Am I doomed to fail?

[the duck whisperer]

no you are not doomed. geting full growns are fine, but more work. you have to feed them the Exact same feed as the previous owner, and since your kids are so young, and you work full time, there will need to be someone putting a lot of time into handling them, grooming ect. Picture chickens as a second full time job for the whole family. chickens are fun but alot of work. Preditors are a huge problem. chickens attract coyotes, and youll have preds. any where from hawks and eagles to the family cat. birds of prey are experts at swooping down and carrying chicken away, so make sue you have Good fencing an Good housing.good luck

 

[Beekissed]

Grooming them?

I respectfully disagree that chickens are a lot of hard work. They are some of the easiest livestock to manage and one doesn't have to feed what the previous owner feeds. They are chickens and they don't have delicate digestive systems that need a slow adaptation to new feeds.

And I've never groomed a chicken in my life!

 

[rolffamily]

You could go to your local feed store and ask them to refer you to people with chickens to sell. That's how I got my birds.