Another Chicken Newbie

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207Woodsman

207Woodsman

In the Brooder
6 Years
Aug 24, 2013
10
0
22
Hello Everyone!
I just wanted to stop by and introduce myself. I live in Massachusetts and have become fascinated in the self sufficient/homesteading way of life and have wanted to raise chickens since I was a kid. About three weeks ago my better half got me the most wonderful birthday present I could ever dream of. She bought me a very nice 10 chicken coop with an attached run and brought me to pick out 10 of the most adorable chicks to join our family. 2 Cherry Eggers, 2 Americaunas, 2 Silver Laced, 2 Rhode Island Reds and 2 White Leghorns. I love watching them grow and can't wait for them to be able to move into their new home. So I just wanted to warn you all that I will have hundreds of questions about raising the littles beauties. Hahaha! Thank you for the time.
 
Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan
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You may want to browse through the Learning Center, there is so much useful info there. For example, a lot of commercially built chicken coops dramatically overestimate the number of birds they will hold. Best to have 4 square feet of floor space in the coop, and 10 in the run, per bird. For 10 birds that would be a 40 square foot coop and a 100 square foot run. Have fun with your chicks.
 
Oh jeez, now I am super worried about this. The hen house is roughly 4x6 including the nesting boxes and the run is 4x10. I got paranoid and researched "aggressive breeds" and I just read horror stories about RIRs and White Leghorns. Are they going to attack my others and or each other with the room or lack of that they will have? Should I plan to keep the coop door up so they can go to the run in the winter? Will installing roosting bars help the situation? Please help!!
 
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I don't know that it so much breed determined that they will be aggressive. But any breed of chicken cramped up for too long will start pecking and harassing the ones near them, especially in winter when they may not venture out for days.

While they are very young it won't matter but, as they grow they really need much more space or less chickens in it. Usually you let the chickens determine if they want to go out in bad weather or not.

Chickens like to roost off the ground so yes, they should have roost poles but that won't keep them from pecking each other if they feel cramped.
 
Okay thank you very much. I guess I'll have to pick up some building supplies and add on extra space. And thanks for the welcome!
 

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