New Member :)

[jerica]

Looking forward to adding chickens to our ever growing farm! We both had them growing up but my desire to control the type of eggs we consume has brought me to this point. Living a Paleo lifestyle, it is important that I know not only the source of my food but what goes into it. This will be a great experience for all of us. We currently have goats (4 dwarfs and 1 fainting), black angus, chocolate lab, 2 mallards (all since babies) and now a recent horse that a friend is keeping on the property. LOVE THEM! They are all treated like family, which I just love. I'm new to country life even though I had chickens and horses when I was young. Doing pretty well I think. The BF was born country and sometimes I just see him looking at me, shaking his head laughing. Man oh man the experiences. Whew!

We finally picked out the design of the coop (on wheels is ideal) and will begin building this weekend (if the rain settles). As for the type of chickens - we are still deciding if we want to go through the work of raising chicks like we did the ducks or to look for middle of the road. Any opinions on this one? Pros and cons perhaps? These guys will be spoiled like the rest of the gang, that's for sure. I'm also looking forward to feeding them right out of the garden in addition to organic grain and the like. Since it has been some time, I will take all the advice I can. Also, since so many of our friends struggle with finding eggs that are not from a soy, gmo fed source - I might turn this into a little side business if we decide to bring in a good number of chickens. Any thoughts on that as well?

Here we go..

 

[ThomasMcD]

Heya. Welcome to BYC. Good to have you

 

[TwoCrows]

Welcome to BYC!

You might want to start with some reading in our learning center here on BYC. Lots of good reads on all the aspects of keeping poultry from building the coop, raising your new babies, feeding your adult flock and keeping them happy, healthy and safe from predators...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center

Here are 2 external breeds pages that might help you make some decisions on the types of breeds you wish to keep...

http://www.sagehenfarmlodi.com/chooks/chooks.html

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/chickenbreedcomparison.pdf

Good luck with your new adventure and welcome to our flock!

 

[sumi]

Welcome to BYC

Good luck with your new venture and your business plans.

 

[cstronks]

Welcome to BYC!! Good luck with your flock!

 

[Duckopolis]

Good luck with raising your flock and I hope you find everything you need to know! Don't forget to take a look at BYC's very useful learning center! Glad to have you with us.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Good luck with the coop/tractor build!
With going with chicks vs getting started pullets, chicks are, well fun cute little things, you can get them fairly easily this time of year... but unless you get sex links there is the chance of a rooster, and if you get them shipped you take the chance of having chicks doa, and they are fragile and some die no matter what you do, they are also a lot more work than getting pol pullets. With pullets, you should not have accidental roosters, you should have eggs a lot sooner... they can be tamed down, but they don't tend to be as friendly as ones you raised yourself, you also have to be a little more careful so far as diseases go. With selling eggs, you'd need to look into the regulations in your state, there is an eating egg finder list on the State threads forum, you might check into what people on that do You https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/660938/fresh-eating-egg-finder-by-state-buy-eggs-sell-eggs/210

 

[jerica]

Thanks for all of this information!!!

 

[jerica]

Oh gosh.. so much to consider! I actually didn't think about not knowing the sex with the babies - learned that mistake with the duckies and ended up with 3 males and a female who did not like so many boyfriends! We found a great alternative but boy was it a tough time until then.

As for eggs, I figured I'd start with friends until I was up to speed with regulations. Thank you for information - can't wait to read more about it!

 

[jerica]

Thanks! It's only a thought for now but if I'm struggling with finding quality eggs locally (non soy, non gmo fed) then I know there are plenty more like me. Might as well seek the opportunity if I can but one day at a time.