New chicks coming soon, need tips and tricks to get started right!

Hello,

I'm a 30 year old nursing student at Oregon Health and Science University and I'm from eastern oregon. I'm married with two children, a 4 year old boy and 7 year old girl. We are excited to get some chicks not only for the delicious farm fresh eggs, but also as some new pets to love on!

I just bought a bunch of equipment from amazon.com and plan to use a few ideas from Pinterest to get a pen set up. We have a long area about 6' wide down the length of our house that is doing nothing but growing weeds and housing bugs. This is going to be our new chicken run. One problem we may face are the feral cats and barn owls that live close by. I figured we might run chicken wire from the fence to the roof of our house all the way down to the coop in our backyard, but I'm open to any other ideas!

I raised two rhode island red chicks when I was a kid along with eight bobwhite quail and six chukar. I raised them on my front porch in the middle of the city and I'm not sure how they survived! I was forced to give them to a farmer when my parents moved to eastern oregon. Ever since I've wanted chicks again, I even attempted to hatch my own in an incubator when I was in high school. Now I find myself in a nice home where a few chickens should thrive.

The three chicks I'm looking to get are a black australorp, ameraucana, and a black sex link or barred plymouth rock (haven't decided). I chose these breeds based on temperament, laying and egg color. I desire to have a mixed flock in order to better tell the birds apart as well as tell which chicken is laying which egg.

I am buying a chicken coop because my husband and I currently lack the time and energy to create our own design. I chose a fairly small coop that I plan to use just for overnight. The chickens will be free-range during the day so I thought a small coop shouldn't bother them too bad. It has two laying boxes, a ramp to the coop with a roosting bar and a closable ramp to the outside.

I am completely new to this, I really don't have any friends or family that own chickens either so I'm very open to any tips and suggestions to help this be an enjoyable and productive experience. My husband and I find value in knowing our eggs came from happy, healthy chickens with pure and natural diets and I want to learn all the tricks to creating a happy and healthy lifestyle for my chickens!

Thanks in advance to anyone who may have tips for me!

Cristi