Hello! New to chicken-raising!

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beilka said:
Hi everyone! I am a new chicken-raiser (is there a name for us?) and live in inner-city New Orleans where the neighborhoods traditionally have wild/feral chickens roaming free. In our wild group, we currently have a Rooster (Roux Roux), 3 juvenile roosters that are starting to make waves, one juvenile hen, two black hens and one brown hen. One of the black hens recently had 7 babies, 6 of which survived long enough for us to capture the group so we now have momma and babies in a coop. There aren't a lot of resources available I've noticed for this out-of-the-box way of acquiring backyard chickens. My friend who raises normal backyard hens directed me to this website for advice!

We live on 5 lots in the city, and our wild chicken group roost in our large live oak tree on the property and graze/forage in our yard during the day. I have had to contstuct all kinds of barricades around my vegetables to deter them from digging them all up! But its ok, we love our chickens! He have 3 big dogs that mostly ignore them, and a new group of feral kittens we are attempting to catch and re-release after being fixed. Needless to say...our house is a little farm! And that doesn't even include our 4 indoor cats, turtle (Archie), 2 fish tanks and a rambunctious 18 month old!

We have our hand full but we are excited about the prospect of raising these chicks as our own. We currently have them in a small commercially-built coop that was given to us from a friend, and that is inside one of those fence kennels like you would use for a large dog. Our plans are to put a roof on the kennel and chicken wire around the bottom to no-one can get out (or in!).

Please lend your advice. Anyone else out there trying to raise wild chickies? Would love to have some input and thank everyone for their advice!
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Welcome, I am from Shreveport, glad to have you with us!
 
Welcome to BYC! I’m so excited to see you joined! This wonderful community of poultry keepers and experts will be very happy to answer whatever questions you may have ☺️
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Welcome to BYC! The Diva is right, the chicken wire is a bad idea.
Invest in some hardware cloth, it is a life saver. I'd suggest putting it all the way up too. Skunks can climb and can get through tiny holes and so can snakes. Also, as your climate is hot and humid, you might consider turning part of the kennel into a coop with the front open for ventilation. Those prefab coops aren't very well ventilated and they are usually too small for more than two chickens.
Best of luck!
 

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