New, soon to be chicken owners

[N F C]

Best of luck with all your plans! Make yourself at home here and jump in any time you'd like.

 

[Teila]

G’Day from down under Fireman1317 Welcome!

You might be interested in downloading this free e-book My First Year With Chickens

I do hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun.

If you would like to share Pictures and Stories of your flock when they arrive or of your other critters, you have come to the right place. BYC’ers never tire of these and do not back away slowly or commence eye rolling when the photo album or home videos come out

Best wishes and Good Luck!

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us
Congrats on the new home and good luck with your birds.

 

[drumstick diva]

 

[MrsMistyReal]

Welcome aboard to BYC family gr8 people tons of information loads of fun enjoy shake your tail feathers

 

[JerryR708]

W E L C O M E to B Y C, the friendliest forum on the net. Really it is.

 

[AllenK RGV]

(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? We are planning on getting some chicks this Spring.

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?0 now, but looking to have maybe 8.

(3) What breeds do you have? We would like to get a couple Australorps, Americaunas and maybe some Barred Rocks.

(4) How did you find out about BackYardChickens.com? The Google!

(5) What are some of your other hobbies? Beekeeping, Gardening, Hunting, RVing.

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share. We are a family of 4 who moved from the suburbs to 10 acres in the country a little over a year ago. We are planning and slowly growing our property in to a hobby farm. Our current plan is to try to add a new line of animal(s) each year. This year we are wanting to add chickens. After that, we are looking at sheep and then eventually miniature cattle. We have a Springer Spaniel and 2 barn cats that are part of our family.

I really love your introduction especially the "two barnyard cats" part. I cannot even begin to tell you how valuable my world traveling cat is at taking out 2 pound rats and possums. He is getting old now as we found him in 2007 at around 1 year in age, but wow the size of prey he removes from the property is insane(even 7 pound Jackrabbits). He usually works the night shift when my birds are defencless and the dogs are indoors in our bed or around the bed but he likes it that way!

I want to warmly welcome you to our BYC community! Also, thank you for sharing some of your story with us. I am going to link a canned pdf from the Livestock Conservancy to you and this is not an all inclusive list by any means of the chicken you can raise but it might help you decide what you want from your birds. Best of luck!

 

[Aji Dulce]

Best of luck with all your plans! Make yourself at home here and jump in any time you'd like.

I am planning to set up my brooder in the brand new chicken coop.
Pls comment, I am looking for anything problematic I may have missed. What are some thoughts?

My last frost date expected is March 31.
The coop is 4‘ x 8‘ and I am going to put a cardboard box as the brooder. Do I need to cover it?
Will order 10 day-old chicks.
I have a plug-in electric free-standing heater with thermostat that I will set at 70°.
I will monitor the coop temp for 48 hrs to be sure it can keep it at a constant 70 degrees. In addition will set up one 120W heating lamp.
I’ll keep a digital thermometer in the brooder that I can check remotely. Brand-new batteries will go in it.
Pine shavings for the brooder cardboard box.
Starter crumbles (non-medicated) and water available at all times. Best spot to place these? I assume opposite the heat lamp.
The coop has translucent corrugated roof so it will have natural light.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I am planning to set up my brooder in the brand new chicken coop.
Pls comment, I am looking for anything problematic I may have missed. What are some thoughts?

My last frost date expected is March 31.
The coop is 4‘ x 8‘ and I am going to put a cardboard box as the brooder. Do I need to cover it?
Will order 10 day-old chicks.
I have a plug-in electric free-standing heater with thermostat that I will set at 70°.
I will monitor the coop temp for 48 hrs to be sure it can keep it at a constant 70 degrees. In addition will set up one 120W heating lamp.
I’ll keep a digital thermometer in the brooder that I can check remotely. Brand-new batteries will go in it.
Pine shavings for the brooder cardboard box.
Starter crumbles (non-medicated) and water available at all times. Best spot to place these? I assume opposite the heat lamp.
The coop has translucent corrugated roof so it will have natural light.

Not accusing you of a hijack, but I would think 85-90 degrees F at that age. Until they are fully feathered, and that in only half of the brooder.

 

[Aji Dulce]

I don’t understand the hijack part. ??
I plan to keep the brooder at 95° the first week, 90° the second week , 85° the third, 80° the fourth week and until fully feathered and the chicks will be able to get away from the heat lamp or come nearer. It will be an extra large box.
Yes, I will remove the space heater to let only the heat lamp do the work, once the ambient temps get better. I just did not want to leave it all to the heat lamp if the temps go down to freezing.