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Glad to meet you, Penny, and welcome to BYC! You are at such an exciting stage, where you can choose chickens, plan your coop and run, and dream, dream, dream!

In case it's helpful to you, here is a link to a helpful article from Farmer's Almanac about coops. It includes info on how much square footage for the number of birds. But many of us find that we start with X number of birds, and just get so egg-sited that we end up adding more birds. So plan for more than 3 if you can!

Here is another link to a wonderful article by a BYC member about ventilation in chicken coops - very important to chicken health, and in winter as much as in hot weather! If you are in the building stage, you're at the perfect point to include good ventilation in your plans. The other nice thing about the article is that it includes links to some of the many coop plans here, selected by climate. The sort of coop that's perfect for me in New England would not suit my brother's birds in Arizona!

To look for articles on your BYC:

A. Use the SEARCH button, but choose the Advanced Search choice, and select ARTICLES at the top of the box. Just enter your keyword(s) and scroll through your results!

B. I find it helpful to notice the rating and reviews. All articles are by BYC members, and all the reviews/ratings are as well. The ratings help a newbie like me sort the most useful and reliable articles.

C. You can bookmark the articles or posts you think you want to refer to again using that bookmark icon at the top of articles or posts. You can find them again by clicking on your own avatar and looking at the list of bookmarks you have built up!
 
N F C said:
:welcome

Hi, thanks for joining us! What made you decide on Production Reds?
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My go to for all things gardening is a feedstore that also sells chicks and chickens. They tell me Production Reds are good with Houston climate, calm, and good layers. Haven't gotten hens yet. Trying to predator-proof my coop first! Any suggestions are welcome. Burying hardware cloth around perimeter as we speak and reinforcing bottom 2 ft of the chicken wire on my open coop. I got a coop kit (big mistake) and just knew it has a heat box, so I got a 7x10 wire coop with a cover. Saw a youtube by a woman in central Texas with one. Put concrete pavers and plywood walls on back 3x9 for roost and nesting box. Padlock for the gate. Opinion?
 
Pennyhouston said:
My go to for all things gardening is a feedstore that also sells chicks and chickens. They tell me Production Reds are good with Houston climate, calm, and good layers. Haven't gotten hens yet. Trying to predator-proof my coop first! Any suggestions are welcome. Burying hardware cloth around perimeter as we speak and reinforcing bottom 2 ft of the chicken wire on my open coop. I got a coop kit (big mistake) and just knew it has a heat box, so I got a 7x10 wire coop with a cover. Saw a youtube by a woman in central Texas with one. Put concrete pavers and plywood walls on back 3x9 for roost and nesting box. Padlock for the gate. Opinion?
Click to expand...

You have the right idea of beefing up the chicken wire with hardware cloth, the wire won't do a good job of keeping your flock safe. I don't know what predators you have, but you could always post on your state thread for ideas specific to where you are: State and country threads
 
Pennyhouston said:
My go to for all things gardening is a feedstore that also sells chicks and chickens. They tell me Production Reds are good with Houston climate, calm, and good layers. Haven't gotten hens yet. Trying to predator-proof my coop first! Any suggestions are welcome. Burying hardware cloth around perimeter as we speak and reinforcing bottom 2 ft of the chicken wire on my open coop. I got a coop kit (big mistake) and just knew it has a heat box, so I got a 7x10 wire coop with a cover. Saw a youtube by a woman in central Texas with one. Put concrete pavers and plywood walls on back 3x9 for roost and nesting box. Padlock for the gate. Opinion?
Click to expand...
Can you post some photos?
 

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