Is it really this complicated? Feeling a bit overwhelmed!

[QuietPony]

Don't overthink it.It will drive you nuts.I went through the same thing until I just said to myself I'm getting some chickens this year!!.So I did.

I didn't even start building a coop until after I had already purchased chicks from the feed store.It took awhile to build too because I wanted to reuse an old playground playhouse and it needed to be torn down to the studs and refurbished.I say buy some chicks and it will force you to get going on the project.Plus they are just so darn cute.

I agree here. Or at least this is how I did it. Although, last year I did get super serious about maintaining a flock and started researching like crazy. I subscribed to two chicken magazines, bought books, lurked here for a year and stockpiled wood stuffs & wire. And I talked to people in my town about chickens and learned that so many of my neighbors have a backyard flock. The woman across the road had them for 6 years before I realized. lol

I am rehabilitating a ton of wood to make our coop. But we also plan on letting them roam our yard in a tractor, so we are actually going to build the tractor first. My reasoning behind doing that first is so I can give them running room and outside time in a handful of weeks while we build the coop.

I now have my first 6 baby hens in my old guinea pig's cage which is placed inside an old rabbit hutch. They are hanging out in my kitchen, right where I can see them from the computer chair. (Not the ideal location, but it works for us.) The smaller inside brooder will give them enough space for maybe three weeks and then it will be removed from the hutch to give them some extra floor space and wing room inside the hutch itself. When they get to be to big to be transporting outside for a daily run everyday, we will move the hutch outside into the secured covered run. We should have plenty of time to build our coop before they completely outgrow the hutch.

Do what works for you. I lucked out with an awesome carpenter man. If I didn't have him, I would surely have gotten the coop first because I procrastinate and am not good with tools.
But I also fly by impulse, which is how the flock came to be in my kitchen. lol
Just beware of these two things;
1) What they say about chicken math is true.
2) Prepare to be completely fascinated by these little suckers if you get babies. You will lose valuable productivity time. I can't seem to take my eyes off of them. I swear you can almost see their feathers grow!

 

[ellie32526]

I am brand new to this, and am looking into what it would take to start a small flock. It doesn't seem like anything I couldn't learn, but it is starting to get complicated. Right now there are baby chicks everywhere for sale, but I can't bring them home yet because I don't have a coop. And once they come home the timer starts ticking. I am not sure if we're buying or building yet, and the latter will take who knows how long. I was thinking if my window to buy the chicks in stores runs out, then I can just order day old chicks online. But eveyone wants a minimum order of at least 15 and I don't want that many yet. I'm thinking like 4 to start. Ok, so maybe incubating? But incubators can get costly, and there is no way to determine how many chickens I will get and what sex. I really prefer to start with females as I hear males can be mean and I want fresh eggs. So if I incubate and get males, then what?I'm not trying to be overly picky, just simplify to start so I can learn the ropes.

So I'm kinda pulling my hair out a bit, thinking maybe I decided too late in the year. I dunno should I just scrap it and try next year? Am I am making this overly difficult? lol.. !

Any experienced chickeners have any words of encoragement/wisdom?

I bought a small storage shed and converted it to my henhouse. I used a leftover box from my chest freezer for my brooder but my 15 chicks only stayed in it for about three weeks. They are a month old now and have been in the henhouse for one week. Everybody is doing great. I have 5 Black Australorps, 4 White Rocks, 3 New Hampshires, 2 Buff Rocks, and 1 free Partridge Cochin. I ordered 25 from Murray McMurray Hatchery. Totally was a good decision. I went on line to Craigslist and advertised that I was ordering chicks and looking for someone to buy some of the chicks from me. I found someone right away. He bought 12, leaving me with the rest. I also got 1 free White Rock. I have a fence around my chicken yard to keep my dogs safe from my chickens LOL actually the other way around. I love my chicks and am so glad I got them. I look forward to getting eggs in June. But definitely I would get a coop first. There are lots of ideas here but I would definitely build a bigger coop than what you plan for because you may end up with more than you first started out to get. I originally wanted only 6-8 laying hens, now I have 15 and they are all pretty good layers. I have room for 9 more so I will probably get a couple Silkies (they make good mommas) and a couple Polish just because I like the look.

 

[stestory]

The Farmer City Chickens are no longer free range. I finished their run a year later. Get chicks! Jump in.

 

[Brazellchickys]

We built ours from scratch $100 back in sep of last year. We just bought four today I think starting with the coop established first is better cuz I don't have to worry when I can put the girls in.

 

[ellend]

MY PET CHICKEN (online) ships small numbers of SEXED chicks. Just make sure that you know the minimum number to stay warm & safe during shipping, so you don't get a (male) "filler" chick. This will let you select the breed(s) you want, also.

If you live near a hatchery, some will make "minimum number" exception if you pick them up in person. They do this just to be nice...

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Sorry to interrupt but I disagree with some of this.

