A quick hello from Hawaii!

[kealalegacy]

Aloha! After many months of research and prepping my yard I decided to get myself a birthday present... 4 beautiful little chickies! I was told they were 8 days old and had received their shots. So with great joy in my heart I picked 4 that were different in looks and breed. 1 black australorp that my youngest named Flora, 1 rhode island red that my daughter named Belle, and 2 americaunas one which my oldest son named Gaea and my little one named Isabella. Im hoping that by giving them female names I will heighten the chances of having hens!

They are in house right now and little poop machines! LOL! But I clean them everyday so the smell has been minimal. We have play time everyday with the chicks and it has been so much fun seeing the different personalities spring forth. I think I have guessed the pecking order already just based on the past 2 weeks with them. Today they *should* be 18 days old, and they had their first day out on the grass... at first there was alot of confused chirping but soon they were flapping about... running... and digging!

I am in the works of designing a coop that will house them outside that fits in my little yard. Im thinking of doing a fly pen 4'x4'x5' and a nesting box that will attach to the outside... does anyone have experience with this? Also... I contemplated making it into a tractor but with te limited amount of space in my yard a fixed coop may be best. I appreciate any insight regarding the coop design!

Just wanted to come in and say hello and meet some fellow chicken lovers... have a beautiful day! Keala

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Hi and

 

[chickenmom1]

Good luck from Hawaii!!! Welcome to the chicken world, be sure to get addicted.
J

 

[midd2005]

aloha and E Komo Mai,
i too am on hawaii -kailua on oahu. my husband and i recently went through the same process as you. we've never had chickens before but we just bought a house and had a bit of space so here we are, 7 chickens later. ours are now coming up on 7 weeks old. built a coop after they got here, like you.

4x4x5 is going to likely be too small for your chickens. if chickens don't have enough space, you can potentially have flock problems, like pecking eachother. also, as we've learned, if you're going to make it tallish, you might as well make it taller than you, so you can get in there easily. ours is like 1 inch too short and we have been bumping our heads. so, depends on how tall you are.

as far as floor space goes, the rule of thumb is 10 sq ft of space per chicken in a run and 4 sq ft per chicken in a coop. so your 4x4 space is really only big enough for 1 and a half chickens. it's possible it would work out ok, especially if you can let them out to roam for good chunks of the day, but experience says it's not going to be big enough. so, something for you to think about.

being that this is hawaii, we just sorta built a run with some semi enclosed areas for when we have a cooler day or when it rains a lot. our nesting boxes are attached to the outside but we have a while to go before we need them yet. being in hawaii, our considerations are definitely different than a lot of peoples' on here (for example, no raccoons). depending on where you are on hawaii, you might want to look into "open coops" or "warm weather coops".

let me know if i can be of further help. Good luck!

 

[Muggsmagee]

Hello from Central NY!

Check out the coop design section. There are lots of great ideas, and with the few birds you have, it should be a breeze. Be forewarned...you may not understand chicken math! Build room for more!

 

[Lbrad7]

Hello and welcome from NE Georgia!! What ever you are planning for a coop, go bigger than you think you will need. Once "chicken math" kicks in you are going to notice your flock getting bigger and bigger.

 

[bambi]

I agree with above post. go bigger you won't regret it. If you build it to big what is the worst thing can happen get more chickens. I wish my chicken house was bigger. So now that I want more chickens I will have to invest in a new chicken house. Chickens are very addicting!!!

 

[mmaddie's mom]

from Central Illinois!
Wishing we were there!

 

[User66184]

Hiya From A Country Girl, &&

Yu'll Luv It!

 

[kealalegacy]

Thank you for all the kind welcomes!!! And thank you for the tips everyone... bigger will be better so I think I will definitely do that. Midd2005 Im on the North Shore but with very limited amount of yard space... definitely no racoons.. LOL! I am rethinking the size and space and placement of my coop, but yall are right... i totally DO NOT get chicken math!

I do have a fenced in space in the back of my house that my dog hangs out in... maybe I should set up a larger coop back there to share with my pup. I will have to introduce him to the chicks and see how that goes before I make any final decisions.

Again thank you so much for the warm welcome and I really do appreciate all of your insight! I can see how this will become addicting! *

.