calling any one from missouri

[daxigait]

Coming in little late in the game! lol  I live in Dixon, MO, Two hours from Sedalia, Springfield, Columbia, and St Louis. LOL 

I am a single mother of 3 boys (12, 10, and, 3 yrs) I have two dogs, Rottie and German Shepherd.

I currently do not have any chicks yet i am doing research and pricing out buying a coop vs building.

Looking at getting rhode island reds. I was thinking 8 hens and 1 roost would keep up in eggs pretty fine but thinking now that 4 hens and one rooster might be ok..... thoughts?

i have a rough idea of what to make coop but thinking of going smaller 
Right now i have an idea for a run that is 2ft Hx4ft Wx8ft L
and a coop that is 1 ft high legs then another 4 ft high x 4 ft wide x  ft long

no roost or hen boxes are in the estimate yet and its $330 so far
i know this doesn't sound like much but yikes

Any idea or suggestions let me know 
looking forward to getting the chickens

A

I just started with chickens at the beginning of August. If I had it to do again I would buy a coop. We have some places that do them starting around six hundred and buy the time you buy the wood, screws, hardware cloth,etc. and invest the time you might as well buy one unless you are really skilled since they have worked out the kinks.
BTW unless you are doing small chickens you should put the coop up 18" or so for head room.
Just my opinion on the coop unless you have lots of scavenged materials.

 

[daxigait]

Check craigslist too for coops. Sometimes someone is moving or quitting and you can get a deal, but make sure it is secure.

 

[daxigait]

Also read up on space in and out of the coop. From what I read it is near 4' inside and 10' outside per bird if you have full size chickens.

 

[daxigait]

DH and I both thought it was in the southwest. It's south west from where we are more central and about three hours from where we live in NE MO. Sure can tell we've only been residents for only 5 years.....duh.

since I live in Joplin I guess it is all about perspective.

 

[microchick]

If you have the desire, you can build your own for a fraction of the cost of a ready made. I built ours with some help and guidance from my ever patient husband using re-purposed lumber from other building projects so the whole cost for a two story 4X8 coop was 50 dollars and that was from hardware costs. Many folks have used pallets, salvaging wood from them to make their coops. If you are lucky you can sometimes find them for free if you are willing to haul them away and tear them apart. Your kids could get involved in that project.

There are many ways to build a coop on the cheap that will be of far higher quality than one of the fabricated coops in a box that you see in the local feed store.

Sometimes you can find home made ones listed in the local penny press (NEMO-TRADER in NE MO) that are on skids and people just want to get rid of them. Problem with that is that they usually want to get rid of them because all their birds have gotten sick and died from Lord knows what and you have to sanitize the thing and hope nothing lingers before you can even think of putting your own birds in it.

You are wise in doing your research. We have 12 hens right now under the age of 1 yr that are just starting to lay regularly. They give us 9 eggs on a good day. 5 to 6 other days, more than my husband and I can use so we give our extras out as tips to the mail man and garbage man and to elderly friends. Hopefully next spring, I can start to sell off the extras once the egg sizes get a bit larger.

Figure that four hens would give you at the most 4 eggs a day once they start laying and depending on the breed. That would be 21 eggs a week at the high end and maybe 14 on the low end once they ramp up laying, plenty for you and your kids to eat and to use in baking.

 

[daxigait]

Yeah, if you can find salvage it is great especially for a small coop,there are some great pallet wood coops on this site, but my chicken tractor got over 300 plus hardware cloth. I agree anything is better than the prefabs, but time is a factor for some and has to be accounted for.

 

[cdonze43]

At what age will the chicks be able to survive the cold (20-30 degrees at night)with no heat lamp. They are all 6-8wks old and fully feathered.

 

[karenerwin]

At what age will the chicks be able to survive the cold (20-30 degrees at night)with no heat lamp. They are all 6-8wks old and fully feathered.

It is my understanding that once they are fully feathered, they are good to go. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone else will chime in!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I'm stumped. Why would two chicks be like three times the size of the third? Only thing I can think of is the bigger two are roosters or turkeys? All three have the same coloration sonim guessing roosters?

What others have said is probably the most likely thing but sometimes one will just be a runt. I had 50 Freedom Ranger once that I processed at 8 weeks. There was always plenty of feeder and water space. One just didn't grow like the others. It was a cockerel and healthy in all other respects except half the size of the others.

Another possibility is that you got a bantam with your LF.

Lordie, doesn't the northern half of the state have any events?

There is one in Silex every month. It is only a large event about 3 or 4 times a year but still fun and good people. They hosted the Midwest Heritage Poultry Conference a couple months ago at which I was a guest speaker.

Coming in little late in the game! lol I live in Dixon, MO, Two hours from Sedalia, Springfield, Columbia, and St Louis. LOL

I am a single mother of 3 boys (12, 10, and, 3 yrs) I have two dogs, Rottie and German Shepherd.

I currently do not have any chicks yet i am doing research and pricing out buying a coop vs building.

Looking at getting rhode island reds. I was thinking 8 hens and 1 roost would keep up in eggs pretty fine but thinking now that 4 hens and one rooster might be ok..... thoughts?

i have a rough idea of what to make coop but thinking of going smaller
Right now i have an idea for a run that is 2ft Hx4ft Wx8ft L
and a coop that is 1 ft high legs then another 4 ft high x 4 ft wide x ft long

no roost or hen boxes are in the estimate yet and its $330 so far
i know this doesn't sound like much but yikes

Any idea or suggestions let me know
looking forward to getting the chickens

A

Welcome. My grandparents had a fishing lodge on the Gasconade near Dixon when I was a kid. They had hogs and chickens.
My advice is to build if you have any skills at all. Manufactured coops are too small for the number of chickens they claim they'll house. They're expensive for their size and are often designed by someone with no knowledge of chickens. As an example, one designated for 8 chickens will usually only house 3 or 4 and they put 3 or 4 nest boxes on it. The money they put into that could have been invested on a larger coop. You only need one nest for each 3 or 4 chickens.
Go to the 'Learning Center' tab above and find the 'Coops' button. There are lots to view and most have bills of materials, schematics and construction instructions.
You can sometimes find cheap or free building materials on Craigslist. If you have a big box store nearby, Lowe's sets pallets of split or warped lumber out for half price frequently.
The larger the coop related to stocking density, the easier it will be to keep clean and the healthier your chickens will be.
You'll be disappointed with a run you can't fit into.
After you get delicious fresh eggs from your own backyard, you'll want twice as many birds. Government recommends at least 2 hens per family member. They won't lay year round forever. Starting their second autumn and each thereafter, they'll molt and stop laying for a few months. It's a bummer to go through that trouble and expense and still have to buy eggs.

At what age will the chicks be able to survive the cold (20-30 degrees at night)with no heat lamp. They are all 6-8wks old and fully feathered.

As Karen said, they're ready.

 

[justcallmememe]

Still Searching and researching, tried a new coop design/blueprint and ya still too expensive. ill admit starting to get discouraged but still going towards the goal.

Been getting some advise and most seems positive, some i know people mean well but seems like I'm not welcome into the mysterious world of chickens ( no not on this site, just the sites i trying to find materials and supplies on) you all are great