New to fourm and thinking about raising some chickens.

[GSPx2]

Hello everyone! My name is Tim and I live in NJ. Since I have bought my house I have been saying I want to have chickens. It's been 6 years now and up until a week ago its just been something I have said I wanted, now I want to make it happen.

Last week my wife and I took our son to the county fair. There was a fake little chicken coop that the kids could collect the fake eggs from and put them in a basket or egg carton. My son loved it and kept playing with it. So this got me thinking that this is something he and I can enjoy together.

I am completely new to this. I have nothing at this time and I will be waiting to purchase birds till everything is in place and ready for birds.

Questions I have are......

1. I have a good size space, but how far will the birds typically wonder from their coop when allowed to? I have a main road in from of my house and I wouldn't want any car vs chicken incidents. At this time I do not have a fence.

2. What is a good breed for a starter. Keep in mind they will be around kids and the birds will be just for eggs.

3. I would only want about 2 or 3 chickens. Will that be ok or are more recommended.


Thank you and I'm sure I will have many more questions to come.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

 

[redsoxs]

Greetings from Kansas, GSPx2, and

! Great to have you aboard! I'll address your questions...

1. I have a good size space, but how far will the birds typically wonder from their coop when allowed to? I have a main road in from of my house and I wouldn't want any car vs chicken incidents. At this time I do not have a fence.

With mine the range depends on what is "there." The coop is about 125 yards from the road but they don't go that far - maybe because there is nothing up there they want. But if there are bugs and fields there that they would want to explore, they might. Mine typically go no more than 50 yards from home.

2. What is a good breed for a starter. Keep in mind they will be around kids and the birds will be just for eggs.

So many great choices. For friendliness I like Buff Orpington's and Speckled Sussex. But there are probably as many opinions as there are breeds. Here's a link to a chart that compares breeds.

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

Also, you don't have to get all the same breed. I have 12 different breeds right now in my flock of 18.

3. I would only want about 2 or 3 chickens. Will that be ok or are more recommended.

Three is okay - two is a must. Chickens are social and are not happy alone and three is better than two.

Good luck to you!!!!!

 

[auburn]

Welcome to the site!

I absolutely recommend Buff Orpingtons as a starter chicken. They're friendly, sweet natured, and great dual purpose birds. Especially if you have a child, I would go with this lovable breed.

You say it's a main road, just how busy does it get? A smart chicken will be too scared to go by all those racing cars and boring pavement. You still might need to keep an eye on them in case, but it shouldn't be too hard to train them to stay away from the road.

Hope that your chicken plans go fantastically!

 

[GSPx2]

Thanks for the replys! The road is a 25 MPH but some people go a lot faster then that. It's a main road that leads to a county road, so cars go by frequent. If that's enough to scare them away from the road then it shouldn't be a problem. My only concern is that I have a tree line that goes from the back of my yard all the way up to the road. I would amagine they would be drawn to the tree line to forage. No?

As for the Buff Orpingtons. I am going to research them now!

One other thing. I'm unsure about having chicks shipped, but if I can't find a local breeder where is a recommended place to order chicks.

 

[RedPulletMama]

This is my first year having chickens, but I have some great ones. Mine are only for pets and eggs. I have leghorns and red sex links. My leghorns are GREAT egg layers, an egg every day, but they kinda stand- offish. They don't like to be picked up or petted. My red sex links on the other hand only lay an egg about every other day, but are extremely friendly. They love cuddles and petting from the kids (I have 5 kids). All of my chickens choose to forage in the woods. I have 2 and a half acres with a tree line on 2 sides and every morning when I let the girls out, off they go. They stay in the woods pretty much all day, but always come home right before dark. If I were you, I would get at least 6 chicks to start with as some may die. We started with 12 and after 6 mos. we only have 6 left. 2 of them died as babies, 1 we have no idea what happened to it, and 3 have flown into our 8 ft tall dog pen and got eaten. None of my girls have died out in the woods (yet) and I don't worry about it much. A fence won't help you as they will fly over anyway. Good luck and have lots of fun!! My kids love collecting the eggs every morning

 

[drumstick diva]