Chicken newbies

[Wdchickens]

We were surprised with three chickens as a Christmas present this year from my mother in law. We have considered getting chickens in the past but were caught off guard today. We have no idea what breed (or sex!) these chickens are. Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Whoops]

eeeeeeep! how cute!

 

[glendaschicks]

What a nice Christmas gift! I'm too new to chicken keeping to advise on breed or gender, but wanted to say "Welcome to BYC". Looks like you need to start building a coop, if you haven't already!

 

[Wdchickens]

We bought a fenced in dog pen in the spring for our husky who absolutely hates it. It's been sitting in our back yard ever since. So we plan on using that to keep the chickens fenced in and buying or making some sort of coop to put inside that for them. Currently they are hanging out in a big cage in our basement until we can get them outside this weekend.

 

[glendaschicks]

You can find all kinds of good info on coop designs and...well, everything else chickens, here on BYC. This is a great forum with so many knowledgeable, caring people to help with almost any situation you might encounter. You have come to the right place!

 

[Veer67]

They are mixes and appear to all be pullets for now.

You should go to the Learning Center to learn more about raising chickens.

 

[donrae]

None of your birds are screaming rooster to me. I'm thinking they're around 3ish months, give or take. The two brown ones look like maybe bantam breeds, and they all look like mixed breed ladies. You'll probably get eggs in shades of brown or cream in 3-4 months, maybe sooner.

 

[Cynthia12]

They do look girly..how nice to have gotten them for Christmas.. TO BYC!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

None of your birds are screaming rooster to me. I'm thinking they're around 3ish months, give or take. The two brown ones look like maybe bantam breeds, and they all look like mixed breed ladies. You'll probably get eggs in shades of brown or cream in 3-4 months, maybe sooner.

X2

 

[Wdchickens]

Thank you for your answers! We sure hope they are hens. Btw, this is the husband typing now. I intend to get a couple Rhode island reds or other better egg layers, since we are in it this deep. Anyway, I managed to grab a couple shipping crates from work, to build a quick and temporary coop until the weather gets better. They are about 4 feet by 4 feet and 4 feet high.I read a lot about coops on this site, but some things are still unclear to me. Is 16 sq feet enough for 3-5 birds? They will have a large run as my wife stated. Also I have a plan to put the nesting boxes in that space, so that will suck up some footage. What do you think? And lastly do my nesting boxes need to be level with the floor or should they be raised, and can the chickens jump up into them? Sorry for dumb questions, we are learning.