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MissKat29

In the Brooder
Mar 22, 2018
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Southern
Good day all!

I grew up just outside the city.. then moved to the city and started a family. after 12 years in the city, we made the moved closer to where hubby works and bought 10acres in the country.

After much thought, I have decided to start raising chickens and I want to make it a great learning experience for our kids. However, it will be a learning experience for all of us as we have never done it.

Any advice on where to start would be great. I have been doing lots of research. We have been in contact with a farm owner that we will be buying fertilized eggs from and loaning us an incubator to try and start hatching eggs.

I hope you all are enjoying the day! :)
 
Welcome, and congrats on a wonderful move for you and your family. Start with the learning center!

Have you designed your coop yet? I strongly urge you to build it bigger than you think you will ever need! Walk in style is best. Building your own coop will be a great learning experience for the whole family. You will need at least 4 s.f. in coop per bird. More is better. I urge you to make it a walk in style. Depending on climate, you can make it an open front (predator proofed). Look at Woods open air coops. Put electrical access in your coop so you can brood your chicks right in the coop with a MHP style brooding system. @Blooie is your "go to" queen of this method and has 2 articles and a thread.

Save your money and a lot of frustration. Don't buy a pre-fab. Falsely advertised, poor materials, poor construction, poor design.

Hatching Eggs 101 should be your first stop.

You could also build an incubator! This is a fun project and can be accomplished for less than $25.00. Check out Rush Lane Poultry for his excellent videos on wiring the different types of thermostats.

Other research ideas: deep litter management in coop and run. Fermented feed (see the article in my signature). Henderson's chicken breeds chart.

A bit more detail about your GENERAL location will help folks to give climate specific advice.
 
:welcome! There’s so many helpful, knowledgeable folks here and I’m sure you’ll find this site a very useful resource. I hope you enjoy it as much as we all do.

Blooie said:
A "queen"? I get to be a queen??? LG, peel me a grape! :lau

I forgot to say, Welcome to BYC. Think I’ll just hide here UNDER my throne....if you’ll excuse me...
:oops:
Click to expand...
:lau:gig​
 
lazy gardener said:
Welcome, and congrats on a wonderful move for you and your family. Start with the learning center!

Have you designed your coop yet? I strongly urge you to build it bigger than you think you will ever need! Walk in style is best. Building your own coop will be a great learning experience for the whole family. You will need at least 4 s.f. in coop per bird. More is better. I urge you to make it a walk in style. Depending on climate, you can make it an open front (predator proofed). Look at Woods open air coops. Put electrical access in your coop so you can brood your chicks right in the coop with a MHP style brooding system. @Blooie is your "go to" queen of this method and has 2 articles and a thread.

Save your money and a lot of frustration. Don't buy a pre-fab. Falsely advertised, poor materials, poor construction, poor design.

Hatching Eggs 101 should be your first stop.

You could also build an incubator! This is a fun project and can be accomplished for less than $25.00. Check out Rush Lane Poultry for his excellent videos on wiring the different types of thermostats.

Other research ideas: deep litter management in coop and run. Fermented feed (see the article in my signature). Henderson's chicken breeds chart.

A bit more detail about your GENERAL location will help folks to give climate specific advice.
Click to expand...


Hi,

Thank you so much for the info. I will be looking into all of it.

We live in Southern New Brunswick, Canada...
Our winters vary year to year.. for example 3 years ago we had so much snow, the banks were as high as houses and they needed dump trucks to move it out of cities... this year we had a nasty cold snap in January and very little snow. The rain and warm temps would take it away within days of a storm...

As for predators.. I know there are a few types here... Owls, Fox, skunk, coyote, bob cats, some small types of snakes, minks etc...
 

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