sammsfarm99

In the Brooder
Sep 4, 2019
2
26
19
I am new to farming in general i have had friends who have raised chickens and my boyfriend grew up raising chickens but i grew up in the city. I just moved an may and my house came with an already made chicken coop. As of right now i am trying to get as much info as possible so that i will be ready next spring and get some chickens. I am planing on getting 4 chickens as my coop is large but my yard is small. i want different types of chickens and i want chickens that have a high egg count. right now i am considering a Black australorp, silver laced wyandotte, blue laced red wyandotte, and probably a rode island red or buff orpington.
here are some pics of the coup that i have i just cleared out all the dead weeds. i am going to plant grass inone corner with the grass box and hardwarecloth on top which i have seen a lot of people on this group post about hopefully that will attract bugs. we also put our wood pile next to the yard which should bring in bugs and protect one side of the yard from weather. as you can see form the picture because of the tree and the wood pile most of the ward is in the shade. i can take the piece of siding down which would open up the yard to a lot more sun.
i would love any advice as to what to add to the coop or the yard as i have until next march before i can get chicks.
CFDC13D2-5D50-4B69-9F38-441C48F9ADF3.jpeg E2269C81-1C0B-4627-A932-36EAE3414CFA (1).jpeg 826BDD85-2A9F-46C3-A146-7CDDA7C96DC7.jpeg 5AFF8284-F573-4A3B-85E4-43B4B6C36B86.jpeg
now that that is out of the way. i moved to the country to be able to do small scale farming. i am starting small with the chickens then i want to move to meat chickens and start a small fiber farm with angora goats and rabbits. my main hobby/passion is rescue work all animals but i specialize in dogs, cats and reptiles. for money i am a dog groomer/vacation boarding. I live in northeast Washington about and hour north of Spokane.
i found BYC when looking up how to raise meat chickens and the best way to raise them healthy on a somewhat limited amount of space. since i am getting closer to getting chickens and every time i look something up i end up coming hear i figured i might as well join to get questions answered better.
 
I am new to farming in general i have had friends who have raised chickens and my boyfriend grew up raising chickens but i grew up in the city. I just moved an may and my house came with an already made chicken coop. As of right now i am trying to get as much info as possible so that i will be ready next spring and get some chickens. I am planing on getting 4 chickens as my coop is large but my yard is small. i want different types of chickens and i want chickens that have a high egg count. right now i am considering a Black australorp, silver laced wyandotte, blue laced red wyandotte, and probably a rode island red or buff orpington.
here are some pics of the coup that i have i just cleared out all the dead weeds. i am going to plant grass inone corner with the grass box and hardwarecloth on top which i have seen a lot of people on this group post about hopefully that will attract bugs. we also put our wood pile next to the yard which should bring in bugs and protect one side of the yard from weather. as you can see form the picture because of the tree and the wood pile most of the ward is in the shade. i can take the piece of siding down which would open up the yard to a lot more sun.
i would love any advice as to what to add to the coop or the yard as i have until next march before i can get chicks.
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now that that is out of the way. i moved to the country to be able to do small scale farming. i am starting small with the chickens then i want to move to meat chickens and start a small fiber farm with angora goats and rabbits. my main hobby/passion is rescue work all animals but i specialize in dogs, cats and reptiles. for money i am a dog groomer/vacation boarding. I live in northeast Washington about and hour north of Spokane.
i found BYC when looking up how to raise meat chickens and the best way to raise them healthy on a somewhat limited amount of space. since i am getting closer to getting chickens and every time i look something up i end up coming hear i figured i might as well join to get questions answered better.
Hello and welcome to Backyard Chickens! So glad you decided to join the flock :woot
Wow that is alot you have taken on and succeeded with. I just started my chicken/turkey farm last year in Massachusetts, by Cape Cod. I also do meat birds every 2 months. That's a ton of work.
1st advise, take all meat birds, at the same time. I have lost many to almost like a depression, when I span it out over 2-3days. Meat birds, poop none stop and smell horid!!!!!! The fill a coop with poop, in a day. Flies for ever. So best to free range them.. Poop in your yard is better than in the coop or the run.. Fyi.
Oh and welcome, I'm new too
 

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:welcome

One thing you can do with your coop is reinforce the chicken wire with hardware cloth. That stuff keeps predators out much better than chicken wire. The building you've been cleaning out will make a nice coop for you!

Thanks for joining, make yourself at home :)
 
Wow that is alot you have taken on and succeeded with. I just started my chicken/turkey farm last year in Massachusetts, by Cape Cod. I also do meat birds every 2 months. That's a ton of work.
1st advise, take all meat birds, at the same time. I have lost many to almost like a depression, when I span it out over 2-3days. Meat birds, poop none stop and smell horid!!!!!! The fill a coop with poop, in a day. Flies for ever. So best to free range them.. Poop in your yard is better than in the coop or the run.. Fyi.
Oh and welcome, I'm new too

thanks for the advice on harvesting at the same time. the coop i have now is defiantly only for my "pet" laying chickens. i have to build an area for the meat birds. I am 1.5 acres that is fully fences so i figure i can fence off 1/4 acre inside of that to free range any meat birds i decide to do. My biggest thing is that up here i can only get birds for February until April so i have to either have a lot of meat birds at once and it will be crazy for a couple of months or only have a small amount and stiff have to buy form the store for part of the year. but i am looking forward to the experience
 
Hi! :frow Welcome to BYC! I love your choices of chickens. If I were going to choose between RIR and BO, I would take the BO. First, it's my favorite chicken and secondly, RIR are sometimes aggressive. But, not always, so either choice could be awesome. BO's are just the sweetest birds. Good luck on your new adventure!
 
thanks for the advice on harvesting at the same time. the coop i have now is defiantly only for my "pet" laying chickens. i have to build an area for the meat birds. I am 1.5 acres that is fully fences so i figure i can fence off 1/4 acre inside of that to free range any meat birds i decide to do. My biggest thing is that up here i can only get birds for February until April so i have to either have a lot of meat birds at once and it will be crazy for a couple of months or only have a small amount and stiff have to buy form the store for part of the year. but i am looking forward to the experience
We are on 1 Acer. 1/4 of that is for our pet chickens n Turkey. We have a smaller seperate coop for the meat birds, which we let out daily to free range in our regular yard because the have 800acre forest in our backyard. Which they use the trees n shrubs to hide from hawks. Than they walk themselves back to the coop at night for their pellets (until they can't walk) only takes about 8wks till they start to over eat and not walk. We order our birds 10 at a time every 2months. Its a half day to full day affair to take 10birds, from coop to freezer.. But Hoover Hatchery will ship at no cost, so if our local chick supply store doesnt have them, we just order them from the hatchery. Doing the birds on my own, its an exhusting day with just 10...
 

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