New Here

[Lora in MO]

Hi Everyone! I am so glad I found this forum! My name is Lora and I live in Missouri on 7 acres of mostly woods. I had chickens when I was a kid, which was a VERY long time ago! I had two RIR and my sister had two Banties. We used to swing and climb trees with those birds. I justloved them so fast forward a billion years and here I am wanting more. I want 4 RIR for eggs right now. Meat, later, maybe. I have 5 shih tzus and a chihuahua that I home cook for. Besides chicken, the protein that I use is eggs. I also, can't eat store bought eggs, they make me violently ill but fresh eggs are no problem for me. So here I am looking to learn. We will be building the coop this weekend and I am so jealous of all the fantastic pictures in the coop thread! I'll never have anything that nice. Good thing the chickens aren't going to care!

My first question is this. I have one neighbor. Yep, one. We live on a dirt road. This neighbor has chickens as well. They free range all day and go in their coop at night. They trot down to our house and eat in the yard and I just love having them. I am afraid that if I let mine out that they will "get lost" in with their chickens and not come home at night. They also have roosters and I don't want them with mine since I only want eggs at this point and have a horrid memory as a child cracking an egg and out popped a baby into the frying pan. I can still see it and I don't ever want that to happen again. If I don't let them free range, how much space would I need per chicken? I know there will be more questions as I go along, my brain is just on overload right now.

Should have mentioned that I can get long winded as well. LOL I look forward to the adventure and learning from you all! Thanks for having me!

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC. It looks like you'll have to build a pen for your chickens. You can click the "Learning Center" button above and look for the information you've requested.

 

[Lora in MO]

Thank you so much! I will do that

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi Lora

Glad you could join the flock! Here's a lovely article on how much room do chickens need https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need
I would consider keeping yours in a pen/run untill they know where home is. Is there any way you can keep your neighbours chickens away from yours? If they have a roo it could mate with yours and you would have fertilised eggs. Chicks would only develop if a hen went broody and sat on them. Fertilised eggs are perfectly fine to eat though. When you build your coop make it totally predator proof. It's always better to be safe rather than sorry.

Good luck with your new chicken adventure. Enjoy BYC

 

[sunflour]

glad you have joined us.

Sounds like you are destined to have chickens. The neighbor's flock to your yard likely because you are friendly and they feel safe there.

Yorkshire coop has given you the link to research your answer. I agree that building a secure coop and run and raise yours in confinement would be the best solution. With the visiting flock always around, I would also consider adding a perimeter fencing to keep them at a distance from your layers.

If you are on friendly terms with the neighbor consider discussing the issue and maybe they can help with keeping theirs on their property?

Good luck with your new adventure.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[NickyKnack]

Hello Lora!

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to joined the BYC family. I too live in Missouri! The show me state.

 

[nj2wv]

Welcome to BYC !!

 

[drumstick diva]

I agree with Sunflour, not only do you want the rooster not breeding your hens, but the flock in general could be bringing in disease, or parasites and with the Avian flu going round, it's best to keep them a good distance from your birds.

The double fence is a great idea.

 

[Lora in MO]

Thank you everyone for the warm welcomes! A double fence isn't an option for us right now, however I will see what I can do about keeping them away. I thought of spreading illness to mine as well. I don't know how well they care for their birds. As for whether I can have a chat with them, not likely. We have had issues over their dog and turkeys before and since there is no animal control where I live, the sheriff came out and told them to keep their animals put up or face a fine. The dog that was the problem is now penned but the other dog they have still roams. It's a chihuahua so it doesn't really bother me. I'll keep researching all the ideas and coop plans and will post pictures when I get my girls! Thanks again all, I appreciate your time