Hello from California

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Forrest

Forrest

Hatching
9 Years
Sep 17, 2010
4
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Hello everyone.

I have been lurking around here for a little while now, reading up on all the fantastic threads here. What a great community!

A little about me. I am in California. Two kids and no pets at the moment. Growing up I had tons of animals, dogs, cats, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, etc. So, I sort of know what I am getting my self into. Sort of.
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Recently my wife and I decided to get a couple of chickens for the backyard. Literally, 2. Our goal is to have some eggs and have them be good pets for us and the girls. Though we are in a suburban type setting, we have plenty of room for them and the weather is quite mild. The yard is all fenced in, so we have very little in the way of predators. Unfortunately I have a family of raccoons that visit my yard every night. I think they will have to be "discouraged" from coming back.

I am now trying to decide if I should build a coop, or purchase one of those cheap ones off of ebay or amazon. I have about a 500 dollar budget for the coop/run so I can't go real extravagant, but I want to make sure that the quality will last at least for a few years. Anyone have any thoughts on those sub 500 dollar units on ebay and amazon? Is it a good starter or should I stay away?

Think that is pretty much it for now. Looking forward to participating here.

thanks!
 
Hi from the Central Coast of California. Welcome. You could probably build a coop for that amount and be happy with it. Make is secure, raccoons are really strong. We lock up our girls every night in a small henhouse with a cement floor. I wasn't taking any chances. Best of luck in your new hobby. Your family will love these entertaining creatures!
 
Hi all.

Thanks for the welcome.


I was wondering about Craigslist. Do I need to worry about used coops? What if the previous chickens were sick? Is that not something I should worry about?
 
Welcome! Glad to have you here with us!
I built a small 3' deep x 5' wide x 4' high with a gable-style roof and a 8' x 8' run for around $200.00. You may want to check with relatives, friends, Home Construction sites, etc... to see if they have some scrap lumber that they need "hauled away". I was given some left over metal roofing for my small coop and it worked great! One thing that I would suggest is to be sure and cover the top of the run. Raccoons love chickens and so do Possums. Here in Arkansas almost everything likes to eat chickens!
 
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Yes you should worry about sick chickens, I don't know how you would disinfect a coop, but our local CL also sells plenty of new coops too. Don't forget to ask around for people who might be interested in building for you as well if you don't want to take on the task. You can also advertise on CL yourself that your looking for a coop or someone who might like to build one. Ebay also offers plans for coops is you would like to build, I'm just thinking of ways that you can stretch your Money....Good luck with whatever you choose.
 

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