New to chickens and site

[Emmuh]

Hey everyone! This site has been a great resource to me starting up my small coop! I am brand new to this whole chicken thing. I recently cared for my friends chickens while she was out of town for 2 weeks and I decided, hey why not?

My Ladies: We purchased three - 3 month old ISA browns. Day 1 they already have varying personalities.
How did I find BackYardChickens.com? Various Google searches on how to start up my coop.
Family/Pets: We have 2 black cats, 2 dogs. All rescues! Working on proper introductions and training with my pups and the chickens. They were WAY too excited day 1 - decided to let everyone calm down and take it slow today after work. In my house is my father, my boyfriend, and every weekend - my step daughter (6 yrs. old). My step daughter LOVED my friends chickens so she is going to have a blast this weekend!

 

[Kiki]

Good morning and Welcome to BYC!
We are glad you joined.
This video should help you find your way around, enjoy!

 

[Pork Pie]

Hello and welcome to BYC

You'll find lots of info in the Learning Centre - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/learning-center.11/ and if you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

Each week, various topics are discussed, which can also be a great resource - https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive

You may wish to consider joining your state thread as it will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area - http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/270925/find-your-states-thread#post_3239224

All the best

CT

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Hey everyone! This site has been a great resource to me starting up my small coop! I am brand new to this whole chicken thing. I recently cared for my friends chickens while she was out of town for 2 weeks and I decided, hey why not?

My Ladies: We purchased three - 3 month old ISA browns. Day 1 they already have varying personalities.
How did I find BackYardChickens.com? Various Google searches on how to start up my coop.
Family/Pets: We have 2 black cats, 2 dogs. All rescues! Working on proper introductions and training with my pups and the chickens. They were WAY too excited day 1 - decided to let everyone calm down and take it slow today after work. In my house is my father, my boyfriend, and every weekend - my step daughter (6 yrs. old). My step daughter LOVED my friends chickens so she is going to have a blast this weekend!

Welcome to BYC!
Sounds like you have your hands full! Training our puppies to live in harmony with our chickens took some time and patience but it worked out eventually.
Post some pics of your flock! I like show and tell!

Anyway, you have tapped into a vast wealth of information by joining this site. I hope you find it as useful as I do. A bunch of great and friendly folks hear whom love to share their knowledge with lots compassion to spare..

From FC!​

 

[Emmuh]

Gatsby (larger dog) and Emma (small one) and my girls - names pending.

 

[waltonwannabe]

Welcome and let me say, you're gonna fill yourself with oodles of information here. I love this site. One of the best things I learned from this site was to use sand in my coop. My coop is a dirt floor. Originally I tried hay/straw. (Didn't like it. Too messy, especially if it's rainy weather.) I then tried pine wood shavings. (I liked that much better.) But then I read about using sand and thought that was a good idea. The important thing is to buy play yard sand. My coop is 10' x 10' and if I remember correctly I started with somewhere around 8 to 10 bags. (40 lb. bags)
With the hay as well as wood shavings I did not clean the coop everyday, but instead about once a week. All that rakin' and then shovelin' and dumpin' into a big trash can. Then dependin' on where you live, you've got all that mess to deal with. I live in the country and we have a dumpster. So no problem there.
Now with the sand I clean the coop every single day. (Except on an occasion that I'm out of town.) I've been doin' it for more than a year now and wouldn't do it any other way. I have one rooster and nine hens. Every mornin' (I don't work outside of the home so I have time in the a.m.) when I let the chickens out and feed them, I clean poop and it take all of about 10 minutes. I take a plastic grocery bag with me and use a kitty litter scoop to pick it up with. My first thought about doing it this way was, do I really want to bend over scoopin' poop. Well let me say, it is hands down the best way to clean a coop. Just my humble opinion on scoopin' poop in the coop.

Oh, and by the way, I use pine wood shavings in the nest and change that out every 2 to 4 weeks. Easy peesy.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Gatsby (larger dog) and Emma (small one) and my girls - names pending.