New member in Northern Virginia

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Haloula

Haloula

Hatching
Feb 8, 2016
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I live in Manassas VA and am wondering if the swaps will have pullets for sale? Or if anyonecan recommend farms nearby to purchase started pullets? Online purchase is too expensive
 
First and foremost,
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!!!

I think you'll find this site as helpful as I did when I started my chicken adventures two years ago.

I'm also in Manassas (20112) and this link will allow you to see the Domestic Fowl Overlay District for the County. Basically, it shows where poultry are allowed in the County if you live on a SR (semi-rural residential) zoned lot of 1 acre or more. If you are zoned agricultural, the laws are slightly different but the key take-aways are being zoned A or SR and having a lot size of 1+ acre to be a legal Backyarder in the county.

The new zoning regulations allow the keeping of chickens, pigeons, doves and other domestic fowl on any A-1 zoned property of at least one acre. In addition, on properties zoned SR-1, SR-3 and SR-5 with a minimum of one acre by Special Use Permit and on parcels of 10 acres or larger.

The maximum number of fowl allowed is proportional to the lot size. One bird unit per acre is allowed for properties of 1 to less than 5 acres, three bird units per acre for properties of 5 to less than 10 acres. There is no limit on the number of bird units allowed on properties greater than 10 acres. A bird unit is:
10 chickens (though only one rooster per acre) or
6 ducks or
4 turkeys, geese or pea fowl or
1 ostrich or emu
20 pigeons, doves, or quail

With all the legalities out of the way, I'm sure you'd find some helpful folks on BYC in the NoVA area that could help get you started. How many are you looking for? Do you have a coop already? It's getting very close to hatching-time and a lot of folks are preparing to welcome additions to their flocks so now is a pretty good time to line up started pullets (ready by late summer/early fall) or day-old fluffy-butts, if you have the desire to raise them yourself.

I've run the gamut in two years (bought day-olds from a hatchery to start, added point-of-lay pullets and hatched my own). By far, the most rewarding is hatching my own/or starting with day-olds.

I don't do swaps (too many potential disease vectors for my healthy, isolated flock) so cannot answer that part of your question, but Craigslist can be a potential resource for pullets (buyer VERY beware), local farm/feed stores can be a GREAT resource...I've gotten helpful advice from both the Southern States at the intersection of 28 and Wellington in Manassas and the Tractor Supply off of Balls Ford. Often times you'll also see business cards/advertisements posted in the stores from folks who have eggs/chicks/pullets/cockerels for sale.

Resources abound but it'll take some legwork/research on your part to find the best options to suit your needs. In a pinch, I'm sure I could be convinced to bust out my little incubator and cook a batch up but you might find pretty slim-pickins after the wife and kids claim their favorites!
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Thanks for the ton of info!! Im in the 20111 area and hve 3.5 acres. Never had chickens but have been doing some reading and think I would like to begin with started pullets, maybe 4-6 to start.
I am leaning toward purchasing a coop online. I have also looked online for purchasing pullets, the prices seemed expensive but after looking around I guess $20-$40 for one pullet isn't that much?
We would like to start gathering eggs as soon as possible.
 
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You sure got some great info from @Monguire ! All I can say is hello and it's nice to have you join us!
 
3.5 acres?!? Very nice! $20-$40 for a point-of-lay pullet is reasonable (well, NoVA-reasonable anyway) considering the investment of time, feed and care that goes into those first 18 weeks. Can understand the urge to start gathering ASAP...we were all there once!

I would advise against most pre-fab online coops for two reasons:1) quality of materials and 2) small size. We bought a monstrously large (of the online choices) coop for our initial six day-old large-breeds thinking it would be plenty of space. HAH! They didn't even make it to point-of-lay before they started outgrowing it. I find there are two tiers of coops online...the cheap, made-in-China variety and the high-end, made in the USA at 350% markup variety. When last I looked there really was nothing in between. My solution for our Coop 2.0 was a "cheap" 12' x 20' pre-fab storage shed. Two thirds is devoted to the chooks and the kids got the other third for bikes/toys/etc. I have no wood-working skills and am not a handyman by any stretch of the imagination but I built the inside of the coop to suit our needs and attached a serviceable 16' x 12' enclosed, Fort Knox of a run to it. 18 months later I am still very happy with it and I haven't heard any complaints from the inmates either!
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If you are up for a short road-trip, my wife and I love to talk chicken and would be happy to show you our setup, flock and talk through all the painful/expensive lessons we've learned in the last two years. If you are at all interested, we can take the coordination to private messages.
 
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Welcome to Backyard chickens. Please check out the coops section - many styles, sizes, functions - many with photos and step by step assembly. Some people do use sheds, sections of a barn(or horse stalls). A lot use repurposed materials and " wooden pallets," are hotly desired, as are large wooden appliance crates. Some stores toss theirs out for the trash and will gladly let you take some.
 
Hi and welcome. You have some good advice, so I'll just say a big hello and wish you the best of luck.


CT
 
Welcome
I'm down the street from you in Gainesville. I am starting an egg share business this yea and may be able to help start you with some girls depending on what you're wanting. Pm if you want to talk more
 

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