New to This Chicken Thing

[SamarasChickens]

Hello My name is Samara &,
I am soooo new to this Chicken thing, but i woke up one morning and decided i wanted chickens, I live in Virginia and have lots of land, i felt i needed to use it and I love animals! I also wanted my 5 year old son to learn some good things about raising his own food and responsibility, in this electronic world we live in.
I got 4 chicks about 3 weeks old on Monday. I knew i wanted 2 Buff Orphingtons , and as i wanted Easter eggers the farmer did not have any so i got 2 New Hampshire Reds. My Chicks have started to fly or at least attempt and are very vocal when i hold them, but then calm down when i start to hum to them. They are getting big and and very fast and im worried i will not have sufficient space for them in my house anymore ( utility closet). I would like any advice on what i could do to make them more comfortable as they grow and when i could take them outside. Also i bought chicken wire im pretty sure its the polyresin one and now im worried because i have read that chicken wire sucks (sighs)
is this true? should i change to hardware cloth? Like i said Im new to this and yes i have done my research but it sure would be nice to talk to someone about this stuff

Thanx (Proud owner of Princess Peach, Zelda, Daisy and Kansas) My first Chicks (cluck cluck)

 

[lightchick]

Welcome! Your chicks can live outside soon, as long as it's at least 50 degrees outside.
My chicks moved outside today and their 3.5 weeks old.

 

[ChickyGirl12]

Hi! Welcome to BYC! I have had chickens for five years and currently own 41 grown chickens, a mix of Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island Reds. And also 28 little Black sex-links that are about three months old. We built a chicken tractor (A moveable chicken pen) out of PVC pipe and chicken wire, its not real secure in strong winds, as it tipped over once and let out all 28 of the chicks, which we thankfully caught. They don't live in it all the time, we have dogs, cats and other animals that would see these chicks as a tasty snack, and as i said before, its not really stable. The chicks have a wooden pen about three feet off the ground covered in chicken wire that they sleep in most of the time. But during the day we get them out one by one and put them in the "Chick Playhouse" as we call it. Since you only have four this might be a fun idea, and it honestly does not cost that much or take that much time to build. We also made our own changes to it. Like not making TWO doors, only one, and simple stuff like that. The blog we got the idea from is obviously from England or somewhere of that sort, because the measurements are different than the ones in the US. But here is the website!
http://www.simplesavings.com.au/article/Chicken-Tractor-Plans
Hope this helps! I will post pics of the bothe of our chicken pens soon! By the way, LOVE the chicken names!

 

[SamarasChickens]

Well its pretty warm out today. So that's good to know and do you keep your chicks in a coop outside?

 

[ChickyGirl12]

I dont know if you are asking me that, but. Yes i do. For the first month or so after they hatched I kept them in our feed room, (Where we keep our dog food, goat food, chicken food and chick starter) Its a warm enclosed room where they were safe. I moved them into the wooded pen after they started getting out of the huge cattle waterer we kept them in, and after we got the tractor built we started put them outside during the day.

 

[lightchick]

Well its pretty warm out today. So that's good to know and do you keep your chicks in a coop outside?

I keep mine outside.