Hello... I just adopted 22 Chickens and 1 Rooster and I have no idea what I am doing

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Elvis... That is an awesome name for a Rooster :)

The ladies are adjusting well I think I was in their run most of the day cleaning and playing with them. I did move my brooding hen into a dog crate and I don't think I did it long enough. I read you are suppose to do it for 3 days and I let her out after a few hours to see how she would do. She ate and played for a while then went back to the nest box and didn't want to move again. So I guess I am going to try again tomorrow and actually leave her in the crate for the 3 days.

I have been reading everything I can find online and I am thinking about buying a book but I didn't know which one. I will check out Storey's guide THANK YOU!!

Chickens are such interesting creatures! I am really enjoying them!!!

I believe they are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and I am not sure what else. I have an old storage shed that is roughly 13 x 13 so I think I am going to convert it into a hen house and then fence in a run area for them. How many nesting boxes do you think I need? I read about a dropping board and think that is great idea for under the perch... Do you have any other suggestions that you would suggest adding?


 
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The chicken house is called a coop. The contained outside area is called a run.

The girl you have sitting on eggs is broody...be sure she gets off that nest a couple times a day to eat, drink and poop. She's being protective of her nest when she hisses at you, just calmly and firmly reach in and pick her up and put her on the ground by the food (or you could put food and water next to her but she still needs to get up to poop).

Once my girls reached egg laying, I just kept a side dish of crushed oyster shell available at all times and felt they were getting enough grit from all the pecking around outside.

Once you get the old poop out, the chickens should do a pretty good job of working up the earth themselves so I wouldn't do anything other than clean it up. Chickens love to dig so be prepared to see some real ankle twister size holes!

If you haven't already done so, check out the Learning Center. There are a lot of helpful articles there that could answer questions you don't even know you have yet!
 
Nest boxes are 1 per 4 hens. You'll notice that multiple hens will often want to lay their eggs in the same box. Mine will even crawl on top of a broody hen and lay their eggs in her nest. If we do let them hatch eggs, we always mark them to keep track of any eggs that are being added. We have more boxes than we need, but it gives them options. We also use carpet in some of the boxes to see if the eggs will crack less often(they move the nest material around and sometimes move too much and lay on the solid wood). They didn't want to use the carpeted ones at first, but seem to prefer them, now. Your birds are beautiful! I think it sounds like you've been doing great work with it all! We added an inexpensive solar light for them in the winter-gives them longer hours with light. They need about 14 hours of light to produce eggs. It's not necessary, but nice. Our BOs laid without it all year and so did our Barreds the 1st laying season, but completely stopped laying this past winter, so we're going to try the light this year. Whenever more questions pop up just ask!
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Thank you so much for the information. So I am thinking maybe 8-10 boxes... In case we end up having some babies. I have been looking at the automatic doors for the chickens into the coop. I am just wondering if this will be necessary if I have a enclosed run? Meaning is it okay to have a open door for them to go into and out of all night or do you for sure want them locked inside the coop at night?
 
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A door is a must for predator and added weather protection. One search of predators and chicken coop videos convinced me of that! We only have a people-sized door right now, but we put a top and bottom lock on it. Raccoons can be especially good at simple locks. Chickens go to roost around sundown and don't stir until about sun up. We have major owl and hawk populations around here and ours don't have a covered run, so we wait until the sun has been up a bit before we open ours and go shut them in as soon as we see they're all in for the night. I do a head count every night once they're all roosting since we have so many-it's the only time I can get an accurate count! We've had one come up missing that we find dead behind the coop from a flying predator or old age or something. It's important to move the dead ones out before the other chickens start pecking at it or it attracts predators.
 
Oh, and I was a total bird nerd and looked up Rhode Island reds and I think that's exactly what you have-the pics I saw looked just like yours! They are a great bird!
 



Sorry for the late reply... Everyone is enjoying their new home and this has been an awesome journey for me. We have also adopted some turkeys and ducks.
 

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