Igofastandwin
In the Brooder
Merry Christmas! My wife and I are new to the chicken life 
We live in Phoenix, We currently have two chicks, One is a 9 week old type of a Rhode Island Red (Ruby) that we have had since she was two days old, our second, is a 6 weeks old Ameraucana (Pepper) type that we got at one week old. We got Ruby as a pet and ended up getting Pepper as we were told that because of their social nature that Ruby needed a friend.
We are sure we have made some mistakes with them, Ruby, grew up on our patio, with a heat lamp, Pepper spent time on the patio during the day but slept in the house with us for her first few weeks. Currently both are in a coop that we purchased. Basically they get to run around our backyard during the day, we have a huge backyard, for city people, it has a 8' block wall to keep them in and safe. They really seem to enjoy digging in the grass and rummaging through the rocks and picking at the bushes! Once it gets dark we put them in the coop, with a heat lamp and they seem to like it. They get lots of attention during the day ( I work from home). They seem very happy, we took them to the vet last week to make sure they are healthy, they are! They always have access to food and water and get a little piece of sourdough bread very morning, which they now come to expect! Lol.
They have now become part of the family and are very sweet! they follow us around, lots of times we feel like scarecrows as they love to sit on us. We line their coop with straw and put kiln dried mini flake bedding in the nesting box. They seem to like to sleep in the nesting box together, is this bad? Should we try to break this habit?
Are we doing right by our girls? Should we be doing anything else? As I said, we are very new to this. Any suggestions and/or comments would be appreciated!
Thanks!
We live in Phoenix, We currently have two chicks, One is a 9 week old type of a Rhode Island Red (Ruby) that we have had since she was two days old, our second, is a 6 weeks old Ameraucana (Pepper) type that we got at one week old. We got Ruby as a pet and ended up getting Pepper as we were told that because of their social nature that Ruby needed a friend.
We are sure we have made some mistakes with them, Ruby, grew up on our patio, with a heat lamp, Pepper spent time on the patio during the day but slept in the house with us for her first few weeks. Currently both are in a coop that we purchased. Basically they get to run around our backyard during the day, we have a huge backyard, for city people, it has a 8' block wall to keep them in and safe. They really seem to enjoy digging in the grass and rummaging through the rocks and picking at the bushes! Once it gets dark we put them in the coop, with a heat lamp and they seem to like it. They get lots of attention during the day ( I work from home). They seem very happy, we took them to the vet last week to make sure they are healthy, they are! They always have access to food and water and get a little piece of sourdough bread very morning, which they now come to expect! Lol.
They have now become part of the family and are very sweet! they follow us around, lots of times we feel like scarecrows as they love to sit on us. We line their coop with straw and put kiln dried mini flake bedding in the nesting box. They seem to like to sleep in the nesting box together, is this bad? Should we try to break this habit?
Are we doing right by our girls? Should we be doing anything else? As I said, we are very new to this. Any suggestions and/or comments would be appreciated!
Thanks!
They definitely teach us how to treat them proper. 
! Glad to have ya' here and I hope you have a blessed Christmas with the family!
Plus, everyone tend to have a somewhat different way of raising their hens.
So, yeah, an expert such as 