1. OK so later you posted that where ever the chicks are is a brooder. I can agree with that BUT:

• Most people think of a brooder as a separate place to keep young chicks until they are big enough to go out to a coop without "support". Yes, you can brood chicks in a coop from day one.
• Chicks DO NOT need to be in the brooder for 8 WEEKS! They need to be somewhere safe with food, water, heat and no drafts. After they are fully feathered, they need everything but the heat. Obviously they will need heat longer if you get them in January than if you get them in July or live north of the 48th parallel vs south of the 32nd. Lots of people brood them in the house because that is where it is most convenient to check on them regularly (and they are CUTE!). Plus, some people don't have electricity in their coops for heat lamps. My girls went out to the coop at 3.5 weeks (mid July) because they wouldn't stay in the bathtub. They had a heat lamp at night for 1 week. I don't know if they slept under it or not, I sleep in the house
  
  . After that, they were "on their own" with their food and water. I don't give them grit because they have access to all the dirt and rocks their little hearts desire. They don't need oyster shell until they are getting ready to lay. Chick starter has extra calcium for bone growth. Too much calcium when they are growing is not good for them which is why you don't feed starter from hatch to POL.

Chick scratch.

• First NOT NEEDED.
• Second: scratch is "candy" do people feed candy to their one or two month old children?
• Third: If they have scratch they need grit.
• Fourth: Read this from a feed supplier:

Chick Scratch is not a complete feed and additional supplementation is required. Starting at 6 weeks, Chick Scratch may be fed on top of Chick Starter or in separate feeders. Consumption should not be more than 1part Chick Scratch to 3parts Chick Starter. Scatter insoluble grit over the feed once a week. Provide grit or oyster shell free choice, and keep water in front of chicks at all times.


Bruce

Bruce, I think I need to clarify what I wrote.

You don't feed chicken scratch after the first couple of days; the reason for feeding it for the first and second day is that feeding scratch has been shown to reduce the incidence of pasting in chicks that have been chilled or overheated in shipping. It works. Obviously it is not going to be on the menu as a regular item. The general drill is water, then a pan filled with scratch the first day, then place a feeder with chick starter farther out from the hover. The chicks actually prefer the starter to the scratch, and once they've all found the starter, you just remove the scratch. Remember, for the first 48 hours after hatch they actually don't need to eat; and scratch provides calories. Theoretically, they can live for at least 72 hours without feeding; but that risks starve out problems.

Do not give baby chicks oyster shell. Excessive calcium can destroy their kidneys.

To me a brooder is any area where there is a hover, a heat lamp, and/or draft guards added to provide extra protection to baby chicks. You can brood in the coop, the barn, an old car, the garage, the bathroom, or the living room - but it's still a brooder. Heck, you can build a Philo Box and brood outdoors with no supplemental heat at all! The point I was trying to make is that you don't just toss them in a coop without setting up some sort of brooding; you'd be surprised how many people have tried just that because they read somewhere that day old chicks could go straight into the coop and didn't need a brooder.

 

[cortner1195]

Sorry, I am going the other way. If you know how many chickens you want, and where you want to put them, then the coop can be done easily while the chicks are under the heat lamp. We started new chicks last year (after years away from it). I bought the chicks because I knew that I wanted them. I didn't want to wait another year. I had the finances in place for a coop. Once I had them in the water trough with heat in the garage, I had time to get that coop up and going. I ordered a coop to be built, had it delivered a couple weeks before the temps were warm enough to move them outside. We started in the 50 gallon water trough with heat lamp. Added perches at about 2 weeks, then at about 4 weeks we moved them to the utility trailer with heat in one corner, again in the garage. We were able to open the garage door on nicer days to "harden" them off. I had them in the garage for 6-8 weeks total. That was plenty of time to get the coop finished and on site.
Also, nothing gets my family moving like a time limit. With a year to wait we would still be talking about it next year at this time. I did make the decision to have chickens the year before, but it was always with the intent to start chicks in 2012. We are starting more this year. Now I am dealing with the integration issues.

For your first year, have some idea what breeds you want. For your first few chickens choose ones that lay well. Then you will have an idea next year how many eggs you can use, and can adjust your flock accordingly.

You seem committed to this project as you took the time to post here. That to me says it all. You will have to get the coop built to see to the basic needs and health of your chickens. If you don't feel like you can get that done, then you should wait. Their well being is the most important thing.

Karen

 

[Mattemma]

I got 6 chicks one day at TSC. Got all the supplies.When they got big I put them in an old metal shed that was 6x8.
Feed,waterer,pine shavings.Roosting bar was wood and cement blocks.Plastic fencing,bamboo poles,and zip ties for a movable run in our fenced yard.
Blue kote and meds for issues.Hatchet for dispatch. Got 6 chicks from kids school.Got a roo.Feed,water,clean coop.Some died.Some needed to be killed.Never got around to building a coop.The shed works.

I kept chicks in a graco playpen with bird netting over it.Second set of chicks went into shed at night when 16 or 18 Weeks
old when I switched them from medicated chick feed to layer crumbles.Scratch I gave as treat or during winter when they were laying.

Do what works for you.

 

[wayne m]

U can go to your local feed store and buy 1or2 or whatever's good for ya if u get the chicks now its fine tractor supply has coops and chicks it really easy to get started not complicated at all. Good luck

 

[WestminsterHens]

Just get pullets they are stronger and easier to take care of!