Howdy!
I don't have any chickens yet, I am just a wannabee living in the SF east bay area, out around the Concord/Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill sort of area. If you live in my area and have any advice for places to buy feed, vets, supplies, etc, please let me know. Right now I'm doing as much reading as I can to prepare for the day when I get my first chicks, so I'll be lurking about these pages for awhile learning from those of you who are doing what I hope to be doing in the not so distant future.
UPDATE: NO LONGER A WANNABE! We got 3 baby chicks on March 18 2012...2 silkies and a buff orpington. They are awesome! They are happily peeping away in their brooder at the moment. They are soooo small....hard to believe they'll grow up into full sized chickens, but I'm sure we'll be believing that soon enough!
PLEASE WISH US LUCK! We're gonna do our best to make sure they're happy healthy chickens
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UPDATE JULY 1 2012: We've been chicken keepers for 3 months now. I built a coop into a section of my shed, giving my 3 chickens about 15 sq feet of space. Their coop includes some high tech goodies such as a webcam, remote thermometer, and a small air conditioner. The 'coop' only has one window and tends to be quite dark, so just yesterday I installed an overhead LED light (only uses 7.5 watts) connected to an electric timer so it will turn on in the morning and shut off at dusk. I recently put in a boot-shaped feeder made from aluminum ducting pipes in the hopes the feed will automatically replenish itself on demand (read about it here on backyard chickens in a forum posting). It seems to be working so far. I am waiting on my order of poultry watering nipples to arrive so I can build a 'water-on-demand' type of apparatus. One of my goals is to have the whole setup done in such a way so that if we want to take a few days of vacation we can do so and still monitor them remotely while the coop itself will handle the food, water, and climate conditions the girls need while we're gone. Not there yet, but getting closer.
I don't have any chickens yet, I am just a wannabee living in the SF east bay area, out around the Concord/Walnut Creek/Pleasant Hill sort of area. If you live in my area and have any advice for places to buy feed, vets, supplies, etc, please let me know. Right now I'm doing as much reading as I can to prepare for the day when I get my first chicks, so I'll be lurking about these pages for awhile learning from those of you who are doing what I hope to be doing in the not so distant future.
UPDATE: NO LONGER A WANNABE!
We got 3 baby chicks on March 18 2012...2 silkies and a buff orpington. They are awesome! They are happily peeping away in their brooder at the moment. They are soooo small....hard to believe they'll grow up into full sized chickens, but I'm sure we'll be believing that soon enough!PLEASE WISH US LUCK! We're gonna do our best to make sure they're happy healthy chickens
==========================================
UPDATE JULY 1 2012: We've been chicken keepers for 3 months now. I built a coop into a section of my shed, giving my 3 chickens about 15 sq feet of space. Their coop includes some high tech goodies such as a webcam, remote thermometer, and a small air conditioner. The 'coop' only has one window and tends to be quite dark, so just yesterday I installed an overhead LED light (only uses 7.5 watts) connected to an electric timer so it will turn on in the morning and shut off at dusk. I recently put in a boot-shaped feeder made from aluminum ducting pipes in the hopes the feed will automatically replenish itself on demand (read about it here on backyard chickens in a forum posting). It seems to be working so far. I am waiting on my order of poultry watering nipples to arrive so I can build a 'water-on-demand' type of apparatus. One of my goals is to have the whole setup done in such a way so that if we want to take a few days of vacation we can do so and still monitor them remotely while the coop itself will handle the food, water, and climate conditions the girls need while we're gone. Not there yet, but getting closer.