All things Chicken

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Glad to meet you. Looking forward to pictures and stories galore! Best wishes and welcome to BYC! You already got some great advice.

Here is my favorite intro to chicken keeping article (I didn't write it), and a link to the Learning Center and COOPS! Cheapest design seems to be to build using cattle panels in a hoop shape, but there are tons of designs to look at. You have some good advice already.

Article on predator proofing new & existing coops. Half inch hardware cloth is key, as mentioned above. And a helpful tutorial on ventilation in coops. These articles come from the Learning Center. The articles are written by BYC members, and reviewed by members as well. You can use the reviews to help you sort which articles are really most helpful and really knowledgeable, because as a newbie like me, it's really hard to tell!

One thing I found extremely useful (though I am in a very different climate, I think it would apply anywhere) was Bob's comment at FluffyButt Acres that looking at the prevailing winds in your area and setting up the coop to allow that to blow through. If you don't already know the direction, you can look at the National Weather Service and they will say for your area. So, if your winds generally blow west to east, set the coop so the ventilation is mostly facing those directions.

And shade will be SOOO important in your area! That might mean rethinking putting the coop right in your vegetable garden. You don't want fried chicken before you're ready for it!
 

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