Greetings from Northern Michigan!

[ValerieJ]

Hi! . Welcome to BYC!

I’d like 4, but I’m thinking about purchasing 6 chicks just in case.

Chicken math is real! build your coop to accommodate twice the amount of chickens you think you want now. Seriously. I have 4 coops now because I didn't do this.

There are a lot of predators in the woods, so free ranging will definitely mean you'll lose the occasional chicken. My neighbor free ranges in the woods here and he loses his entire flock every year. I like the tractor idea much better, but then I have a serious aversion to feeding my chickens to the wildlife.And it seems that everyone loves chicken.

So smart of you to plan ahead like this.

 

[RaZ]

Welcome!

We have a Michigan thread here with lots of great people and good advice. Check us out.
Your dogs could be a problem. Especially if they free range while the dogs are out. Some pups are okay around chickens (like my older Bella) and some can't resist the hunt (Like my 2yo pup).
Your coop should be like Fort Know with a run strong enough to keep out predators and curious dogs.

Good luck.

 

[Cephalo]

Welcome!
I am sorry to say that your plan of four chickens is not going to work. Forty may also be too small of a number. Don’t fear the chicken math, embrace it! Let it happen, and you will feel peace.
Being serious, it will be easier to start with a dozen. Not only will your girls enjoy more companionship, but the rooster will be happier too. Those dogs you mentioned? We all have ideas on what will work. It is up to you to decide what works for your situation. Having extra chickens means a deadly mistake won’t make the others lonely.
I sincerely believe you will flow into other types of poultry and even goats and cows (even cows come in mini size now). That will be an exciting time too! If you start with a large coop, the transition will go smoother.
I cannot find my picture of tunnels around the garden, but this is the idea.
View attachment 1975120 View attachment 1975121

Somehow you already know me. I already want more chickens and other animals (merino sheep for sure and a highland cow? Yes please). My husband wants a trout pond, so I smell ducks in my future.

I’m hoping that introducing the chicks to the dogs early will help. Get them used to fluffy nuggets early on. Plus one dog is allergic to chicken anyway!

I love the idea of chicken tunnels and it’s definitely going to be a great solution once I admit that free ranging will result in dead flowers and predation. Of course, I’ll still give it a supervised shot.

Thanks so much for the advice!

 

[Cephalo]

Welcome!

We have a Michigan thread here with lots of great people and good advice. Check us out.
Your dogs could be a problem. Especially if they free range while the dogs are out. Some pups are okay around chickens (like my older Bella) and some can't resist the hunt (Like my 2yo pup).
Your coop should be like Fort Know with a run strong enough to keep out predators and curious dogs.

Good luck.

I will definitely check that out! Yes, they might be an issue. Which is why I’d like to start small in case it doesn’t work out for us...then again, maybe I should start big!

 

[HeyHeyWW]

Welcome to BYC!And congratulations on your marriage!

I do suggest you get a couple more chicks than you plan on getting. Most of the time, something happens to one of the chicks. I hate when it happens but it just does. so yeah, it's best to get at least six chicks.

It is best to let them free roam. They are much, much happier when they are free roaming and will be happy to take care of the bugs. But, they will most likely eat up all your flowers. They are never full and will eat anything, so I don't think that your flower garden will survive.

If one of your dogs is hostile towards chickens, then you should probably get her into some training. What I did with my old dog who loved to hunt chickens was that I would give my chickens a separate field, apart from my dog, so she wouldn't hurt them. So if you for some reason don't want to do training and still fear that your dog will hurt them, then you should separate them with fences. You have 30 acres so you have a lot of space to do that!

About the winters, I may not be the best person to look for with that. I live in Florida, and it never snows over here. The winters are very mild, too. I'm sure someone else will help with that! Just so you know, my chickens have survived temperature drops to 30 degrees farhenheit. I'm sure where you live, it drops even more but just letting you know that they could survive through that.

So if you need any help, feel free to post questions here! This is what BYC is for, to help others with their poultry! You will have a great time raising new chicks and I hope all goes well! Feel free to post pictures and videos about your chickens and on the construction of the coop.

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Build a coop and run much larger than you anticipate needing. I highly recommend a solid roof run that is predator proof so you never have to close the door between the coop and run. Send a circuit to the coop if you are familiar with basic wiring. Something that you can winterize. Like this:

 

[Cephalo]

Welcome to BYC!And congratulations on your marriage!

