New Members from Southern Oklahoma

Desert

In the Brooder
6 Years
Joined
Feb 2, 2013
Messages
31
Reaction score
2
Points
24
Location
Central Oklahoma
Hello everyone! It's great to be a part of this great community.
My wife and I have been reading through this forum for quite some time and it only dawned on us yesterday to finally join!

We just started raising chickens a few months ago.

We have 1 Rhode Island Red rooster and 7 various hens, from a White Leghorn to a tiny Bantam, to some RIR hens and a black Silkie.

We just started getting eggs about 2 weeks ago and it's fantastic.

Just yesterday I finished building them a nice new, and quite large, fenced in area that they can run around in throughout the day.

We started with a sturdy coop that I built in the front yard, then we acquired a used chain-link dog kennel which we moved to the backyard and put the coop inside of, and now that is in the middle of a massive fenced in area connected to a yurt that I built out of some used canopy pieces.

It's odd looking, to say the least, but we like to think of it as a small city for the chickens. We let them out of the coop every morning as soon as the rooster first crows, then they slowly make their way to the outer area, and finally to the yurt, which they love to eat in.

Due to where we currently live (we rent a place with a lot of acreage in southeastern Oklahoma) I had to keep predators in mind when building the coop. Consequently, the thing is the heaviest piece of construction I've ever made, making it a real pain to move by myself (thankfully I managed to put some wheels on it). We have to keep an eye out for Coyotes, wild boars, Copperheads, Possums, Raccoons, and hawks/vultures. We also heard from several people that it gets very icy in this area, rather than snowy, so I built the coop for warmth as well.

I wish I would have known then what I know now about chickens because I think I could have done a better job, but I really treasure the learning process.

We are now considering getting some more baby chicks so that I can try my hand at a better design for a 2nd coop.

We've had really great luck so far, insofar as we only lost 2 baby chicks, and one really beautiful 2 month old that we couldn't identify the breed of. All of the others are doing well aside from a couple of concerning issues that will probably end up being simple over-worrying on my part.

All in all, I think it's the best thing we've done so far in our grand experiment of living as self-sufficiently as possible.

Anyway, I hope I haven't rambled too much!

Take care, everyone, and have a great weekend!

(((I'll upload some pictures as soon as I can)))
 
No such thing as rambling too much here.
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Welcome to BYC, and goodluck with your birds.
 
Greetings from Kansas, Desert, and
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! Happy you joined our flock! Sounds like you've really done your homework and have a good, safe place for your birds! Yes, predators are a constant threat. The dog kennel idea is what I use - pretty safe from daytime predators (except hawks) and their coop is locked up tight at night. Enjoy your birds and have fun!!
 
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desert....from a SE Oklahoman neighbor....be careful, chickens, turkeys and ducks are very addicting, and there are a bunch of enablers on this website.

I just was messing around last year and got a couple turkeys to raise for meat, I now have 6 turkeys, 15 chickens, 1 duck, 10 rabbits (which I am looking to get rid of, I don't like them like I do my birds), 4 incubators, which have 19 turkey eggs in one, set to hatch Mar. 2, if the toms have done their jobs... and 19 eggs/chicks that are in the process of hatching today....

yep, very, very addictive.
Good Luck!

Oh, and two cockatiels and 5 horses.

Here is another Oklahoma thread, in case you haven't seen it.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/501128/okies-in-the-byc-iii
 
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You're so right! This site seems to feed my addiction now more than anything!

At first, I thought having some chickens would be a small endeavor which I would use simply for some eggs, maybe for adding to my compost pile, maybe for eating bugs.
Then I started accumulating so much chicken stuff, building so many structures and things. I can't quit!

We've already readied ourselves for a 2nd flock to come in the next few weeks. It's definitely crazy around here.

Thank you also for the link to the other Oklahoma group. I really appreciate that!

Good luck with all of your animals. We had to rehome our Cockatiels when we lived in OKC. Poor things. I felt so bad for them because we bonded so well.

We decided that the next time we get those type of birds will be when we have a large greenhouse where they can make their home, something like their own little rain forest. Who knows if that will actually pan out though. lol
 

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