My new home came with chickens!

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Dan Gerous

Dan Gerous

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Hello all :)
My family and I bought a new house with 4.5 acres and inherited chickens, two roosters and five hens. They are immensely friendly and my children and I are in love with them but we know nothing about chickens! So I have become a member in hopes to gain some much needed information. We have a coop for them with straw and will insulate soon for winter. We have heating lamps. They are free outdoors all day and forage. They have access to fresh water all day. I asked a friend and the local feed store and are feeding Lay Mash. They get treats too. Look forward to chatting with you all!
On another note internet access is fickle here so sometimes I may not respond to comments or suggestions right away!
 
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Welcome to BYC. Click on 'The Learning Center' located at the top of the page and then go to the forums and question away in the appropriate places. Good luck with your new home and birds.
 
Welcome to BYC!
Congrats on the new home and chickens! The Learning Center will be of immense help as you begin your chicken journey. And there are numerous forum archives answering almost any question you may have. One thing, you do not need heat lamps for adult birds. Maybe not insulation either. Where do you live?
 
X2 on perusing the learning center.
Welcome and good luck in this endeavor.

I don't want to overwhelm you but a couple things:
If all your birds aren't laying eggs (read that as roosters). Don't feed layer feed. It is about 4% calcium and that is too high for birds not building egg shells. An alternative is to feed a grower or all-flock type feed that is 1% calcium and provide crushed oyster shell in a separate container for any birds laying eggs.
Be careful with treats. While it is a good use of table scraps, the bulk of their diet should be a complete feed.
If you have space, you may want a few more hens. Usually a 1:10 ratio of roosters to hens works better. The hens can lose back feathers from overbreeding.
I don't know where you live but normally heat is unnecessary for chickens.
It has gotten as low as -19 F here and my buildings have big wide open windows with no issues.
 
Thank you! We live in Monkland, Ontario Canada. We have heat lamps but haven`t used them yet (only averaging 0 here). We thought we may need them for our -30 Celsius winters. Perhaps we don`t. I thought insulation may be a good idea. Maybe good ventilation more important first. I will check out the Learning Center and Archives to find out more. Thank you for all your help so far!
 
WitchyCatlady said:
Our house came with chickens too!
Click to expand...

Welcome to you, WitchyCatlady as well! If you have time, tell us a little about your chickens and where you live! And as we have told Dan Gerous, take a look at the Learning Center for any info you may need.
 

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