Just starting homestead journey

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Snappydoodles said:
We just purchased our retirement property! We both work in another state now, but we will move as soon as financially possible to our new property in New Mexico (aka I find a fully remote job). We know we want our first foray into livestock to be chickens, so I’m here to learn as much as I can without having the actual birds (our current HOA doesn’t allow them). We do know that we will be looking for a good dual purpose breed.

Thank you for being here so I can read and learn!
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Thank you for joining our friendly community 😊

Please make yourself right at home
:welcome
 
triciayoung said:
Welcome. Recapping my newbie time (the first 2-years), I must say that it would be good for you to learn from all of our mistakes before getting started. Here are mine:

1. Not knowing myself: I bought into my husband wanting to be "self-sustainable" and we got dual purpose chickens for meat and eggs. the first 5-minutes after I had my chicks, I knew they would only be for eggs and frankly, I love them so much that I wish I didn't have so many production breeds (frequent egg laying brings a lot of problems and a shorter life for my babies).
2. Not making sure I had chickens that were heat hardy (I live in SC)
3. Not joining BYC before I had chickens to realize that pre-fabricated coops are all not good. 99 out of 100 members know that prefabs are not good. Therefore, I purchased two before converting a shed.
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Thank you for this reply! I admit I am worried about getting too attached, so we will see how that goes. Fortunately, I dont think I need to worry about heat, as 90 is about as hot as it gets where the property is, and that’s not very often. But I do have to worry about coke and predators. A friend recently lost her whole flock to a hungry bear. :( So security will be paramount. I like the idea of a chicken tractor, but I don’t see how that could possibly be secured well enough. I love your idea of converting a shed.
 
Snappydoodles said:
Thank you for this reply! I admit I am worried about getting too attached, so we will see how that goes. Fortunately, I dont think I need to worry about heat, as 90 is about as hot as it gets where the property is, and that’s not very often. But I do have to worry about coke and predators. A friend recently lost her whole flock to a hungry bear. :( So security will be paramount. I like the idea of a chicken tractor, but I don’t see how that could possibly be secured well enough. I love your idea of converting a shed.
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“I do have to worry about coke and predators.” Umm, that should be COLD and predators. 🤦‍♀️
 

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