Chickens for my wife

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Damifiknow said:
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!
I have already started lookin at all the coop builds here only three pages in and already a lot of info and ideas, I am in north west Georgia and have a little over 5 open acres.
I guess I will keep my wife as nobody seemed to want to trade any of their chickens for her( I probably couldn’t find anyone else that would put up with me anyway). I / we will just have to decide how big and of course the layout then the location, pretty sure I will build an enclosed run with varmint countermeasures as we have grey fox and plenty of hawks as well as coyote.
Click to expand...
yeah, you can get away with less coop and spend the savings on the hardware cloth.

but with 5 acres, you have a little wiggle room for Chicken math.
 
Damifiknow said:
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!
I have already started lookin at all the coop builds here only three pages in and already a lot of info and ideas, I am in north west Georgia and have a little over 5 open acres.
I guess I will keep my wife as nobody seemed to want to trade any of their chickens for her( I probably couldn’t find anyone else that would put up with me anyway). I / we will just have to decide how big and of course the layout then the location, pretty sure I will build an enclosed run with varmint countermeasures as we have grey fox and plenty of hawks as well as coyote.
Click to expand...
Electric fence wire has worked very well for me with fox and dogs
 
Have you decided on a specific number of chickens you'd like to get? That would get you started on what kind of coop to build. I did it a little backwards. I got a used 8x8 shed that needed a little love, and I'm transforming it into a chicken coop. I did the math to figure out how many chickens I wanted. The wife only wanted 4. But I'm a "go big or go home" kind of guy. LOL Plus I knew once we got 4, she'd want more. And I've heard it can be really tough adding new chickens to an established flock.

8x8= 64 square feet
64÷4(square feet per chicken) = 16
16 is the number of chickens I ordered.
15 hens, 1 rooster.

We lost 1 hen at 6 weeks of age, due to a birth defect, that caused the chick to fail to thrive. So we now have 15 happy chickens at almost 17 weeks of age.
 
Give yourself a gold star for being a great husband! Here are some of my favorite starting out articles that I hope you'll find useful.
All articles are short, and have illustrations, and reviews, which are often worth looking at for the comments.

1. Intro to chicken keeping

2. Common mistakes & how to fix them

3. Ventilation (important to chicken health), with helpful links to coop designs organized by climate (because what is just right for my New England hens won't work for my brother's Arizona chickens)

4. Predator protection for new & existing coops

5. Dealing with a muddy coop and run

6. (are you where winter is starting??) Winter chicken care

To look for articles on your own:

A. Use the SEARCH button, but use 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!

Notes about where to put a coop.
1. As far as you can, put a coop and run on high ground, that drains well, so you won't have so much muddy coop problems. Chickens need to be dry, dry, dry.
2. As far as you can, put a coop with the ventilation lined up with your prevailing breezes, and away from the direction of your storms. If you are not sure of these (who is these days?), check with your local National Weather Service website.
3. As far as you can, arrange for some sort of shade over your coop and run. Preferably deciduous so the girls will enjoy winter sun, but summer shade.
 

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