Greetings From El Paso, Texas

[TexVet2011]

I'm originally from NE Pennsylvania. Seems everyone on my moms side of the family grew up on a farm. I grew up in town. I served 21 years in the Military and retired to Texas. Thurs, March 6th, I purchased 4 Barred Rock chicks; all are about 4-5 weeks old. I still need to build a coop, I plan to get started next week once I figure what I want/need. I live in town and we can have up to 5; 6-10 requires a permit but its only $35 annually.

 

[007Sean]

Howdy, and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.

Happy to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
You can find many ideas of coops here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance.9/

Thanks for joining our community!

 

[N F C]

Hi, congrats on the chicks! @007Sean has given you the perfect link to get coop/run ideas...good luck with your build and hope you'll share how it turns out.

 

[OrpingtonManiac]

Welcome to BYC!

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC. What branch of service did you serve? I'm retired Navy. Barred Rock's are my favs, you'll enjoy them for the long haul.

 

[Lovely Lettie]

Hello and welcome to BYC! It's great to have you here with us

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.

I still need to build a coop, I plan to get started next week once I figure what I want/need.

Open air coop for your hot climate. Research that and make sure you build with lots of space as they will need to be confined most if not all the time. Shoot for 4 sq ft in the coop and 15 sq ft in the run per bird. And make everything walk-in for easy maintenance. A solid roof on the run will make their lives much easier. Do not use any chicken wire to contain your birds. Use very well secured 1/2" hardware cloth along with a 2' predator apron that is very will pinned down on the outer edge with HD landscape staples. You don't need to cover the apron, just let the grass grow through it.

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC, and good luck with your plans!

 

[Debbie292d]

Hiya, and welcome to BYC!

Thank you for your service! We're glad you're here.

 

[muddy75]