converting is something I'll highly consider. After some looking, I found this atm as a potential pick for the coop. Home Depot

 

[KyCoop]

My husband wanted white chickens that lay white eggs. Being our first time eating eggs that came from the backyard we were both more comfortable with white eggs. Now he will only eat Martha's eggs. Martha is a Barred Rock that lays brown eggs. Go figure.