Howdy From Texas . . .

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TexasWineGuy said:
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
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Heyyyyy welcome!! I’m also in Texas and the NW Houston area, but in a Bryan LOL everything south of Dallas is NW Houston to some :)

Good luck with your girls!
 
awesopme.jpg

You will love the hens!

It will give your Son some chores to do each day too
 
Thanks to all for the welcome!

Here's the COOP that we will be assembling. As I said in the OP, I plan to get my daughter started with 2 hens. Once I get a Run built, I will consider adding one or two more. I want to be very conservative with their living quarters - plenty of room.

I'm also hoping to make the Coop and the Run mobile so I can change locations to give them some fresh grass to live on.

My daughter loves the fact that the Americana's lay blue eggs!

TWG
 
Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our community. I think once you put that little coop together you'll understand why more than two adult sized chickens would not fit comfortably. Check out the coop construction threads here and look into chicken tractors. Sounds like that is more what you are interested in. And, good call. Start with those two chickens and get some experience before getting in too deep too fast. Best of luck with your new chicken adventures.
 
Wee Farmer Sarah said:
Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you decided to join our community. I think once you put that little coop together you'll understand why more than two adult sized chickens would not fit comfortably. Check out the coop construction threads here and look into chicken tractors. Sounds like that is more what you are interested in. And, good call. Start with those two chickens and get some experience before getting in too deep too fast. Best of luck with your new chicken adventures.
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Wee,

Bingo. Yes, I plan on making some type of tractor assembly for the Coop, and I also plan on building a Run that is light enough to be portable. I really do not want to jam these animals into a small space.

Funny - my barber , an old country, old lady, has about a dozen hens. She sells eggs at her shop. Nice. When I asked her a few questions about keeping laying hens her response was, "Don't piss them off or they will stop laying."

That begged the question, "How do you piss off a chicken". I could clearly see that this conversation was about to get very interesting..

Her response (I will abbreviate...) was, "do not crowd them, do not spook them, keep their coop clean, and most important don't feed them junk. They need a high quality diet to lay eggs, and a better quality diet to lay lots of eggs."

I believe her, so I will continue to do our research.

Many thanks to all who have welcomed us here. Looking forward to some high quality farm eggs!

TWG
 
cheekychick3 said:
Hi and :welcome you will learn loads, and everyone is friendly. Think your brother
bought the best birthday present ever, your daughter will love her new pets.
Bless her. :frow
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cheekychick3 said:
Hi and :welcome you will learn loads, and everyone is friendly. Think your brother
bought the best birthday present ever, your daughter will love her new pets.
Bless her. :frow
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Cheeky,

Greeting from across the Pond!

I don't consider these as "pets". They're "Production"!

TWG ;)
 

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