Hello from Jamestown, SC

Good morning from Jamestown, SC. Located 45 miles North of Charleston, and close to McClellanville and Moncks Corner. We live on 8 acres in the middle of the Francis Marion National Forest. We're fairly rural - nearest Tractor supply is about 30 miles away, nearest grocery store is 25 miles. No neighbors, except for the bears, deer, bobcat, fox, raccoons, opossums, and bald eagles. Thought I just joined this site, I've been wanting/researching chickens for over a year. By day, we are sedentary office types - I'm a database administrator and hubby works for the Navy.

This is our first attempt at chickens or any type of farm animal, though we're pretty outdoorsy in other ways. I purchased a Urban Coop duplex on Craigslist, and am in the process of building a 12x16 run. We started out with ambitions of cutting down pine trees, stripping the bark, treating them with copper brown and building the coop like the pioneers would have (lol), but then realized it would take probably 2 months for the pine posts to dry. We didn't want to wait that long, so we are building it out of 4 inch round fence posts, 1/2" hardware cloth and PVC. Dug a 12 inch trench all the way around, buried the hardware cloth, and added bricks and chunks of wood in the hopes of stopping any diggers. We will save the cut posts for another day and another project (another coop!). I hope to make use of the endless supply of wood chips that we generate as we're slowly thinning the woods around our house.

I am guilty of loving everyone's chickens on this site, so I wanted our first flock to be a variety. But hubby thought it would be easier to go with one type (Barred Rocks) to start with. A compromise was the Plymouth Rock mix. All Rocks for him, but at least a few different colors for me.

My first order of chicks ships *today*. If I were to order again I'd do it differently. I ordered the Plymouth Rock mixture Straight run - $2.80 a piece. Individual Buff Rocks, Plymouth Rocks and Barred Rocks are all about $2.30 a piece. They offer the pricier Partridge Rocks, but they will not have any until May. So I paid more for the mix that *might* have Partridge Rocks, knowing that I wouldn't get any. Duh me! I should have just ordered a few of buff, barred and Plymouth and saved $7. Got a call from the hatchery today saying they don't have any buffs, so it will be 12 Barred and 3 white. oh well, that's the chance you take I guess when ordering the mix. Just leaves us for more chickens later!

I'm going to turn the Urban Coop run extension (54x52) into a brooder and keep outside on our deck, using the heating pad cave for warmth, moving them into their permanent home hopefully around 4 weeks. We ordered straight run (min 15) with the intention of eating the excess roosters - our goal is to have about 9 hens. I'd eventually love to get a few turkeys and a heritage breed pig (American guinea hog) from a breeder who lives down the road and maybe some rabbits. But, one step (critter) at a time.
So much good information here! it's nice to meet everyone.

Robin