Hello, Back Yard Chickens! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I am planning to get some chickens this spring. They will mostly be pets, but we'll enjoy the eggs, too! I've decided that the breeds I think sound most promising are silver or gold laced Wyandottes, light Brahmas, or black Australorps. A friend of mine works at a pet store, and they're planning to order some chicks from McMurray hatchery soon, so I will either get in on that order or talk to a feed store a little later in the spring.
I'm planning to build an enclosure and coop in the back yard. We're still working on an exact design (and probably will be until we declare it finished!), but we're thinking something along the lines of this style: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=32956 (and thanks for all the pictures, everyone! They've been really helpful.) The whole enclosure should wind up being about 7 and a half feet by 6 or 8 feet. (One side is limited by the distance between the vegetable garden and the distance from the neighbors' house that would require us to have their written permission. We'll need to get the permission of the neighbors on the back in any case, but I figure the fewer people we need to cooperate with the less likely something will go wrong later.) The chickens will be spending most of their time in the run, but they'll get some supervised free-range time as long as they don't tear up the garden too badly.
The maximum legal number of hens in my town is 4. I think it might make sense to start with 2 chicks; then, if their egg production drops off in a few years, we can get 2 more and still have enough eggs while the first two enjoy a dignified retirement. Does that make sense, or would it be better to start with 3 or 4 chicks in case something happens to one? I worry about introducing just one younger bird later in case it gets picked on, or having to go back to store-bought eggs if all the hens stop laying at once, but people seem to have a lot of different experiences around production dropping with age, so maybe I don't need to worry about it. Most of the posts on this forum encourage lots of chicks, but we've got such a low legal limit I don't have a lot of margin for adding more later, and I won't be willing to get rid of older birds to make room since I'll be attached to them.
Also, if anyone can recommend a particular feed store or veterinarian in the South Bay or Peninsula, I'd be obliged. My veterinary clinic is willing to look at pet chickens, and sees a lot of exotic birds, but no-one there has any actual experience with chickens.
I'm planning to build an enclosure and coop in the back yard. We're still working on an exact design (and probably will be until we declare it finished!), but we're thinking something along the lines of this style: https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=32956 (and thanks for all the pictures, everyone! They've been really helpful.) The whole enclosure should wind up being about 7 and a half feet by 6 or 8 feet. (One side is limited by the distance between the vegetable garden and the distance from the neighbors' house that would require us to have their written permission. We'll need to get the permission of the neighbors on the back in any case, but I figure the fewer people we need to cooperate with the less likely something will go wrong later.) The chickens will be spending most of their time in the run, but they'll get some supervised free-range time as long as they don't tear up the garden too badly.
The maximum legal number of hens in my town is 4. I think it might make sense to start with 2 chicks; then, if their egg production drops off in a few years, we can get 2 more and still have enough eggs while the first two enjoy a dignified retirement. Does that make sense, or would it be better to start with 3 or 4 chicks in case something happens to one? I worry about introducing just one younger bird later in case it gets picked on, or having to go back to store-bought eggs if all the hens stop laying at once, but people seem to have a lot of different experiences around production dropping with age, so maybe I don't need to worry about it. Most of the posts on this forum encourage lots of chicks, but we've got such a low legal limit I don't have a lot of margin for adding more later, and I won't be willing to get rid of older birds to make room since I'll be attached to them.
Also, if anyone can recommend a particular feed store or veterinarian in the South Bay or Peninsula, I'd be obliged. My veterinary clinic is willing to look at pet chickens, and sees a lot of exotic birds, but no-one there has any actual experience with chickens.
