New & need advise how to get started

[yuccachick]

Hello all,
My name is Stephanie, and my husband and I are looking into purchasing and raising baby chicks. We've been told all the awesome benefits of having chickens so we're interested in doing what we have to do to get started.

Outside of the obvious (getting the baby chicks) what should be my first step before bringing these babies home? I was told I could keep them in a box in the garage with a heat light until they're a little older, but honestly, I tried searching through this forum and couldn't tell what comes first, the chicken or the egg (just a little humor there, sorry!) LOL.

Any advise on what I need to do to start this fun project would be great.

Stephanie

 

[ScissorChick]

If it were me - I'd start by buiding a coop. THEN get the chicks.

They grow super fast, and if your coop isn't done by the time they

get big enough - you'll have a problem. Then get you a run or somthing,

then get your brooder, (plastic container/cardboard box) then get your chicks.

And have fun.

ScissorChick

 

[schellie69]

from Kansas yes getting your brooder set up with a waterier and a feeder a heat lamp you can use a simple rubbermaid tub to start with planning a coop/pen is your next step I would think about the space you have in the coop plan for 4 square feet per chicken in the run a minimum of 10 square feet per chicken. Then look into building this your self having some one building it or buying some kind of shed to turn into a coop. there are a lot of great coop ideas on here. Good luck and have fun.

 

[noodleroo]

1. Coop
2. brooder (tub or box, preferably with rounded corners)
3. heat lamp w/100 watt bulb
4. feed and water containers
5. pine bedding
6. chicks

Its just about that simple. Enjoy the process!

 

[ralleia]

Begin with the end in mind.

What are your goals with your chickens? Fresh eggs only? (You'll just need a few hens). Do you want to breed them? (You'll need a rooster, too.) How many eggs do you want a day? Are they legal in your area? Where will you put the chicken coop (you'll want it near to the house, because you'll be making at least three trips a day out there to collect eggs, attend to their food and water, and open/close them up--no matter what the weather!

Based on the number of chickens you'll want figure out what kind of coop will be suitable. Chicks become chickens in a few short months, and if you're building from scratch time will become tight!

After you have that stuff figured out, then you can figure out the brooder for the number of chicks you'll need. My favorite brooder is a galvanized stock trough with a screen over the top. I use a ceramic-base hanging light fixture with a 70 watt lamp. The entire setup is in my house for the first week or two (while they're at their most delicate), and then out to the garage when they're bigger, stronger, and have started throwing the bedding around.

 

[minor_danger]

Quote:
X2 EXCEPT:

Read first. Read and read and read. Once you think you've read enough, read some more. The Learning center at the top of the page is excellent. Read about anatomy and breed standards before you get attached to chicks. I also found it helpful to read the "raising baby chicks" section before I ever got any chicks to see what problems other people had. Others experiences really helped me PREVENT issues instead of FIXING issues you know?

7.) Pictures! They grow so fast!

 

[squeakyballs]

Stephanie's Haiku:

Welcome to the site
You'll spend all of your time here
It is addictive

And...

Build a large hen house
You'll need all the extra room
Dozens of chickens

 

[san415]

The first year I had chicks I bought a small rabbit hutch. That is what we now use as the Chicken Prison, for misbehaving Hens. Then before they could outgrow that I built a coop by myself. We called that the trash heap coop. It leaked, the walls were not tight, the pop door fell off...three times. Every week or so I had to add more wood or some plastic to it.

This is what it looked like. Yikes! And I should not have built it under the garage edge where there are no gutters, given that it was not water tight! So I asked my husband to build me a better one. He said just order the biggest one I could get flat bed delivered to us. So that is what I did. I love my coop now and the old trash heap coop went to a kid who wanted it bad, and his dad came and picked it up and fixed it up for Luke. And Luke loves having his own little trash heap coop. So it worked out great for both me and Luke.

Coop I have now being put into the chicken yard by my Husband his brother and a neighbor. The flat bed driver of course delivers only he doesn't put it away for you.

I so love my coop now and it has worked out great this long cold winter. But I used the trash heap for a long time. It was a good design in my head but thats where the good design ended.
We live in an area where neighbors are very close and the chickens (8 now) do not bother any one. I did rehome two roosters over the last 3 yrs. And even my husband really likes the chickens.


Messed up the pictures again, had to fix so thats why the edit

 

[GreenGables]

Hi San415 - Great pictures!!

 

[san415]

Hi Green gables
I think you can see from my progression through my three coops that Yaccuchick can start out small and work up to bigger areas of her yard set aside for chickens and also work up to bigger coops if she wants, depending on how much chickens take over her life.

In the last picture that little wood hutch is the rabbit hutch I started with for my two 1st hens. Both were banty hens, one died and the other started to crow. Opps.
So all three of my coops show in those couple of pictures.