CrisAnderson27
Songster
Hello everyone!
My name's Cris...and I need some help lol!!
More seriously...I've mostly got this covered (thanks to Google and all of the posts it finds here!)...but I'm most definitely going to be needing some support as time goes on. This seems like a wonderful place to hang out, and even if some of the information is conflicting...seeing what people are doing successfully despite arguments helps a ton.
Some back story!
I grew up on a 192,000 acre cattle ranch in northwest Arizona. The climate up there is really much better than southern Arizona, but it's still nothing but desert. We kept free range (and I do mean FREE range...they did whatever they pleased whenever they pleased with no coop other than a hay/tack barn that was always open) chickens for eggs and occasionally for meat. All they had for any actual protection from the ungodly population of coyote, was our blue heeler...that happened to LOVE to eliminate coyote. All in all it seemed to balance pretty well. We later moved off the ranch to Phoenix (10/10 do NOT recommend). I spent 20 years there hating everything about where I lived, until October 2018, when I purchased 17 acres with a house, 3000sf shop, roughly 900 sf barn...and what looks like FOUR chicken coops (only one of which seems viable at this point). My goal initially was to start a garden first (ZERO experience), a rabbitry second (ZERO experience), and then go for 20 or so chickens for laying (almost ZERO experience...we used to have to climb barn rafters to collect eggs lol, and half the time they were fertilized).
Sooooo, fast forward to 2020. I'm online looking at livestock...and I think to myself...'Cris, you've got ONE functional (or so I thought) coop....you should just go with chicken first.' So I start looking into which to get. My goals were calmness, excellent layers (we go through 30-50eggs a week lol), ease of general care...etc.
I ended up deciding on Barred Rocks. My local Tractor Supply had them...but it's 30 miles plus away (EVERYTHING is 30 miles plus away lol), so I decided to just order from them online. Fast forward a week, they hadn't shipped, so I called and cancelled. Drove to Tractor Supply and bought 10 straight run Rocks. The extremely *helpful* young lady also convinced me to buy their remaining 6 Cornish Cross, telling me that they grow much more quickly and so they'll start laying their extra large eggs earlier than the Rocks.
Yes, she really told me that.
Anyhow, I came home with my 16 chicks and got everything settled with the brooders I'd built (really simple XL tote setup with a 250W heat lamp). Imagine my surprise when the next morning at 8am...the Post Office calls me to tell me I have chicks waiting to be picked up. I rush down there to find my 10 Barred Rocks I had cancelled. I called Tractor Supply immediately and they told me to just keep them.
So, now I have 26 chicks...well, for 6 more weeks or so lol...then I'll be down to 20 since THE CORNISH CROSS ARE NOT FREAKING LAYERS.
Anyway lol, let me answer the standard questions for y'all. I'm looking forward to learning, interacting, and sharing my own experiences equally!
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Yes(ish!) I just started with my own chickens here on Monday (03/02/2020)
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
Umm...26. Chicks.
(3) What breeds do you have?
I'm just going to claim the 20 Barred Rocks lol, since the 6 Cornish Cross aren't going to last but a couple months.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
So far, the learning curve! I very much enjoy learning new things on interesting topics, and usually don't stop, ever. The deeper the topic is, the happier I am. Something like chickens, where there's a myriad of necessary knowledge, experience, and even physical capability...is right up my alley. Add in the benefits of success resulting in food for my family, along with the biological interconnect with other aspects of my small farm...and it's a win/win/win.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Oh...man. To give you a very short list off the top of my head...reading, writing, art, building PC's, building cars, trucks, bikes...archery (I build all of my bows), shooting (I build all of my rifles)....along with making knives, which is my full time job. That should get you all started, lol. There's plenty more to come as time goes on.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm 45, currently single...I have three children (22yr old daughter, and 12 and 14yr old sons) and one grandbaby that was born this past weekend. That feels extremely weird by the way...I feel 26 and three of the nurses thought I was his dad lol...I adore the little guy though, so it's all to the good. I have four cats, and a year and a half old blue heeler named Ranger. He's more like one of my children (maybe the smartest one lol) than a pet though. Towards the end of the year I'm looking at picking up a female heeler. I've owned them all of my life, and wouldn't by choice own any other breed. I mostly make high end ($1k to $5k) kitchen knives for a living. I live above my 3000sf shop which makes it both convenient, as well as sometimes a chore to motivate myself to go to work, lol. If you'd like to check out what I make you can look here:
http://www.Instagram.com/crisanderson27
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I honestly found the site via my hurried deep dive Google research fest, when I found out I was no longer going to be raising 10 chicks...but instead, 26. I kept being directed here so often I figured it would be best to just join!!
Just saw the 'Insert' button for pictures...so I figured, why not??
I separated the Cornish Cross right away because they were clearly older and larger than the Barred Rocks. That's my oldest son, and Ranger. Ranger by the way...LOVES the chicks. Like literally...he gets nervous and worried when anyone but me picks them up...noses and licks them when allowed close, and even guards their brooders from people, and particularly the cats (I have them in a separate room that the cats can only come in if the door is open when I'm in there...he heels them right out, on his own lol).
