Hello everyone!!

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cajun chicken

cajun chicken

Songster
Apr 6, 2015
359
58
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Central City, LA
Hello to all! I live in the deep south, Baton Rouge to be exact. My family had chickens when I was a kid but it has been quite a while since I've raised chicks. I recently built a coop and started a small flock for me and my family to raise and have a little fun with. We got 5 barred rocks, 5 RI reds, and 2 silkie from the local Co-op about 2 months ago, all 5 day old chicks. They lived in my spare bathroom for a month until they outgrew the space a few weeks back. I was finally able to finish the coop and pen last week and they are enjoying it thoroughly. We try to let them free range as much as possible while we are home and they love scratching around all the trees and shrubs in my yard. Here are a couple of pics of the coop and the chicks - I've already gotten some valuable info from this site.........BYC is awesome!!!

 
Hi :welcome

Glad you could join the flock! Have loved reading your intro and your coop pics are great. Your chicks look very happy scratching around there. So pleased BYC has been so helpful for you already in getting lots of great info , it really is the place for all the learning.
Be sure to ask any questions you may have, everyone here to help and very friendly. Wishing you the very best of luck with your chicken adventure.
Enjoy BYC and all the chicken chat :frow
 
Hello! Your pictures are so adorable! I love your coop, too! I'm impressed with your outstanding building skills!
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And I totally agree, BYC is awesome! I've just recently joined and I've already learned some extremely useful information!
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Best of luck to you and your flock!
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Welcome to Backyard Chickens. I see you have a young chicken wrangler. You have a nice setup. I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't mention chicken wire will keep your birds inside but, do nothing to keep predators out. It is flimsy and any predator worth it's salt can tear it apart. 1/2" Hardware cloth costs more but, lasts much longer and if securely fastened to strong framework, will deflect all but the strongest predators.

Predator attacks can come from below (digging under) above (hawks & climbers) ground level - snakes etc. Raccoons are notorious for finding weak spots to push aside. The love to snag body parts and bite them off. They cause horrendous wounds, and generally death.
 
I agree with you. The first time I tried to raise chicks, I had six of them. I had them in a pen in the field behind my house. It worked for a while, then one morning I got up to find that 4/6 chicks had been brutally murdered, leaving behind feather after feather. It was terrible, I literally cried. I would hate to hear about this happening to anyone else, so you may need to do something in preparation for any type of predator. Maybe you could dig down a few inches around the perimeter of your coop and put some wire, this was recommended to me when my chicks were killed. Good luck!
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drumstick diva said:
Welcome to Backyard Chickens. I see you have a young chicken wrangler. You have a nice setup. I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't mention chicken wire will keep your birds inside but, do nothing to keep predators out. It is flimsy and any predator worth it's salt can tear it apart. 1/2" Hardware cloth costs more but, lasts much longer and if securely fastened to strong framework, will deflect all but the strongest predators.

Predator attacks can come from below (digging under) above (hawks & climbers) ground level - snakes etc. Raccoons are notorious for finding weak spots to push aside. The love to snag body parts and bite them off. They cause horrendous wounds, and generally death.
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Yeah I totally agree with you about chicken wire being sub-standard. We have foxes, raccoons, coyotes, tons of chicken hawks and even the occasional bald eagle, believe it or not! For now, I have 18 inches of chicken wire buried all the way around the bottom of the pen and the little shed attached. It's about 4 inches deep. I plan on adding the hardware cloth on the bottom half of the pen and bury it also. Also not pictured, I installed one of those solar flood lights from harbor freight with a motion detector hoping that it could possibly deter a predator.
 

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