Hi All,
We are pretty much retired, located in the Columbus, OH area and recently acquired some heirloom eggs to hatch. It was a project only to get a replacement pullet for my sister-in-law who lost one of her 3 hens last year. Well ... my husband assumed I wanted to have chickens, but we had already had that discussion 2 years ago, and it was agreed that we would not have any because he would like them to roam all over the place and that simply can't happen where we are and be a safe thing.
Anyway, soon after hatching, hubby was glued to the brooder often and soon started looking at coops and then designs. He soon announced that he wanted to build a coop. I said nothing but looked at plans and pictures with him, both online and on this site. I also began to look online for information, which is where I found this site. I have found some very useful information here regarding coops, chickens, feeding, predators, etc. (Just not much here that says anything about stopping yourself from getting more chickens!)
Building started about the time the chicks were 4 weeks old and when they were 6 weeks old, we had a new coop with run, and 7 chickens who desperately needed to get out of the parrot cage in my kitchen (yes, my kitchen!!) and into their own home.
Thinking I had only one hen, that may have to go to my sister-in-law, and seeing an add for year old Golden Comet laying hens for $5 only 5 miles away, I bought 2 and also took a black Australorpe as well. We are getting eggs daily and all the chickens get along quite well, so we are happy. I posted an ad for the ones I have that look like roosters, but not one reply. Oh my ...
My run is 5'x12'. I only thought we'd only have 3 or 4 chickens, so push has now come to shove, as there are 10 chickens in there! Someone has to leave. Some hard lessons learned already here. Wish I'd started reading this forum 2 years ago. I'm looking forward to more reading here as we move forward with our little flock. There are so many different ways to attack issues with the chickens on here, because this is such a diverse group with lots of good information.
We are pretty much retired, located in the Columbus, OH area and recently acquired some heirloom eggs to hatch. It was a project only to get a replacement pullet for my sister-in-law who lost one of her 3 hens last year. Well ... my husband assumed I wanted to have chickens, but we had already had that discussion 2 years ago, and it was agreed that we would not have any because he would like them to roam all over the place and that simply can't happen where we are and be a safe thing.
Anyway, soon after hatching, hubby was glued to the brooder often and soon started looking at coops and then designs. He soon announced that he wanted to build a coop. I said nothing but looked at plans and pictures with him, both online and on this site. I also began to look online for information, which is where I found this site. I have found some very useful information here regarding coops, chickens, feeding, predators, etc. (Just not much here that says anything about stopping yourself from getting more chickens!)
Building started about the time the chicks were 4 weeks old and when they were 6 weeks old, we had a new coop with run, and 7 chickens who desperately needed to get out of the parrot cage in my kitchen (yes, my kitchen!!) and into their own home.
Thinking I had only one hen, that may have to go to my sister-in-law, and seeing an add for year old Golden Comet laying hens for $5 only 5 miles away, I bought 2 and also took a black Australorpe as well. We are getting eggs daily and all the chickens get along quite well, so we are happy. I posted an ad for the ones I have that look like roosters, but not one reply. Oh my ...
My run is 5'x12'. I only thought we'd only have 3 or 4 chickens, so push has now come to shove, as there are 10 chickens in there! Someone has to leave. Some hard lessons learned already here. Wish I'd started reading this forum 2 years ago. I'm looking forward to more reading here as we move forward with our little flock. There are so many different ways to attack issues with the chickens on here, because this is such a diverse group with lots of good information.
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