New to chickens? how many are you starting with?

[trunkman]

Wow Missi, I'm only planning another small coop, like a 4 by 6. I already have an 8 by 8 that cost about a thousand, I can't afford much bigger. Yours must be costing a fortune, but these chicks are worth it it seems..

 

[leenie]

Well our chicken adventure started about 6 years go when my sons found a banty hen under a snowy bridge in the dead of winter. I made Missing a Chicken? signs and was about to put them up when my sons chose to stay home with the chicken instead of going to a Redskin game with Dad. Dad said, "no chicken signs today, lets got to the game!" and my response was "you know if it doesn't leave today it never will. . . . "

House chicken for the last 6 years.

This past summer we got the go ahead from DH for some working girls and picked up 4 EE chicks. One ended up a roo and was rehomed and is very happy. 3 wasn't 4 so we got 2 more POL's in January. The boys say we have 5 1/2 chickens.

Baby steps for us so we may add a few more, maybe 2 or 3 and then call it a day.

 

[catdaddy66]

I jumped into the deep end of the chicken pool...ordered 25 layers and got 30 w/ the packing peanuts!! Didn't stop there as DS wanted green eggs, so the F&S had Ameracauna chicks and got 4 of those. They grew faster than expected and quickly outgrew my brooders...but we now have them in the Big House.

Hope they will be ok together

 

[NonnasBabies]

Quote:
Okay I forgot to add the "run" to that adding part!!

No actually not that much!! We use landscape timbers for the frame. Their $1.97 each. All the wood & tin we used for the coop was recycled except the plywood we used for the outside and nest boxes. I think for the whole 21' x 16' coop & run (5' x 16' 3-sided coop) we spend about $500. For the addition of the run might cost $350 to $400 dollars.

They key is recycle, recycle, recycle...

Missi

Here's an idea of what we built!!

 

[trunkman]

I'm gonna have a little time on my hands tomorrow during work hours and I'll be driving by a TSC, I have a feeling my steering wheel will pull me to the store, I know they got a new batch of chicks in yesterday, my 23 may grow, god help me!!

 

[bsruther]

We've been talking about getting chickens for almost a year now. Picked up 6 last week at TSC. 1 rooster, either a BR or BSL, not sure yet and 5 pullets. I'm pretty sure they're all white rocks. I'm pretty determined not to have more than 6-8 chickens at a time. I know other people with larger flocks. I see what kind of messes they have to clean up and that ain't gonna be me. I also don't want to pay more than 10-20 dollars a month for feed. The eggs are just for the wife and I so we really don't need that many. I would like to have a few guineas or peafowl at some point, but I'm not sure if we'll do that since we have a lot of predators around here.
So far, we're happy with what we've got and are enjoying being entertained by the chicks. I'm sure we'll be even more entertained when they are adults.

 

[nefarmgal]

I'm new to raising chickens, and we heard if you're going to have 10 layers you may as well have 20 for not much more work/setup. I also heard that up to half of the baby chicks will die or be roosters, so we got 40!! It's been 2 weeks, but none have died yet! I'm pretty sure there are a few roos in the bunch, just by reading other's posts about roo's being slower to feather out and larger comb and such. So far my favorites are the plymouth barred rock- they are so friendly and always come up to me when I go out there! The coop and run are yet to be built- we'll see how many we end up with- it definitely is easy to become obsessed!

 

[NonnasBabies]

Quote:
I agree with the if your gonna get 10 it's not much different than having 20. All you need to do is make sure your coop & run can accommodate that many!! Not sure I agree with the babies dying or being roosters. I haven't lost one yet but I've only bought 30 babies so far. They rooster issue, well if you but straight run chicks than that's probably correct but if you spend a little bit extra and buy pullets you have a much better chance of not getting any roosters! Not sure about these 15 I just bought but the last 15 pullets I bought I got 15 pullets!!

Love my Barred Rocks! I have 18 of them and their are the sweetest things!! They will follow you around the yard wanting their goodies!!

Enjoy all your babies!!

Missi

 

[wansul]

Quote:
What do ya know!

I have a privacy fence
am hiding my coop in the backyard
Loud hens will go in the freezer or be sold
and same with roosters
plus already asked closest neighbors and two don't mind and one sorta does but I'll bribe them all with eggs

Do you think because of this that I should get eight and pick the quietest six of the eight and sell the other two I've been debating it...

well, that's what i heard...from another illegal chicken owner. get MORE than what you want...that way, you can pick out the loud ones and give them away (or whatever). i only wanted 2 or 3 hens but now i've decided to get 5 (hubby is KINDA havin' a stroke but he understands the principle involved here)......so that way if any loud ones are about, i can give them away to an aquaintence of mine. Good luck!!! that's great that you have a privacy fence! i'm sure i'll make a few egg runs to my neighbors too!

I"m illegal too. I went to all of my neighbors and bribed them before hand with the promise of eggs. My privacy fence is going up soon too.

I'm getting 15 straight run, will cull the loud and male ones. I plan on keeping 4 or 5 hens. Ha I keep telling my friends that if those baby roosters decide to crow they are going to become cornish cocks LOL

Wanda

 

[zade11]

i started with one. the last one that rural king had. three days later i got 5 five more. and today, three weeks later, i got another five