Newbie from Texas

Welcome to Backyard Chickens Melissa the baths they refer to is dust baths if you have a wood stove or fireplace mix the wood ash with dirt they will do the rest removes mites prohibits lice I do not have floors in my big girl coops they bath inside when it rains
Ooh I have plenty of ash from our fireplace that needs to be cleaned out as well as a burn barrel that we are constantly burning stuff in. We can use that and I know they'll love the dirt they will have in their run so we can just spread it in there for them to play in.
 
Hello my name is Melissa and I have finally convinced my husband on a new adventure. I wanted to do this 10 + years ago and I think I have finally worn him down to where he caved last Friday. After some long research and many starts and stops on websites for coop designs and what chicks to raise. We finally settled on Cream Legbars and Golden Wyandotte's. Our current hobbies are raising FFA goats for my youngest son who is a sophomore in high school and that has been very educational for us. Our family pets are 2 dogs both Maltipoos and 2 cats. Now we can safely say that we have 7 chickens as pets now.

My husband and I have started building the coop and plan on having it ready for the girls in the next few days...now having said that, we are trying to come up with a way to have a slide-out floor for easier cleaning. We thought about laying linoleum down..any thoughts? Good, bad, or otherwise? Any feedback will be greatly appreciated.

When is the best time to start the chicks on treats? Meal worms? How much to give at a time, etc?

I also heard something about dust baths? Is that when there is sand down that they can scratch around in? How about bird baths? Do chickens like to take baths in water? Of course I wouldn't want too much water in a bowl or trough for them to drown themselves in but a little something to cool them off in the summer months when this Texas heat hits close to 100 +.

Since we have started this new adventure I have been enjoying sitting in my garage with these little chirpers just watching them go from the feed bowl to the water bowl to running around then settling down to sleep all in a 15-30 minute window. They are really something and amazing little creatures.
And you were able to convince your husband? good for you! But I think you gave him no choice in the matter. That's OK. we men do what our women want after all, By the way... Welcome to BYC
 

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