HensInTheForest
Songster
Hello chicken lovers! 
First flock baby chicks coming 4.8 and 4.15!
This year is finally our year.
Any advise for a complete newbie?
We have read many of pages of chicken blogs and watched YT videos but need to know what you actual chicken gods and goddesses know! And fast!
We have wanted to do this awhile now so we are super excited. My 11YO girl is all set I am shocked at how much research she has done in the past 2 weeks and all we have learned. Already have our chicken boots ready.
We sit together each night finalizing our selections and considering many, many things. Production, winter hardiness, egg size and color, and appearance.
Starting small and learning for now.
We are going for a diverse flock of 20-24 or so give or take, to be cared for as pets but provide us with abundant eggs and outdoor activity.
6 wooded pine and oak acres here in Minnesota they have room to roam but will stay in the run my husband is building most the time with entrance into one of the bays of our pole shed where their hen house will be. He is burying the hardware cloth/fencing down 2-3 feet on all sides both inside and outside. We have fox, coyote, mink to name a few and a cat took over the one bay of our pole shed a few years ago. We will see what we do maybe we have to get her out of there.
1 or 2 chicken tractors also being built so they can move about there are so many ticks and deer here.
Hobbies are a huge raised bed veggie/herb garden for my husband and I love to grow lilies and dinnerplate dahlias. We are a fern forest here and he brings in 60-80 more each year from areas closeby.
Finally joined today as I've been pouring over the EE/Ameraucana threads showing chick color to adult colors so we can hopefully make a good choice in a week or 2 when we pick them up from the farm and garden store. Seems like the staff there doesnt know what they have or the differences and I understand why - one week it's EE and the other it's A chicks, some weeks they are not sure. I tried to source just EE breeders but probably too late in the year now to get just a handful.
Here to learn and ask questions as we have them.
Will try to take pics and share them as we go.
Excited to join you!
First flock baby chicks coming 4.8 and 4.15!
This year is finally our year.
Any advise for a complete newbie?
We have read many of pages of chicken blogs and watched YT videos but need to know what you actual chicken gods and goddesses know! And fast!
We have wanted to do this awhile now so we are super excited. My 11YO girl is all set I am shocked at how much research she has done in the past 2 weeks and all we have learned. Already have our chicken boots ready.
We sit together each night finalizing our selections and considering many, many things. Production, winter hardiness, egg size and color, and appearance.
Starting small and learning for now.
We are going for a diverse flock of 20-24 or so give or take, to be cared for as pets but provide us with abundant eggs and outdoor activity.
6 wooded pine and oak acres here in Minnesota they have room to roam but will stay in the run my husband is building most the time with entrance into one of the bays of our pole shed where their hen house will be. He is burying the hardware cloth/fencing down 2-3 feet on all sides both inside and outside. We have fox, coyote, mink to name a few and a cat took over the one bay of our pole shed a few years ago. We will see what we do maybe we have to get her out of there.
1 or 2 chicken tractors also being built so they can move about there are so many ticks and deer here.
Hobbies are a huge raised bed veggie/herb garden for my husband and I love to grow lilies and dinnerplate dahlias. We are a fern forest here and he brings in 60-80 more each year from areas closeby.
Finally joined today as I've been pouring over the EE/Ameraucana threads showing chick color to adult colors so we can hopefully make a good choice in a week or 2 when we pick them up from the farm and garden store. Seems like the staff there doesnt know what they have or the differences and I understand why - one week it's EE and the other it's A chicks, some weeks they are not sure. I tried to source just EE breeders but probably too late in the year now to get just a handful.
Here to learn and ask questions as we have them.
Will try to take pics and share them as we go.
Excited to join you!
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