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Kasey

Kasey

Chirping
6 Years
Feb 10, 2013
290
16
91
Waco, TX
Hi All,

My name is Kasey and I live in Waco, TX. I am new to the chicken world but very eager to get started.

We bought our first house last August on 1.5 acres in the country about 20 mins outside of Waco. I grew up spending summers on my grandparents farm where they raised all sorts of barn animals, including laying hens. So chickens aren't totally new to be but I have never kept or raised them myself. We are converting a barn/shed, previously used to house the prior owners children's fair pigs, into a coop for my chickens.

We have leveled the dirt and are going to put up chicken wire next and hang my recently purchased metal, 10 hole nesting boxes, in preparation for my chicks. I am hoping to get them by the end of the month or early next month

I hope that this will prove to be a great source of info for me! :)

I look forward to meeting/talking with everyone!

Kasey
 
Greetings from Kansas, Kasey, and
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! Pleased you joined us! You have come to the right place as BYC is the best resource around for chicken keeping. Below a good link to get you started - it's the Learning Center - where you can learn the ins and outs of chicken maintenance.

I want to comment on two things from your post. Chicken wire: this is great for keeping the chickens in but isn't good for keeping predators out. Determined raccoons, coyotes, and dogs can break through. Most disturbingly, a raccoon will reach through the holes of CW, hook a chicken and eat it from the other side of the wire! What a way to go, huh? Look up hardware cloth (heavy welded wire mesh). You will want to put around the ground perimeter and up 16" or so - some even bury it around the edge to keep diggers from burrowing in.

The other is the number of nest boxes. Although I don't know how many birds you are getting, I have 18 hens and have 6 nest boxes. Three never get used. Two of the remaining three get about 90% of the eggs layed in them. So, if you are only getting a few hens, you might be able to free up some coop space by cutting down on the nest boxes. Anyway, best of luck in your chicken journey and have FUN!!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/
 
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. I am a duck person but suffice it to say you have come to the right place for answers and a lot of wonderful people to share with. Best of luck!
 
Thanks for the advice! I have looked at the hardware mesh and have considered putting it along the inside interior of the coop. However, I'm not too concerned about dogs or coyotes because of the way the pens are set up. Because these are existing pens we will be putting the chicken wire onto hog panels that are already there. They would have to go through two fences to get to them. One that is hog panel and the other that is hog panel with chicken wire. We do plan on burying wire around the coop though. Probably a foot deep.
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I am planning on getting a dozen hens to start with. ;) I'm very excited.
 

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