Anyone want to be my mentor?

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bglass

bglass

In the Brooder
Jul 31, 2015
14
0
24
Vilonia, Arkansas
Hello from Arkansas!
My family has taken a great leap of faith and decided to jump into homesteading blindfolded and head first. We sold our city house and moved into a travel trailer (us, our 4 kids, and german shepherd), bought 10 acres of wooded land, and are building a house big enough for all of us! The plan is to grow a large garden (land to clear of woods first), plant fruit and nut trees, have about 10 chickens (land to clear first) and guineas. If all goes well for a couple years, I am daydreaming about a milk cow in the future.......
The house is going up quick and I am realizin it is time to start learning a bit. First, is a coop! I've never had chickens before and can't seem to find actual "plans" on this site, and I am unclear on how big i needs to be and if he chickens and guineas can coop together and yada yada yada. We plan to use as many leftover materials from the house build as possible.

Also need to clear and pre a large plat for our garden. So excited! And ignorant.....
 
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Congrats on the new house and the new direction in life!

For your coop, you want at least four square feet of coop space per bird and ten square feet of run space, minimum. More is always better, and try to build bigger than you think you'll need - chicken math sets in quickly and you'll end up with more birds than you planned! Ventilation is also key, and you want as much ventilation as possible without creating drafts. There are lots of good coops here, and you might find one you like. If you are considering a hoop coop like mine, there are step by step plans on how I built mine if you click on "My Coop" under my avatar.

I keep chickens and guineas together no problem. However, guineas need to be 'coop trained' - locked in the coop - for six weeks before letting them out to range to be sure they will return to the coop at night. Otherwise, they make take to the trees instead.

I would be happy to answer any other questions you have, and you can feel free to pm me directly or if you post them here, I'll do my best to answer :)
 
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Hello there and welcome to BYC!
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Pyxis has given you some great advice! You might also stop by our learning center. Lots of great articles on all the aspects of keeping chickens from building the coop, raising the chicks, feeding and watering your flock and keeping them healthy....https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center

If you still have questions about anything, feel free to post around the forums.

Good luck on this new adventure and welcome to our flock!
 

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