New chicken person from NC :)

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taterville4

taterville4

In the Brooder
6 Years
Feb 19, 2013
34
4
26
NC
Hi, I'm Crystal from NC. We live in the county in a subdivision on 1 acre with 2 kids. The only laws are the livestock has to be fenced on property under 2 acres, no HOA rules or anything. I bought a coop & run large enough to hold 4 regular size hens on ebay yesterday to start with, the fun will be the assembly lol. My 12 year old is so excited she wants a chicken that lays green eggs (just read Chicken Boy for school) and spent all of last night and this morning drooling over coop designs on here and pinterest. She is in love with the Hobbit House. I don't know what kind of chicken I want, but the name I've picked out is Mother Clucker, I'm twisted. We are going to get 4 hens/chickens and 1 rooster, one for each of us, for eggs only. My husband gets to pick the rooster and he's picked out 3 types so far, have to keep enforcing the 1 rule. My son says his will be named Fat Boy or Sierra. I had WLS and eat a lot of eggs on a high protein diet so I'm looking forward to new pets and fresh eggs.

My property is 100 ft wide & 400 ft long. My house is 300 ft off the road, then it's woods. I have 3 indoor cats. I've seen deer and wild turkey in my woods and we have copperheads and other icky snakes in the summer. There is a leash law, but cats and dogs cross the property all the time. Starting out, I thought I'd put the coop outside the back of my house outside of my bathroom window. My house is up on a hill with a flat spot then a hill above my house. I have 4 downspouts that at least 2 I need to put rain barrels under or the chicken would have wet feet when it rains.

I get obsessive over new projects so I've read a lot and looked at ideas for a few days. I want to stay on a budget but there are so many cool things to build and do for chickens. It's like a dollhouse but for animals :). We still need to level and clear brush out of our wooden area behind our house but when we do I'd like to put up a reinforced 10x20x6ft tall dog kennel with a coop so they can move around more. Next year I promised the kids a goat each so I hope they exist in the same area well.

I look forward to reading many more threads and doing my research here!
 
Welcome from KY!!
Have fun building your coop!!

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Welcome from Northeast NC! Easter Eggers are fun to raise. What kid wouldn't enjoy Easter eggs year round! I saw that you mentioned you were putting the coop in the woods line. Do you have coyote problems in your part of NC? I totally know what you mean by obsessive too! Chickens are fun for everyone.
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Hi Crystal from NC. I also live in NC. Sounds like you are doing a good job researching. Chickens are awesome and you'll probably want more after you get them because they are just like potato chips. I started out with 5 and now I have 35 which includes 3 roosters. I love my roosters, all three are very friendly. We live on 11 acres and do let our chickens free range for a good portion of the day. The only issue we've had so far is with hawks so we did have to cover their pen area and keep them inside for a while when we weren't home until the hawk left and hopefully he won't come back again because they are so happy when they get to free range. We also have goats and they can live together fine you just have to keep the chicken feed away from the goats because chicken feed can make a goat very sick, just keep the chicken feed in a place where the goats can't get to it and I think it's better for the chickens and the goats to have a separate shelter because of poop issues, otherwise they do just fine together. One thing I really like in my coop that we didn't have in the beginning was a poop deck. Do some research on that and see if it is something you might want to think about when building your coop. I use sweet PDZ on the poop deck and use a cat litter scooper to clean it. It works out much better for me that way. Hope all goes well with your new adventure.
 
KBG, I haven't seen a coyote and I'm in the Piedmont area. I think the Easter Eggers are cute too and the Silkies are adorable and the bantam sizes would have more room to play, decisions, decisions!
 
Lol if I wasn't at my max...I would get them all! I like there fluffy cheeks and fluffy bodies. We are going to start another new coop soon. Bantams are always awesome to have too. Hawks and coyotes are horrible in this area. Not only do we have to fence the top of the coop, be we bury and concrete the wire at the bottom. Anything to protect my babies!
 
Tmaxson, yeah I'm sure I'll want more and my daughter has already talked about hatching eggs once we get chickens since I want to start with young chickens to make sure I get mostly girls. I didn't think about birds but I do see hawks and crows a lot. Behind my house had no trees but the woods has tall pine so maybe that would block them? I'm glad goats can get along with them, though I would fence separately. We are big goat cheese eaters and we went on a tour of the goat dairy farm that makes the cheese and my daughter fell in love, such a country girl. The poop deck is like the hammock, right? If it makes it easier for cleaning, I'm all in!
 
KBG204 said:
Lol if I wasn't at my max...I would get them all! I like there fluffy cheeks and fluffy bodies. We are going to start another new coop soon. Bantams are always awesome to have too. Hawks and coyotes are horrible in this area. Not only do we have to fence the top of the coop, be we bury and concrete the wire at the bottom. Anything to protect my babies!
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How far how do you bury the wire? This is hardware wire right? I wouldn't want to concrete near my house, it's new and still settling but I would in the woods. Plus I'm sure they are much more bugs and worms then at the red clay subsoil near the house. I hope they eat spiders too, we have lots of those and ants in the boonies. I'm sure I'll get attached too. Luckily my woods are 100 x 100 ft, plenty of room to expand haha.
 
Our coop is near the cow housing, which isn't to close to the house. We bury it about a foot into the ground and set the concrete and dump sand then dirt over top. We have fire ants issues, every year we go around getting rid of them. Trust me I have had my fare share of bites. Spiders I would like to think my chickens eat them, because they creep me out! Good thing coyotes arent a problem there.
 

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