Newbie in Chitown-Mt Prospect

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chitown chicks

chitown chicks

Chirping
7 Years
Jun 20, 2012
127
2
71
Hi!

I'm Cate, wife to the world's best husband and mom to 5 really awesome kids.
We've been pondering adding some chickens to our family for several years and are finally hopeful we'll live in a town that allows backyard birds. We hope to be moving to Mount Prospect sometime around the middle of next month. As you can see by my pic to the left, we started by adopting the anatolian shepherd before we got the flock.

Any suggestions regarding the coop size limit is based upon lot size as I've read about re: Mt Prospect?

As we're absolute rookies, I'd love any suggestions on anything that seems relevant.

I'd been hoping to get our youngest two kids a couple of silkies but wonder about adding egg layers later as this is part of our goal. Suggestions? What's the best way to have both? How easily can we add additional layers once we're more confident with the first layers?

I'm certain this has been covered somewhere on byc but I'll ask here anyway since you've stopped by to read. How do you winter your chickens in Chicagoland? I have some ideas, for the 2 or 3 silkies, for the basement in the new house but not sure we could get that redone and pulled off in time for chilly weather. Anything to be concerned about in a basement? It's partially finished already.
What about once we've added laying hens and we've too many chickens for the basement? Is the garage an option?
How do you keep your flock safe and warm during the winter? Ideally I'd heat the garage and put in a door that would allow the chickens to go out into a coop of sorts in the yard to peck around if they wanted to.

Tonight I'm researching the best feed options (my preference is good ol' mother nature with a little help from my kitchen) and coop options. I like the tractor or something like it for times when we cannot be home and outside with our chickens and would like to be able to move them around a bit.

I'm off to read more good stuff.

Thanks for any input you might have.

Cate
 
Hello and welcome to BYC
frow.gif
 
Hi and :welcome

chitown chicks said:
Hi!

Any suggestions regarding the coop size limit is based upon lot size as I've read about re: Mt Prospect?

The recommended size of the coop is 4sq ft per bird. If you want to look for chicken keeping laws and the like, there is a section here, you can look up ordinances by state.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/3/Laws

I'd been hoping to get our youngest two kids a couple of silkies but wonder about adding egg layers later as this is part of our goal. Suggestions? What's the best way to have both? How easily can we add additional layers once we're more confident with the first layers?

There might be a bit of scuffle with introducing new chickens to an existing flock, but if the birds are given enough time to get to know each other, you should be fine. There are a lot of people on BYC with flock integrating experience who should be able to give you a hand if anything drastic happens!

I'm certain this has been covered somewhere on byc but I'll ask here anyway since you've stopped by to read. How do you winter your chickens in Chicagoland? I have some ideas, for the 2 or 3 silkies, for the basement in the new house but not sure we could get that redone and pulled off in time for chilly weather. Anything to be concerned about in a basement? It's partially finished already.
What about once we've added laying hens and we've too many chickens for the basement? Is the garage an option?
How do you keep your flock safe and warm during the winter? Ideally I'd heat the garage and put in a door that would allow the chickens to go out into a coop of sorts in the yard to peck around if they wanted to.

A garage or shed is absolutely fine, and so is the basement if you're okay with having chickens in the house! Chickens are surprisingly hardy with the cold, although I'm not sure about silkies. The main thing is keeping their coop/shed draught free and sheltered from the rain. You should check out where am I, where are you and chat to people in your area, who might have some more relevant info. I live in Australia. :lau Too hot here to really be concerned with the winters.
Click to expand...


Good luck!!

P.S. I hope you can read the quote thing okay.
 
Last edited:
I've been reading about coops and did see that chickens do very well over winter here in Chicago so that's promising.

I'm off to read flock integration threads.

Thanks for the warm welcome!
 

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