Hello All I am Brand new to the forum and Brand new to chickens!!(Besides eating them)

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darrylwill1 said:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
yes my wife and I are brand new to the point that we haven't bought any yet so we thought we would educate ourselves first by talking to those who already know what they are doing.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now? 0

(3) What breeds do you have? 0

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens? We just bought a house with 10acres that already has a small chicken coop and we have wanted to raise some chickens for both the eggs as well as eating for a healthier diet lifestyle.

(5) What are some of your other hobbies? Fishing and making music

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. My wife is on disability from a work accident and I work for myself and have for a good 35 years or so. I run a cabinet business. We have 9 children all grown with 11 grandkids and counting. Working on a new pet and are finally moving out to the country back to my roots.

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community? :D I found BYC on facebook today from the search bar and joined today because we want to know what we are doing.
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Welcome to BackYardChickens! So glad to have you here in our wonderful community of friendly, helpful, knowledgeable people!
 
AGirlWhoLovesChickens said:
Probably too much, sorry. 😅 Welcome! I probably should’ve saved this for later, but I guess it’s written out now. 🤦🏼‍♀️
I’ll give you some tips (a lot to take in, beware).

When buying chicks, I suggest don’t buy from a feed store or a hatchery if possible. It’ll make your life easier by not having dead chickens 2years +. I would start with maybe 10 chicks, preferably pullets, not Sexlinks, Isas, or Comets.
When putting your chicks in a brooder, I recommend a dog play pen with pine shavings, 20-24% chick starter, a brooder plate, water that is shallow so the chicks don’t drown (but a waterer from TS or something). And I keep them in there till 5 weeks.
1 week- 95 degrees F
2 weeks- 90 degrees F
3 weeks- 85 degrees F
4 weeks- 80 degrees F
5 weeks- 75 degrees F
Then for your coop, you need nesting boxes, roosting bars, and a well sheltered area which is your coop. Hardware cloth everywhere and lining the bottom of the coop for about a foot around the coop. You’ll need a run eventually, which is where the food and water will go, but that comes with the coop if you buy a good one.
Once 16-20 weeks old, I would switch to layer feed gradually and you should expect eggs soon.

Now, breeds I recommend are Barred Rocks. My personal favorite for laying eggs, with good sweet temperament. Ask around for breeders (who breed HERITAGE breeds) near you. Then get some then.
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Thank you so much for this. It's fantastic for us. A great rod map haha and we need it haha and I am open to all suggestions. I assume the Barred Rocks are fairly easy to raise?
 
darrylwill1 said:
Thank you so much for this. It's fantastic for us. A great rod map haha and we need it haha and I am open to all suggestions. I assume the Barred Rocks are fairly easy to raise?
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They are very sweet birds. Plus they lay lots of eggs. Spend lots of time with them and they’ll be fine and happy with you. But I’m serious about going to a breeder.
 

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