Hi all, I'm Chris, my wife Lauren and I have 4 kids, 13, 11, and 20 month old twins. We are thinking about some backyard chickens, we are out East Long Island. Our neighbor has chickens and the kids love them so we figured what the heck! Anyway, going to do some research and find a coop, we want to start with 4-5. My wife likes the EE's. Currently looking for a beginner coop. Thanks!
Alright Chris & Lauren, great to have you joining the BYC flock Oh the EE's are great chickens for kids and someone just starting out with chickens but a secure chicken coop is very important if you want to keep your chickens around as there are plenty of predators everywhere .. Check out the learning center
Nice to meet you Chris and Lauren. If you are considering a prebuilt coop or kit, they generally are cute but, not made to withstand weather extremes. Also the mfg. tend to over estimate how many birds can comfortably fit inside. The average chicken needs 4-5 sq. feet per bird inside the coop, excluding roost bars & nest boxes. The outdoor run should allow 10 sq.feet per bird. When chickens are crowded they act out by bullying, feather plucking and at extremes, even cannibalism. Ideally a bigger coop is better. Chickens are very addictive, and I can almost guarantee that after the first ones you will want others. Better to build larger than to need a second coop or a third to handle over flow. Please check out the Learning Center which should answer most, if not all, of your questions. Thank you for joining us at BYC.
Hi Chris and welcome to BYC - glad to have you onboard/ Joining your state thread will put you in touch with other BYC members in your area, which can be helpful (just type the name of your state in the search box). All the best CT
Thanks for all the good info! I want to purchase a coop and maybe start with 3 chickens? So that would roughly be a coop around 15sq ft? If we decide we love having them then I will build a large coop before getting any more. I'm very hands on so it can be a nice summer project. I plan on having them mostly free range (6' tall fence all the way around the property). Should be plenty of room I'm on about an acre.
