Can anyone give me any pointers about these breeds?

[3KillerBs]

Hey there Carolina fam! Thanks for the articles to look through I will definitely be taking notes and showing hubs all the chicken info. He did find a video on YouTube by Third Coast Craftsman called the "Ultimate Backyard Chicken Coop Build" and he likes the way it is done and wants something like that.

I'm unfamiliar with that, but I have to say that at least 80% of the chicken coops found online were designed by carpenters to look good rather than by chicken keepers to suit chickens' needs so it's necessary to be cautious and check the measurements carefully.

The Usual Guidelines

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:

• 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
• 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
• 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
• 1/4 of a nest box,
• And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.

These are *guidelines*, not hard-and-fast rules, but they're a good starting point. This is a more nuanced view: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-much-room-do-chickens-need.66180/

An Open Air coop is, IMO, the best for the Steamy Southeast.

Open Air Coops

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/jens-hens-a-southern-texas-coop.75707/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/my-positive-local-action-coop.72804/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/california-living.68130/

 

[ElfenLied89]

I'm unfamiliar with that, but I have to say that at least 80% of the chicken coops found online were designed by carpenters to look good rather than by chicken keepers to suit chickens' needs so it's necessary to be cautious and check the measurements carefully.

The Usual Guidelines

For each adult, standard-sized hen you need:

• 4 square feet in the coop (.37 square meters)
• 10 square feet in the run (.93 square meters),
• 1 linear foot of roost (.3 meters),
• 1/4 of a nest box,
• And 1 square foot (.09 square meters) of permanent, 24/7/365 ventilation, preferably located over the birds' heads when they're sitting on the roost.

These are *guidelines*, not hard-and-fast rules, but they're a good starting point. This is a more nuanced view: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/how-much-room-do-chickens-need.66180/

An Open Air coop is, IMO, the best for the Steamy Southeast.

Open Air Coops

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/jens-hens-a-southern-texas-coop.75707/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/my-positive-local-action-coop.72804/
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/california-living.68130/

It does indeed get steamy over here! I call below 85 in the summer a good day lol. Maybe we will actually have a winter this year?

 

[ElfenLied89]

They are starting to get so big already y'all! I will have to post pics soon of all the feathery babies

 

[ElfenLied89]

They are starting to get so big already y'all! I will have to post pics soon of all the feathery babies

 

[ElfenLied89]

Those is our Brahma rooster. Aptly nicknamed Brahms. He loves cuddles, is super sweet and loving, and burrows into your neck or ear. Especially if your hair is down. Brahms is over a week old. Also loves peeping and talking to you.

 

[Nadia_mendoza]

Hello there. I am a new chicken mom. We have 8 adorable baby chickens and are only about a week or so into our chicken raising. We have them in a large bin, with a brood lamp, food, and water (of course). Oldest chick is around 10 days old (we speculate), and the newest chick is around 3 or 4 days old. All are female except one.

Here are the following breeds we have:

Rhode Island Red
Buff Orpington (2) (oldest)
Lavender Orpington
Silver Laced Wynadotte
Salmon Faverolle (2)
Brahma (Rooster) (Newest addition)


The Rhode Island Red and the Buff Orpington ladies were all bought at the same time from Tractor Supply. The other ones we have acquired were from a local hatchery called King's Cove in Moncks Corner, SC. These are all for eggs, and according to my kids, to have farm pets. No meat babies.

Gimme any and all advice. Like when to move them outside, etc. I need all the chicken parent wisdom!!

I moved mine out to the coop at around 6 weeks. But very soon after the first couple of weeks I would let them have a lot of time outside playing on the dirt (supervised of course). It’s good for them to stay clean and strong. I liked to put oregano or garlic in their water every now and then…
One super good thing that I found is to use sand in the coop instead of any other type of “bedding” - it’s much easier to clean and discourages them from sleeping on it - it’s healthier for them to always sleep on the roost. Bedding only when they start laying, in the nests. If u have 8, u probably only need 2 nests, don’t worry about having several, they all end up competing for the same one or two. Only set them up when they start getting close to laying so they don’t mess and poop on it way before.

