from California. You will be so glad you joined, hope you get your chickens soon! Its better to get them as chicks then raise them untill there full grown, so you can get the full experience. There will be a time, either when you first have chickens, or after years of experience, every thing that can possibly go wrong, goes wrong
. I remember losing 6 chickens a night for like a week, rooster killing new hens, going away for a week, and coming back to find out my cousin forgot to feed every body, Baby chicks freezing to death because their mom got eaten, and me not knowing after it's too late
. But after you get past that bump, nothing but good happens after that, because you learn from your mistakes. But usualy people learn from other peoples mistakes before it happens to them, but it was too bad for me, because when I first started keeping chickens, I did'nt know about this website, so I had to learn everything the hard way. Fortunately for you, you're already a member and don't even have chickens yet, so I would advise you to search every part of this forum, and read other peoples stories, and learn from their mistakes. Not every chicken problem is on this website(but there like amiilliooon that are) You might encounter new problems of your own, so have fun with it and be prepared!