New here and new to chickens

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guelphchick

guelphchick

In the Brooder
Jan 9, 2016
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17
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Hi my name is Jenn and I'm from Guelph, Ontario Canada.
I have after much thought, decided to have a small flock of backyard chickens.
I have been doing a lot of research and am looking forward to building our coop. I'm still not decided on starting with dayold chicks or older chickens.

I welcome any wisdom or advice.

:)
 
I am fairly new to having chickens myself. With that being said, Ive had many experiences already....good and bad. I absolutely adore my back yard flock. If I could give you some advice, it would be to stay away from the commercial type breeds like isa browns, etc. Ive had those as well as red rock crosses. Needless to say, I got rid of them all. They were very agressive with eachother and stopped laying at around 2 years of age. I would also recommend growing your own chicks. Make sure you have what you want as a flock. Dont buy random hens at random ages as this will leave your flock very susceptible to disease (I learned that the hard way). Heritage breeds are definitely the way to go in my opinion. Research diseases, precausions and biosecurity. Good luck!
 
Welcome to Backyard chickens, the both of you. I see you are both from Canada. You probably would find lots of info if you go to the Canadian thread: "Canadians, check-in-here."

You may also benefit from the Learning Center. I agree get some good breeds. Beware of free birds, or friends baring chickens - they usually end up to be roosters. Get good stock and be sure to quarantine new birds for a month before adding to your others.
 
Hello and :welcome to the both of you!
We are glad you joined our flock!
My advice is to get day old chicks, it is definitely more work, but it is totally worth the experience! You get to watch them grow up, and in a way you can help to curb some personality qualities as babies. In my experiences getting grownup hens that you do not know they will not be as docile, and they peck on the younger ones more than if you were to have already raised the older ones. Be careful if you are going to get chickens or chicks from the feed store, in my experiences they can carry certain illnesses there, but most of the time they are safe. Chickens love mealworms! They go crazy over them! There are some certain things or (scraps) not to give to chickens that can sometimes kill them, so you may want to look up a list. I'm sure I'll think of more advice to give to you but for right now that's it. ;) Hope you like raising chickens.
 
Am also a newbie trying my hand at chicken keeping.My 3 hens have just hatched and am looking foward to raising them.Hope this forum helps.
 
welcome-byc.gif
@guelphchick and @john kimotho

Nice to have you both here!
 

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