Hi - brand new... suggestions welcomed

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Welcome :welcome I live in town, have similar size yard. Backyard is fenced in, started with 5 chickens, currently have 8. Due to wildlife in neighboring conservancy and lots of snow and freezing cold I opted for stationary walk in coop and run. The girls have the run of the yard a lot of the time but spend quite a bit of time in the roofed run. I do have a compost pile as well. I use poop board under roost, scoop daily and it goes in the compost pile. Coop doesn’t get stinky and the compost hasn’t been an issue either. Neighbors compost is close to mine and also not smelly. My coop and run can be detached from each other and moved (although not easy but each is 6x6). Some of my hens can be noisy for a few minutes here and there, mostly ‘egg song’ but the neighbors don’t mind. All my bedding material and chicken manure goes in the compost pile, the girls get access at times to ‘work’. Use it in vegetable beds when ready.
 
KristiK22 said:
HI there! Brand new here :) We live outside of DC and have to pay a heft $450 fee to get a chicken permit :( BUT if we can "build a plan" for our yard, we are willing to do it.
First:4 kids, 1 dog. Not a big yard. Fenced in. We want the chickens to work the yard permaculture style for our next-spring garden.
Kids want to be a part. WE homeschool and watch/learn a lot from you tubers. We currently have a butterfly garden and front-yard square foot garden.
We want the chickens to work the land, to learn from the process, for fun and for nutritional benefits. We have one very special needs kiddo as well some food intolerances. We need corn-free, pastured eggs and align mostly with a Weston A Price kind of diet.
We are considering a coop verses a chicken tractor... We will move in a few years (military) so that is to be considered. We would like to keep a compost pile over the winter for the chickens to work as well. We have a back corner area of the yard that does back up to fencing and neighbors but also dense forest/brush and it's untamed area of our yard. This long run up the fence is the future garden and then the back corner we hope to be compost but all in all chicken area.
ANY tips?! I want family friendly layers BUT I MUST have clean and quiet to sell the neighbors on the idea...
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Welcome to BackYardChickens! So glad to have you here in our wonderful community of friendly, helpful, knowledgeable people!
 
Hi Kristi and welcome to BYC :frow We're so happy you've decided to join us:ya

Fairfax County is not the most chicken friendly county in VA, but yes you can make it work. As you move your birds around you'll get a feel for how far to let them eat down the grass. Watch a couple of Joel Salatin videos on youtube on how he does his meat birds, you can follow the same concept with your layers. Yes you can have a compost pile as well. I spent 20 years in Springfield, before moving to Tennessee. We had a 1/4 acre lot in a subdivision as well. We had a mix of raised beds, square foot and regular garden beds. All of the garden's were edible including grapes and berries. Oh, and just for curiosity, what branch are you folks in? I'm retired AF.
 

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