new here with questions

[SunnyDawn]

Welcome. You'll do fine! Chickens are pretty easy if you've already raised different kinds of critters. I got all the info I needed from the library and here at BYC. Good luck!!!

 

[SunshineSilkies]

from sunny Florida

This is the place to be to learn anything you ever wanted to know about chickens!!!! I'll have to warn you though.......IT'S ADDICTING!!!!!!!!

 

[bibliophile birds]

hi ozarkmomma! i just got into chickens too, so i know how overwhelming all the info can be. i didn't find this site until after my chicks arrived, so you are already way ahead of me!

some things that helped me while i was deciding:

FeatherSite: this is a great resource for seeing all the different breeds of chickens and their colorings. it also has some information on size and laying ability and temperament.

Storey's Guide to Chickens: this book was great for helping me figure out what i didn't know enough about and the questions i needed to ask. like, do you know what caponizing is? i sure didn't.

but really, the best thing i did was to decide what i wanted from my chickens before i decided what kind and how many i wanted. it was more important for me to have friendly, hardy birds that were dual purpose and mostly heritage type breeds than to have really pretty or super egg laying birds. (of course, i also wanted the prettiest, best layers out of the heritage breeds!

)

like RevaVirginia said, you probably want to wait for spring. here in Tennessee, winter comes late and usually isn't very aggressive, so i went ahead and got my chicks (they are a week old today!). it's going to be more work but i wanted them to be laying come spring, so i'm ok with the extra effort (and the fact that i can't work on the ripped out bathroom for a while since they have the run of it).

the biggest problem i found in ordering this late in the year is that a lot of the breeds i wanted aren't available from the major hatcheries like McMurray. i ordered 24 from Ideal Poultry, but they weren't exactly the colors i wanted and i only got 5 of the 12 breeds we want. at least this way, i'll have some chickens already producing in the spring and i can order more of what i want then.

anyway, good luck and welcome to the madness!

 

[fatboys farm]

Hi from GA. Be very careful about bringing new chickens from other farms or markets later on. I had all healthy chickens till i bought my 1st sick one. Eat more beef.

 

[RevaVirginia]

Quote:
Quote:
Let me clarify just a little.....

If the coop is truly enclosed and a mischievous monkey couldn't get in then you're probably in pretty good shape. Don't put nearly the same effort into the run. If they get in the run and can't get into the coop, they've tipped their hat on their presence for naught.

Doesn't mean don't do everything you can for the run....Seems that most stop developing a run with a chicken wire enclosure and although that seems fine, some predators just laugh at that. This isn't from personal experience, it's from reading posts here.

I had a coop inside a barn which I put a considerable amount of effort and work into and wasn't ready for the reality that raccoons trained with The Flying Tabares. *famous Trapeze artists* and lost a few <sniffle> before I moved them to a brick building. Learned something from the three little pigs after all.

I'm still not absolutely sure how the coons did it but they had to climb upside down on the roof truss to do it...two stories up. Tons of effort went into the run and in retrospect I could have made the run out of 3 ft reinforced concrete walls and still lost some chickens....

Thats the long of it. The short of it is...At night they'll be inside the coop...not the run.

 

[jenjscott]

Hi, and welcome to BYC from down in the flatlands of southeast Arkansas. Most importantly, take time to just sit and enjoy watching them.