Name here is Dan, as the username would suggest. I've never raised any fowl, of any kind, unless you count parakeets and cockatiels. I don't!
My wife and I recently bought a place with a couple of chicken coops, already in place. The house was abandoned for several years, before we remodeled and moved in. Before we could get moved in, a small elm tree fell over, and crushed one of the coops. Fortunately, it was the one, where the fence around it, was already mostly destroyed. So, we have room and materials, to make it a bigger and better coop. That is the current project at hand. The other coop, is still in pretty good shape, but needs to be cleared of weeds, and briars.
Eventually, we hope to free range our chickens, as this part of Oklahoma is rampant with plenty of ticks, for them to eat, in addition to their normal feed diet.
Last week, my wife decided to buy chicks. She brought home 16 chicks of various breeds, or hybrids. We lost our first, this morning. I literally, just, found one of the Australorps dead, a few minutes ago. They are indoors, with a good temperature. I must presume it was just a weak baby. We have more coming, from an online hatchery, in a few weeks, and that will be mostly New Hampshire and Rhode Island Reds, Leghorns, and Jersey Giants. As we get some fairly extreme weather, at both ends of the spectrum, here, I wanted some hardier breeds. We get some nasty ice storms in the winter, and some extreme heat and humidity, in the summer. Neighbors in the area with purebreds, tell us that these three breeds do well, in our climate. Besides, I like the biggest eggs I can get. But, I figure that with us being neophytes at chicken farming, we are likely to lose some. The hard part, I think, will be acclimating our dogs, to the chickens, as they begin to free range.
Anyway, right now, the first few concerns are how to keep our Oklahoma red wasps out of the coop, how to rebuild the collapsed coop and make the pen bigger, and just learning as much about raising chickens, as I can. I found a good thread on wasps, and am going to try some of those methods.
So, I expect to be reading a bunch, and asking several questions.
If I do it right, I'm going to try posting a couple of photos here.
My wife and I recently bought a place with a couple of chicken coops, already in place. The house was abandoned for several years, before we remodeled and moved in. Before we could get moved in, a small elm tree fell over, and crushed one of the coops. Fortunately, it was the one, where the fence around it, was already mostly destroyed. So, we have room and materials, to make it a bigger and better coop. That is the current project at hand. The other coop, is still in pretty good shape, but needs to be cleared of weeds, and briars.
Eventually, we hope to free range our chickens, as this part of Oklahoma is rampant with plenty of ticks, for them to eat, in addition to their normal feed diet.
Last week, my wife decided to buy chicks. She brought home 16 chicks of various breeds, or hybrids. We lost our first, this morning. I literally, just, found one of the Australorps dead, a few minutes ago. They are indoors, with a good temperature. I must presume it was just a weak baby. We have more coming, from an online hatchery, in a few weeks, and that will be mostly New Hampshire and Rhode Island Reds, Leghorns, and Jersey Giants. As we get some fairly extreme weather, at both ends of the spectrum, here, I wanted some hardier breeds. We get some nasty ice storms in the winter, and some extreme heat and humidity, in the summer. Neighbors in the area with purebreds, tell us that these three breeds do well, in our climate. Besides, I like the biggest eggs I can get. But, I figure that with us being neophytes at chicken farming, we are likely to lose some. The hard part, I think, will be acclimating our dogs, to the chickens, as they begin to free range.
Anyway, right now, the first few concerns are how to keep our Oklahoma red wasps out of the coop, how to rebuild the collapsed coop and make the pen bigger, and just learning as much about raising chickens, as I can. I found a good thread on wasps, and am going to try some of those methods.
So, I expect to be reading a bunch, and asking several questions.
If I do it right, I'm going to try posting a couple of photos here.
and Welcome To BYC! Cute chicks! Sorry about the chick you lost, good luck with the rest of them! Sounds like a nice selection of breeds, they do grow fast, you're going to need a bigger brooder pretty soon! If you haven't found it already, check out your state thread for more chicken keeping neighbors and what they are finding works well in your area for dealing with the weather etc 
