Howdy All,
Juts got registered here - due to my crazy brother giving my 10 year old daughter her birthday present today - a "Red Bark II" chicken coop & run. Yeah. Seriously.
He's fairly new to chickens also, maybe 6 months. His first 7 hens got eaten during the daytime hours, most likely by a Bobcat or Fox. We're NW of the Houston area in a fairly rural area.
My daughter and I have been DISCUSSING the possibility of getting a few hens at some point, so it looks like my brother just accelerated that notion. I'll be assembling the coop in the next day or two, but I absolutely do want to build a decent sized run, as I don't believe in keeping the animals, - that cooped up. The packaging on the Red Barn II say this can house 5-7 hens, which I think is abuse.
My brother is going to give us 2 or 3 young (~4 months old) Americana hens to get us started.
We have a LOT to learn about these critters, but are really looking forward to the amazing quality of "farm" eggs that we used to get from my brother. I can hardly eat the store bought ones anymore after being "ruined" by my brother's eggs.
So, soon we assembly the Coop, then I need to get started on some type of Run design, but it's got to have some netting (or other cover) on the top so the wild predators don't eat our hens.
I also need to get a better understanding on their feed, as the opinions out there on the web are wide an greatly varied on feeding.
Please feel free to throw suggestions at us to help with this endeavor.
Thanks for any help.
TWG
Juts got registered here - due to my crazy brother giving my 10 year old daughter her birthday present today - a "Red Bark II" chicken coop & run. Yeah. Seriously.
He's fairly new to chickens also, maybe 6 months. His first 7 hens got eaten during the daytime hours, most likely by a Bobcat or Fox. We're NW of the Houston area in a fairly rural area.
My daughter and I have been DISCUSSING the possibility of getting a few hens at some point, so it looks like my brother just accelerated that notion. I'll be assembling the coop in the next day or two, but I absolutely do want to build a decent sized run, as I don't believe in keeping the animals, - that cooped up. The packaging on the Red Barn II say this can house 5-7 hens, which I think is abuse.
My brother is going to give us 2 or 3 young (~4 months old) Americana hens to get us started.
We have a LOT to learn about these critters, but are really looking forward to the amazing quality of "farm" eggs that we used to get from my brother. I can hardly eat the store bought ones anymore after being "ruined" by my brother's eggs.
So, soon we assembly the Coop, then I need to get started on some type of Run design, but it's got to have some netting (or other cover) on the top so the wild predators don't eat our hens.
I also need to get a better understanding on their feed, as the opinions out there on the web are wide an greatly varied on feeding.
Please feel free to throw suggestions at us to help with this endeavor.
Thanks for any help.
TWG
and Welcome to Backyard Chickens.
to have you here with us. Enjoy your time here at BYC!
