New to backyard suburban chickens

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mcdowell89

mcdowell89

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Hello I am new to the whole backyard suburban aspect of chickens. I do not have my chicks yet but have ordered 4 through Meyers hatchery ( I am a little nervous about getting them through the mail) . I will have a silver laced wyandotte, gold laced wyandotte, black australorp, and an easter egger. Since I can not have any roosters where I live I chose a variety of hens. I have one daughter 10 yrs old she is wanting a silkie any ideas on how well the silkie and chicks I have coming will get along are more than welcome. I tried to choose pretty docile breeds just by doing some online research. Our family consist of me, my husband, our daughter, and our 4 dogs. All my dogs are well mannered and I dont foresee any problems with the chickens except my dachshund, I am a little nervous as I know they can be prey driven I am kinda hoping hes scared of the chickens. Any advice on dogs meeting chickens for the first time and how to introduce is welcome as well. I guess I should mention I grew up in a rural area we had chickens, geese, horses, and goats growing up till we sold the property and home so I'm not completely in the dark when it comes to taking care of them but this is my first time getting some and starting in a more suburban setting. Feel free to drop and tips or suggestions starting out with my new chicks.
 
I plan on keeping them apart the chickens will have the range of the back yard during the day until we get home then I plan on using scratch or some similar treat method to get them in there coop and run I got that advice from another person as I was worried to let them free range and how to get them back to the coop when it came time for the dogs to have the yard (our dogs are spoiled so they are always left to enjoy our indoor patio area rather than be left out all day so they arent having to change their habits due to the hens). I guess I was just hoping there could be away for them to one day coexist in the yard together but I assume probably not our dogs growing up were always separate from our farm animals. Thank yall and I am so happy to be here I have already seen some great coop ideas and other articles.
 
Hello! Welcome to BYC!! :frow

I let my dogs see the chicks quite a lot when they're small, so they can get used to the peeping. They cannot get to them, but can see and smell them. My girls are pretty well mannered and easily controlled, though. They are to the point now that they don't bother the broody mamas that are running around with babies. That has been about 9 years in the making, at least for the oldest girl ;)

Now that's not to say I've never had problems with them, because I certainly have.

Feel free to check out the links below for some interesting reading. Good luck on your adventures!​
 

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