First Time Chicken Owner in Northern California!

[Meg2000000]

My name is Megan and I currently live in Concord, CA (Bay Area) with my boyfriend, Johnny. We've been together 7 years and recently have become interested in becoming farmers. So, while we are educating ourselves with the ins-and-outs of the organic farming industry, we decided to start with a couple of egg-laying chickens. Today I visited a local Chicken Lover and purchased 5, 2-week old Barnevelder chicks. They are gorgeous! I'm not sure how many hens/roosters are in the mix but I'm excited to find out! They are currently residing in our home-made cardboard box brooder (Amazon.. We keep it classy!) Thank God for BackYardChickens.com (and of course Raising Chickens for Dummies). I've learned so much from both of these great resources and know I will probably be on here once a day with questions!

Thanks for Reading!

- Megan

 

[kidcody]

from washington state glad you joined us!

 

[sumi]

 

[DDNONIN2016]

Hello and welcome from Ohio....so glad you joined us. Best of luck with your new chicks

 

[Kevin565]

 

[Treehill Farm]

Welcome aboard! Nice that you have a local chicken lover handy!

 

[CorinneP]

Welcome ! Amazon you say ? Show off ! Glad to see your going Organic .. I am trying to get my little home stead going.. Moving fast but not fast enough for me wish I could have started when I was younger .. But I am getting there.. Hope you love this site as much as I do ! ~ Corinne

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us. Congrats on your chicks and good luck

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Hi and from Ohio. So glad you joined. Congrats and have fun.

 

[Meg2000000]

Corrine - I know the exact feeling of things not happening quick enough! When my boyfriend, Johnny, and I decided to be organic "farmers" I thought, "Well this will be easy to start. We'll just buy a couple acres and get started." We bought a book called "You Can Farm" and realized that's not the way to go about it... At least for us. So, we are staying put in our rental house with about 2,000 sf of usable backyard space for the next year or so at least. Johnny and I are both beginner gardeners and, although we kinda suck at it, I wish we could just jump into a full-blown operation and be awesome at it! I've tailored down my expectations/had a reality check and we've decided to go the "homesteading" route for now with what we have. Any suggestions on getting started? I just picked up "The Backyard Homestead" and can't wait to get all that knowledge in my brain!