After I moved the Cornish Cross into their own brooder. This was yesterday. The things have full wing feathers already. It's CRAZY how fast they're growing.
That bird at the bottom ALWAYS lays like that. I thought he was dead the first time.
20 Barred Rock chicks. I know at least ONE is a roo. But it's hard to tell. I have a hunch there may be 5.
This is the best of the (I think) 4 coops I have. The other 2-3 are built onto the barn and seem to me to be missing important aspects of a coop...but it's clear they were built to be just that. This is 8'x8'...of which only half was setup as a coop (the front half was storage). I tore it apart on the inside yesterday as I'm obviously going to need the full 64sf as coop for this many birds...at least in the short term until I decide how to refurbish the other coops in the barn. The run is currently 205sf, which makes it just big enough for the final count of 20ish birds. Plans are to add an external 5 space laying box on the far side of the coop (so the boxes don't impact on floor space), and extend the run 3-5' more towards the camera viewpoint. This will add another almost 70sf, which should make it more than comfortable for them all. It's clearly not currently predator proof...so I also intend to add a horizontal roof off the rear posts (which are 6' tall), connecting to the coop. That will make the roof 9' tall at the gate. Everything will be enclosed in 1/2" hardware cloth, except the roof, which will utilize the existing 2x4 garden fence to save some costs. I'm still trying to figure out how to lay out the roosts and feeding/watering systems for the interior of the coop. I know 8'x8' isn't 'optimal' for 20 birds...but with them mostly spending time outside (I'm going to add an auto door opener set at 6am in the summer, 8am in the winter), I don't think it'll be too bad as long as I have enough comfortable roost space.
ETA~
This is what that coop looked like on the inside originally. I've since gutted it (as you can see in the first video below) as I'll need the space!
Here's two videos I just added in so you all can see better what I've got going on. The woman I bought the house from had a donkey, goats, ALPACA...chicken...the list goes on. She was sort of haphazard (there were FIFTY-TWO BAGS of alpaca fur in my shop when I got here. Not grocery bags mind you, 55gal hefty bags...), and I can tell when she got remarried because the quality of work improved dramatically.
Anyhow, I know this is LONG!! And I don't know if it'll even post because of the pictures (most forums limit picture posting until a certain number of posts lol). But if so...feel free to comment or critique!...and thanks for looking!
My name's Cris...and I need some help lol!!
More seriously...I've mostly got this covered (thanks to Google and all of the posts it finds here!)...but I'm most definitely going to be needing some support as time goes on. This seems like a wonderful place to hang out, and even if some of the information is conflicting...seeing what people are doing successfully despite arguments helps a ton.
Some back story!
I grew up on a 192,000 acre cattle ranch in northwest Arizona. The climate up there is really much better than southern Arizona, but it's still nothing but desert. We kept free range (and I do mean FREE range...they did whatever they pleased whenever they pleased with no coop other than a hay/tack barn that was always open) chickens for eggs and occasionally for meat. All they had for any actual protection from the ungodly population of coyote, was our blue heeler...that happened to LOVE to eliminate coyote. All in all it seemed to balance pretty well. We later moved off the ranch to Phoenix (10/10 do NOT recommend). I spent 20 years there hating everything about where I lived, until October 2018, when I purchased 17 acres with a house, 3000sf shop, roughly 900 sf barn...and what looks like FOUR chicken coops (only one of which seems viable at this point). My goal initially was to start a garden first (ZERO experience), a rabbitry second (ZERO experience), and then go for 20 or so chickens for laying (almost ZERO experience...we used to have to climb barn rafters to collect eggs lol, and half the time they were fertilized).
Sooooo, fast forward to 2020. I'm online looking at livestock...and I think to myself...'Cris, you've got ONE functional (or so I thought) coop....you should just go with chicken first.' So I start looking into which to get. My goals were calmness, excellent layers (we go through 30-50eggs a week lol), ease of general care...etc.
I ended up deciding on Barred Rocks. My local Tractor Supply had them...but it's 30 miles plus away (EVERYTHING is 30 miles plus away lol), so I decided to just order from them online. Fast forward a week, they hadn't shipped, so I called and cancelled. Drove to Tractor Supply and bought 10 straight run Rocks. The extremely *helpful* young lady also convinced me to buy their remaining 6 Cornish Cross, telling me that they grow much more quickly and so they'll start laying their extra large eggs earlier than the Rocks.
Yes, she really told me that.
Anyhow, I came home with my 16 chicks and got everything settled with the brooders I'd built (really simple XL tote setup with a 250W heat lamp). Imagine my surprise when the next morning at 8am...the Post Office calls me to tell me I have chicks waiting to be picked up. I rush down there to find my 10 Barred Rocks I had cancelled. I called Tractor Supply immediately and they told me to just keep them.
So, now I have 26 chicks...well, for 6 more weeks or so lol...then I'll be down to 20 since THE CORNISH CROSS ARE NOT FREAKING LAYERS.
Anyway lol, let me answer the standard questions for y'all. I'm looking forward to learning, interacting, and sharing my own experiences equally!
