A Newbie from Lakeland, Florida

[BC Williams]

Thanks Boykin! Hope that's good for red ants too They tear me up

 

[4-H chicken mom]

and

from Ohio. So glad you joined.

 

[b.hromada]

Hi Bev!

from S. Florida, to another Floridian!

I'm certain you'll get lots of help building your coop for your new girls to come! Have fun!!

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.

 

[BC Williams]

Thanks dawg

 

[tmasker]

Welcome from Central Florida here!

We just started with our girls in April. The heat is difficult. Lots of shade, water, and a fan helps! We put a metal roof with an open area at the peak covered with chicken wire to allow the heat to rise and flow out. We also made the front of the hen house to clean it and have found it is useful to cool the girls down. See photo below

Been fighting moldy food with our girls. Keep the food out of our afternoon thunderstorms...(Raining like crazy right now!) and only put out what they eat. I keep our feed in the metal trash cans with blocks on top of the lid. Seems to be alright. Good luck

 

[BC Williams]

Thank you so much for the info, tmasker! Well, looks like you've got a lot going on there.
How many girls do you have? What breeds do you have, and what do you recommend?

We have a big ol' oak we're thinking of planting this thing under. Thought I'd leave about
5 feet or so of the run beyond the tree canopy, hoping the girls can get a bit of sun when
they want it As for venting the coop, I read a great article here on the forum. Guess they
need more than you'd think. But I'm still dealing with that northern girl mentality!

Where do you get your birds from around here? I have been looking on CL, and it's making
me sick! There are laying babes for sale all over Lakeland right NOW. I just need to restrain myself
from jumping in the truck and going out to buy a herd, lol! Gotta get the coop up and running . . ..

 

[boykin2010]

I usually either get my hens from people on craigslist or the livestock auction. It is cheaper at the auction but sometimes they arent in the best of shape. Not all the time though. If you are looking for certain breeds then the auction wont be your best bet. They mainly just have rhode island reds and some buffs. Lots of people are getting rid of their chickens on craigslist and you can probably get some good deals.
There is also a chicken swap in Moultrie Ga where you can swap chickens or just buy some from some fellow BYC'ers!
I am planning on going.
There is thread already started you should check out. Go to south ga north fl poultry swap.

 

[hcppam]

Glad to meet you, welcome from Big Bear Ca.

 

[tmasker]

Quote:
I have 12 hens. If you look at the bottom of my post, you'll see the list of breeds. Rhode Island Reds are the most faithful for beautiful brown eggs. I have three green egg layers, with only one giving me eggs faithfully! My "exotic chickens" Polish, Frizzles, and Silkies have their own three foot run added to the original coop to the right of the photo. We found they needed their own run so the others wouldn't pick on them.

The coop is really situated in the shade of a 40 foot canopy of an oak tree. We left the right side of the run for sun in the chilly winters. We also put the coop on the south side of a shed to shield the girls from the northern winter winds. So much to think about as you decide where to build the coop. We did look at a lot of plans, but ended up building it to our specs using wood from my son's pirate ship playground that we recycled! Seems the hens create their own heat and we found leaving one side of the hen house open during the heat of the day when they are in their nest has been helpful.

We purchased all our girls from the Barberville Farm Swap in the Pioneer Arts Settlement. The next ones are August 6th and 20th. Information can be found at www.farmswapmarket.com. Email is [email protected]. Floyd runs it and can be very helpful steering you to the regulars. It is still a chance you will get someone's cull hens. We have been very fortunate