I do suggest you get a couple more chicks than you plan on getting. Most of the time, something happens to one of the chicks. I hate when it happens but it just does. so yeah, it's best to get at least six chicks.

It is best to let them free roam. They are much, much happier when they are free roaming and will be happy to take care of the bugs. But, they will most likely eat up all your flowers. They are never full and will eat anything, so I don't think that your flower garden will survive.

If one of your dogs is hostile towards chickens, then you should probably get her into some training. What I did with my old dog who loved to hunt chickens was that I would give my chickens a separate field, apart from my dog, so she wouldn't hurt them. So if you for some reason don't want to do training and still fear that your dog will hurt them, then you should separate them with fences. You have 30 acres so you have a lot of space to do that!

About the winters, I may not be the best person to look for with that. I live in Florida, and it never snows over here. The winters are very mild, too. I'm sure someone else will help with that! Just so you know, my chickens have survived temperature drops to 30 degrees farhenheit. I'm sure where you live, it drops even more but just letting you know that they could survive through that.

So if you need any help, feel free to post questions here! This is what BYC is for, to help others with their poultry! You will have a great time raising new chicks and I hope all goes well! Feel free to post pictures and videos about your chickens and on the construction of the coop.

Thank you! I do love everyone’s encouragement to get more chicks and I most likely will.

10 of the 30 acres is across the street, so if the dogs were bad enough, they could be separated. In their older age, I *think* I can convince them that they are too old to play with chickens. Maybe.

Winters will be tricky, but I’ve started to plan that way ahead of time because it will take some thought. As I look harder at it, it seems like a summer coop and a winter coop would be great but I’m not making two!

 

[fldiver97]

Welcome Nice to have you here! Below is Scarlet, Black Australorp and Thelma, my 10 year old GLW during summer.
Bottom picture is a typical winter day, the walk in coop has a fully roof covered, hardware cloth sided walk in run attached. The run isn’t very large as the chooks spend a lot of time in the backyard but if the weather is really bad they will hang out in the snow free, shielded from wind run with access to the coop. I live in a small town but have a stretch of conservancy with wildlife behind the house. I am home when the girls have the run of the yard so I can hear any commotion. I also have 2 dogs, one is good with the chickens but the other can’t be trusted .... Veggies had to go in the front otherwise they were decimated. This has worked well for me for a decade now but I did loose a few chickens to predators and one to my previous dogs in the first couple of years. One fox attack a couple of years but I was home and one hen had only minor injuries. Compromising between ‘free ranging’ and enclosed run has worked great for us

 

[Cephalo]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
Build a coop and run much larger than you anticipate needing. I highly recommend a solid roof run that is predator proof so you never have to close the door between the coop and run. Send a circuit to the coop if you are familiar with basic wiring. Something that you can winterize. Like this:
View attachment 1975174

I like that idea a lot! My husband is handy, I just need to convince him that he loves chickens enough to work on chicken projects

 

[Cephalo]

Welcome Nice to have you here! Below is Scarlet, Black Australorp and Thelma, my 10 year old GLW during summer.
Bottom picture is a typical winter day, the walk in coop has a fully roof covered, hardware cloth sided walk in run attached. The run isn’t very large as the chooks spend a lot of time in the backyard but if the weather is really bad they will hang out in the snow free, shielded from wind run with access to the coop. I live in a small town but have a stretch of conservancy with wildlife behind the house. I am home when the girls have the run of the yard so I can hear any commotion. I also have 2 dogs, one is good with the chickens but the other can’t be trusted .... Veggies had to go in the front otherwise they were decimated. This has worked well for me for a decade now but I did loose a few chickens to predators and one to my previous dogs in the first couple of years. One fox attack a couple of years but I was home and one hen had only minor injuries. Compromising between ‘free ranging’ and enclosed run has worked great for us
View attachment 1975165 View attachment 1975167 View attachment 1975169 View attachment 1975170

This is so great! Thank you for sharing! This may be where I strike my balance, only time and experience will tell. Scarlet and Thelma are absolutely gorgeous!!! Those feathers are incredible. Oooo I’m so excited.