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?
Yes(ish!) I just started with my own chickens here on Monday (03/02/2020)
(2) How many chickens do you have right now?
Umm...26. Chicks.
(3) What breeds do you have?
I'm just going to claim the 20 Barred Rocks lol, since the 6 Cornish Cross aren't going to last but a couple months.
(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?
So far, the learning curve! I very much enjoy learning new things on interesting topics, and usually don't stop, ever. The deeper the topic is, the happier I am. Something like chickens, where there's a myriad of necessary knowledge, experience, and even physical capability...is right up my alley. Add in the benefits of success resulting in food for my family, along with the biological interconnect with other aspects of my small farm...and it's a win/win/win.
(5) What are some of your other hobbies?
Oh...man. To give you a very short list off the top of my head...reading, writing, art, building PC's, building cars, trucks, bikes...archery (I build all of my bows), shooting (I build all of my rifles)....along with making knives, which is my full time job. That should get you all started, lol. There's plenty more to come as time goes on.
(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.
I'm 45, currently single...I have three children (22yr old daughter, and 12 and 14yr old sons) and one grandbaby that was born this past weekend. That feels extremely weird by the way...I feel 26 and three of the nurses thought I was his dad lol...I adore the little guy though, so it's all to the good. I have four cats, and a year and a half old blue heeler named Ranger. He's more like one of my children (maybe the smartest one lol) than a pet though. Towards the end of the year I'm looking at picking up a female heeler. I've owned them all of my life, and wouldn't by choice own any other breed. I mostly make high end ($1k to $5k) kitchen knives for a living. I live above my 3000sf shop which makes it both convenient, as well as sometimes a chore to motivate myself to go to work, lol. If you'd like to check out what I make you can look here:
http://www.Instagram.com/crisanderson27
(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?
I honestly found the site via my hurried deep dive Google research fest, when I found out I was no longer going to be raising 10 chicks...but instead, 26. I kept being directed here so often I figured it would be best to just join!!
Just saw the 'Insert' button for pictures...so I figured, why not??
I separated the Cornish Cross right away because they were clearly older and larger than the Barred Rocks. That's my oldest son, and Ranger. Ranger by the way...LOVES the chicks. Like literally...he gets nervous and worried when anyone but me picks them up...noses and licks them when allowed close, and even guards their brooders from people, and particularly the cats (I have them in a separate room that the cats can only come in if the door is open when I'm in there...he heels them right out, on his own lol).
After I moved the Cornish Cross into their own brooder. This was yesterday. The things have full wing feathers already. It's CRAZY how fast they're growing.
That bird at the bottom ALWAYS lays like that. I thought he was dead the first time.
20 Barred Rock chicks. I know at least ONE is a roo. But it's hard to tell. I have a hunch there may be 5.
This is the best of the (I think) 4 coops I have. The other 2-3 are built onto the barn and seem to me to be missing important aspects of a coop...but it's clear they were built to be just that. This is 8'x8'...of which only half was setup as a coop (the front half was storage). I tore it apart on the inside yesterday as I'm obviously going to need the full 64sf as coop for this many birds...at least in the short term until I decide how to refurbish the other coops in the barn. The run is currently 205sf, which makes it just big enough for the final count of 20ish birds. Plans are to add an external 5 space laying box on the far side of the coop (so the boxes don't impact on floor space), and extend the run 3-5' more towards the camera viewpoint. This will add another almost 70sf, which should make it more than comfortable for them all. It's clearly not currently predator proof...so I also intend to add a horizontal roof off the rear posts (which are 6' tall), connecting to the coop. That will make the roof 9' tall at the gate. Everything will be enclosed in 1/2" hardware cloth, except the roof, which will utilize the existing 2x4 garden fence to save some costs. I'm still trying to figure out how to lay out the roosts and feeding/watering systems for the interior of the coop. I know 8'x8' isn't 'optimal' for 20 birds...but with them mostly spending time outside (I'm going to add an auto door opener set at 6am in the summer, 8am in the winter), I don't think it'll be too bad as long as I have enough comfortable roost space.
ETA~
This is what that coop looked like on the inside originally. I've since gutted it (as you can see in the first video below) as I'll need the space!
Here's two videos I just added in so you all can see better what I've got going on. The woman I bought the house from had a donkey, goats, ALPACA...chicken...the list goes on. She was sort of haphazard (there were FIFTY-TWO BAGS of alpaca fur in my shop when I got here. Not grocery bags mind you, 55gal hefty bags...), and I can tell when she got remarried because the quality of work improved dramatically.
Anyhow, I know this is LONG!! And I don't know if it'll even post because of the pictures (most forums limit picture posting until a certain number of posts lol). But if so...feel free to comment or critique!...and thanks for looking!
Last edited:
Make yourself at home and enjoy the forums.
Good luck with all your plans! I think you'll end up refurbishing a couple of those other coops as time goes on. You might want to incorporate them into the current run so that the addition will be easy. 
So, that is why I"m always encouraging everyone to go big when it comes to coops. 
