Hey everyone, I'm from central NJ and I am new to chickens as well. My husband and I had just bought a house and the previous owners have a small/medium size backyard chicken coop/run. Maybe around 10-15 chickens there now. We agreed to keep the hens so they don't have to get rid of them and I am a huge animal lover, local animal rescue volunteer and veterinary technician although currently I have been a stay at home mom to my 7 month old daughter. I'm very excited to start something new and exciting at home with my family. I've spent a lot of time around various larger animals since I was young owning and riding horses competitively so I don't have much expenerience maintaining chickens or other birds for that matter (aside from smaller pet birds at work in the vets office). We do not have the chickens yet, but we will once we move into the house in a month or so. I'm here to educate myself and learn as much as I can from you who have experience, I've found this website to be very informative so far! I plan to meet with the current owners to discuss how they do things as far as the chickens go, but I'd like to have some knowledge ahead of time so I can decide if I agree with their methods and how I would prefer to do things.. very excited to get started!