Howdy from Texas.

[Chick-N-Fun]

Welcome to our FUNomenal Community!

Best Wishes & Be Well!

 

[Grammy60]

Hello and welcome to BYC We are so happy you have joined us.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[Tankueray]

Welcome to BYC! We should warn you, chickens can be addictive.... chicken math is real!

Yep, already figuring that out and I haven't even gotten any yet! My coop designs are getting larger each time I read a new post.

 

[NatJ]

all the shiny things that trigger my ADHD.

I suggest you build a chicken coop--completely done--before you get any chickens.

It's fairly common for people to get cute baby chicks, raise them in a brooder in the house (cardboard box or plastic storage bin), and then have a problem because the chicks outgrow the brooder but the coop isn't done yet.

If you build the coop first, you have the option of brooding the chicks there instead of inside your house, and you can certainly move the chicks outside when you feel they are ready.

Of course after you use the coop for a while you will know how you should have built it differently, but a few weeks of having chicks in the house would not help much with that.

 

[Tankueray]

I suggest you build a chicken coop--completely done--before you get any chickens.

It's fairly common for people to get cute baby chicks, raise them in a brooder in the house (cardboard box or plastic storage bin), and then have a problem because the chicks outgrow the brooder but the coop isn't done yet.

If you build the coop first, you have the option of brooding the chicks there instead of inside your house, and you can certainly move the chicks outside when you feel they are ready.

Of course after you use the coop for a while you will know how you should have built it differently, but a few weeks of having chicks in the house would not help much with that.

I have one of those tiny big box store coops already, but now I realize it's ridiculously small. With the night creatures and um, crazy weather around here lately, brooding will be done on my heated porch.

I'm finding though, that if I don't order some chicks soon, I won't be able to get any until the heat of summer, and I'd rather have them older and acclimated by then. I also have a giant pile of 2x6's and 2x8's under one of the freak snowdrifts outside, it'll only take me a few days to build a coop once I MAKE UP MY MIND!

Backup plan is a hoop coop, I have everything for that already too. (I'm a maker, I have lots of spare parts sitting around.)

Worst case, there's a guy a few towns over advertising some nice used ones for a decent price, but he's literally a member of a cult, so I'll use that as a backup backup plan.

I'm pretty close to being good on an 8x10 or 6x10, now I'm trying to decide on where to put it; under a stand of trees 30 feet from the house, or up against the house, open to the fenced back yard with only one tree. I think I may have to make a new thread for that.

 

[Tankueray]

Well wouldn't ya know it.... Yesterday it was finally safe to drive into town and I was out of dog food. Tractor Supply was crazy, but right as I walked in I saw two 6 foot tall brooders and the beginnings of the chick days setup. It looks like they're going to be carrying a much larger selection this year.
Okay, got the dog food, the new Producer's Pride plate warmer, some rooster booster, puppy pads, and some new chicken patterned muck boots. The manager says they're supposed to get chicks in the first week of March.

Then I went to the local feed store and everything went sideways from there. They still had a ton of chicks from their last two shipments, probably because everyone was too worried about the weather...but I was good! I stayed in control and only bought 6 chicks. (By my math I still don't have any chickens, right?) They're EEs, 2.5 weeks old.

First, OMG they never stop pooping!!!

My first brooder plan was meh. It got filthy way too quick and the brooder plate is the size of a computer monitor(!) and wouldn't fit laying down with the food and water, so I still had to dig out my heat bulb.

It only lasted about 12 hours before I decided to do something else. I have a bunch of PVC from various garden protection structures, so I put something together in about 2 hours (mostly wrangling hardware cloth). Too lazy to cut anything, I just used whatever was already cut, so it really should be bigger to fit that plate, but oh well. Obviously it's more prone to drafts, so the heat lamp stayed.

The hardware cloth bottom is definitely the way to go!

The original plan was to replace the storage bin with a 3x8 "pen" made from gridwall on my back porch. That may still happen in a week when they don't need as much heat, but I don't know if I can give up that hardware cloth floor. I may just take out the plate, put a roof on it, and stick with that, because it won't be too much later that they'll be ready for the coop anyway.

My dad came by yesterday and he used to keep chickens. He thinks the hoop coop tractor is a good idea while I figure out how bad the predators will be. It'll be built and stay in the fenced backyard where the dog can work security when I'm not home, and they can eat all the weeds in the full back yard when I am home. Now I need to find a super soaker to teach any hawks and cats that chicken is not on the menu.

(Because I build robots, a fully automated aerial defense water gun battery has seriously crossed my mind. The ones in the movies don't really work that way though, and I don't know any Naval Gunners willing to hang out at my house, so they're just going to have to depend on me and the dog until the ecosystem gains some balance.)

The night predators are what really concern me though. I know that's going to be a difficult journey. Hopefully I'll have a large population of rabbits again this year.

 

[NatJ]

The hardware cloth bottom is definitely the way to go!

Sounds like it's working for you. I prefer to just add compost-type ingredients (bedding) as they grow, and let them scratch around in it, but that does work better outdoors rather than inside The most recent time I did it, they loved scratching through the dry leaves, and they kept it mixed up with very little poop was on the surface to be stepped in or smelled. But they sure did spread a lot of dust in my garage!

 

[Tankueray]

Sounds like it's working for you. I prefer to just add compost-type ingredients (bedding) as they grow, and let them scratch around in it, but that does work better outdoors rather than inside The most recent time I did it, they loved scratching through the dry leaves, and they kept it mixed up with very little poop was on the surface to be stepped in or smelled. But they sure did spread a lot of dust in my garage!

Those stackable brooders they came out of had wire flooring, and my plan has always been to have a wire floor in whatever coop I end up building, so I want to make sure they're used to it.

I got the puppy pads because somehow I was thinking that I'd have day old chicks, and I used all my pine shavings (but not the cedar, d'oh!) as mulch to protect my trees before the storm. I just wasn't thinking straight I guess. I'm terrible about planning too much and not actually getting anything done, but I am MacGyver when faced with an immediate challenge!

Plus, I wanted to work on storm cleanup and the hoop coop today instead of driving into town, so after a beer and taking stock of what was on hand last night, the PVC brooder was my best option (the beer told me so).

I'm big on testing different methods, so I know a litter method will come into play at some point. After all, this is only my first step into a lifelong addiction, right?

Thanks to everyone for welcoming me and being so friendly and informative. Hopefully my next thread will be about my hoop coop build!

 

[CHlCKEN]

Welcome to BYC! I’m so excited to see you joined! This wonderful community of poultry keepers and experts will be very happy to answer whatever questions you may have