New member from Maine

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Well thank you all for the warm welcomes.

A few of you have asked what breeds I am considering. I am going to start off with 4-6 Barred Rocks. They seem to be hardy enough to survive our Maine winters, they are a high egg producing bird, their personalities are supposed to be great, and I really like the way they look.

I have a small equipment shed ( 8'X8") and it's not big enough for my needs. I am going to be building a larger storage shed and then I will turn the small shed into a nice coop. I shouldn't have to do to much to it, most of the work will be building a secure pen. I want to make sure it is extra secure as we hear coyotes every night, there is a momma fox that wonders around and barks for her pups in our backyard, and there is a resident raccoon that feeds out of my compost pile a couple of times a week. The woman behind us keeps chickens and although she looses one here and there, she doesn't seem to have too much of a problem with all the critters around us.

I'm just glad I found such a wealth of information here and hope that I can avoid making some of the common, rookies errors. My brother tried to keep chickens a few years ago and didn't really go about it correctly. He lost 6 of his seven chickens before they even started laying. He ended up giving his last one away and since it was a negative experience for him, he has no desire to try it again.
 
I have 8 BR's, I just love them more eveytime I look at them. They are stating to molt so I can't wait to see their new " do "
we Have four raccons prowling right now, but that's going to be zero by this weekend. I have all the ones I started with, I would be sad if I lost one. I put a skirt down around my run and buried it and then piled large rocks ontop. I didn't leave any gaps on the wire in my run, the chipmunks can't even get into it. We used three boxes of staples And a pound of the poultry staples. I bet your gonna have some other fun creatures come a calling up there , maybe mink or wealses. I would go over killl on securing the wire and with a skirt and the. Rock pile around the run and coop. I can see where the coons have TRIED to dig some and have pushed small rocks Away. But I am going to get more larger ones this weekend. This part of tn has soil between it's rocks, so they are free. You have rocky soil? Post some pics soon of your yard and your chicks when you can. I would lobe to see Maine! Oh btw there's a breed called Dominque that is barred but has a smaller comb, unlike the larger combs on the BR. Winters are rough up there And you don't want to deal with frostbite on those big beautiful combs. I plan to use bag balm when it gets really bag to keep them from freezing. There's alot of breeds with small combs.
 
Trouts,

Thank for the helpful tips. I plan on securing the coop as well as the pen really well, the rocks are a good idea and we definetly have plenty of them on the property.

I looked up the Dominque breed of chicken and that is another great option. Good advice on the combs getting frostbit as our winters can get a little chilly.

I have not purchased any chicks yet as I want to be 100% ready for them as opposed to have to "rush" and get the coop done and doing a poor job. When I was 12 years old my Dad let me save up my lawn mowing $$$ all summer to buy my first coonhound. Once I had enough money saved up, he made me use all my hard earned cash to build a dog kennel and buy a bag of dog food. Then I had to start saving all over again for my coonhound. It taught me a very valuable lesson in "putting the cart before the horse" theory.

Thanks again,

Don
 

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