Greeting From Long Island

Greetings from Kansas, Steve & Lindsay, and ! Pleased you joined our flock! I think you are wise to research first - and you've come to the right place! There are entire forums on BYC devoted to questions 1, 2, and 3. They are Q & A but reading the old threads yields a lot of great information. I would suggest starting with the Learning Center (see link below). There will be some redundancy with the research you've already done but it is a good place to begin.

Learning Center:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/

The common pitfalls question...I guess everyone has different experiences but I seem to read a lot about two things that cause heartache or at least "I wish I had this or that differently," The first is predator proofing. Whether making you own coop or purchasing one, invest in hardware cloth - not chicken wire. CW is great at keeping chickens in but will not keep out a determined predator like a dog or raccoon. Use strong latches and hinges. Also, don't forget about flying predators - you may want to cover your run.

Another topic is coop and run size. Coops are recommended to be 4 sq. ft./bird and runs should be 10 sq. ft./bird. But a lot of folks wish they had made their set up bigger when they wanted to increase their flock size. Another good reason is in case they must be confined, bigger is better.

For the friendly breeds question...there are as many opinions as their are breeds, however, some are reckoned easier to tame. I have my biases (Buff Orps, Red Stars, Black Stars, Delawares, etc.). Below is a handy dandy chart where you can do some research on that topic. I wish you well on your poultry journey!!

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

 

Welcome to BYC.

 

Search the forums, and question away - the answers to your questions are here. Welcome to BYC.

 

From Kansas! Glad you joined us!

 

Good luck with your coop and chickens! I would suggest putting a netting or another chain link section on the top of the small kennel so that they can go there without the worry of a hawk. Those are my biggest problems around here.

Welcome!