First time flock raiser coming in March... yikes!

[Teila]

G’Day from down under Jake Welcome!

Do I have some reading material for you! Hopefully helpful and not an addition to the confusion.

You might be interested in downloading this free e-book My First Year With Chickens

BYC has a Learning Centre and also Topic of the Week articles which I have found to be a great resource and a one stop shop for questions which may have already been discussed within the BYC membership group. There are discussions on setting up the coop and the run along with other useful topics. I think this one in particular may be of interest to you at this stage:
Topic of the Week - Getting Started, Keeping Chickens

This article may also be helpful with deciding on a breed: Pickin a Chicken

I do hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

If you would like to share Pictures and Stories of your flock when they arrive, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out

Best wishes and good luck!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hi Jake and welcome to BYC. I wish you the best of luck with your coop build. It may be useful to visit your state thread to read up on what critters you are likely to have, in addition to taking your local climate into consideration, when you are building your coop / run.

Best wishes
Pork Pie

 

[rjohns39]

Hi Jake and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[Hope Hughes]

Hello
Welcome to BYC!!
So glad to have you here!!
Thanks for sharing your story!!
You have come to the right place.
There are many people on here that are ready to help in anyway they can!
The learning center also has alot of great information on it as well!
Enjoy!​

 

[N F C]

Hi Jake, it's nice to have you here! Try not to get too overwhelmed by all the info. Just take the bits and pieces that work best for you in your situation and go with it. You'll learn as you go along.

Best wishes!

 

[Latestarter]

As NFC said, take your time and enjoy the journey. It's not brain surgery. Chickens are the gateway livestock animal for a reason. Well actually, many reasons, they are easy to learn and keep, inexpensive (generally speaking), provide nice benefits (eggs/meat), take little space, and are generally friendly and good for/with kids. If you free range them they need less purchased food and help control unwanted bugs. With planning, you can let them fend for themselves for up to a week while you are out of town or on vacation and they'll be just fine (your neighbor might like this too, specially if you let them collect and keep the eggs!).

Hope you and your family have as much fun with them as mine have/has.

 

[chickadoodles]

Hello and welcome to BYC.

 

[Jake H]

thanks all! whats the prevailing thought on multiple breeds at the same time? is it better to just stick with one breed for the first go around, or would getting 2 or 3 cjicks from 2 different breeds work fine? one breed most likely being easter eggers.

 

[ronott1]

thanks all! whats the prevailing thought on multiple breeds at the same time? is it better to just stick with one breed for the first go around, or would getting 2 or 3 cjicks from 2 different breeds work fine? one breed most likely being easter eggers.

Welcome to Backyard chickens!

Mixing breeds is not much of a problem. Mixing bantams with big large fowl can be dangerous though.

 

[sourland]

Welcome to BYC. Much of poultry keeping is plain old common sense. Ask questions, study the forums, plan, and you will do fine. Build the coop far bigger than you think you need. These critters are addictive.