 

[ElfenLied89]

I moved mine out to the coop at around 6 weeks. But very soon after the first couple of weeks I would let them have a lot of time outside playing on the dirt (supervised of course). It’s good for them to stay clean and strong. I liked to put oregano or garlic in their water every now and then…
One super good thing that I found is to use sand in the coop instead of any other type of “bedding” - it’s much easier to clean and discourages them from sleeping on it - it’s healthier for them to always sleep on the roost. Bedding only when they start laying, in the nests. If u have 8, u probably only need 2 nests, don’t worry about having several, they all end up competing for the same one or two. Only set them up when they start getting close to laying so they don’t mess and poop on it way before.

So like 2 or 3 nests, sand for the bottom and a nice roost. Got it! Thanks for all the info.

What's oregano and garlic for in the water?

 

[Lrs52200]

This is great advice and spot on.

Fortunately a chicken doesn't need anything fancy.

Something you will want to heavily research is predation prevention. Buying a prefab coop comes with a false sense of security.

"The people who designed this must know what they are doing in keeping the chickens safe" - WRONG

For instance. Most all the time there is hardware cloth on a prefab in some form. They will most always attach the cloth with something like a 3/8 staple which a predator is going to quickly destroy. Just ingest a healthy amount of YouTube videos in coop building and you'll get the idea.

We recently got a D'uucle breeding pair - my wife wanted some ornamental chickens for her garden that would do minimal damage (better pics for instagram I suppose ). I thought I'd save a bit of time and pick up a prefab coop for them. Huge mistake. I ended up spending more time beefing it up then i would have had I just built something myself like I always do. It now looks like franken-coop.

There are also a lot of folks now on Craigslist or Facebook who will come and build a coop on site.

Congrats on the new chickens!

On-site build is spot on!!

 

[AlisonBradley]

Hello there. I am a new chicken mom. We have 8 adorable baby chickens and are only about a week or so into our chicken raising. We have them in a large bin, with a brood lamp, food, and water (of course). Oldest chick is around 10 days old (we speculate), and the newest chick is around 3 or 4 days old. All are female except one.

Here are the following breeds we have:

Rhode Island Red
Buff Orpington (2) (oldest)
Lavender Orpington
Silver Laced Wynadotte
Salmon Faverolle (2)
Brahma (Rooster) (Newest addition)


The Rhode Island Red and the Buff Orpington ladies were all bought at the same time from Tractor Supply. The other ones we have acquired were from a local hatchery called King's Cove in Moncks Corner, SC. These are all for eggs, and according to my kids, to have farm pets. No meat babies.

Gimme any and all advice. Like when to move them outside, etc. I need all the chicken parent wisdom!!

First thing is that expect your Rhode Island Reds to come to the top of the pecking order with your birds as they get older - ours are always picking on our other birds. The other thing to keep in mind is your climate. We had our birds inside until at least 8 weeks - but we live in the PNW and our last frost date is in May and with the first set I didn't finish building the coop until early June (it took me about two months which was longer than I anticipated). When you do move them outside they should stay in their coop for 7-14 days to make them realize this is home (and block off the egg boxes so they don't sleep in them - they won't need them til 18-20 weeks old). We call our birds back by putting out grubs - at first it was a crazy round up but now they all come and follow me anytime I'm out in the yard because they think I have grubs - feel like the pied piper sometimes.

 

[ElfenLied89]

First thing is that expect your Rhode Island Reds to come to the top of the pecking order with your birds as they get older - ours are always picking on our other birds. The other thing to keep in mind is your climate. We had our birds inside until at least 8 weeks - but we live in the PNW and our last frost date is in May and with the first set I didn't finish building the coop until early June (it took me about two months which was longer than I anticipated). When you do move them outside they should stay in their coop for 7-14 days to make them realize this is home (and block off the egg boxes so they don't sleep in them - they won't need them til 18-20 weeks old). We call our birds back by putting out grubs - at first it was a crazy round up but now they all come and follow me anytime I'm out in the yard because they think I have grubs - feel like the pied piper sometimes.

My Sapphire Olive Egger is actually on top. At least it seems that way. My dark brahma is at the very bottom. The RIR's are near top though. And Cinnamon is the more nosey one of the two.