Hello!
My husband and I were tickled to find this website. We've spent several days reading and reading after finding you when searching for chicken coop ideas. Currently we have no chickens but hope to get some in a few weeks. We are working on fixing up our old chicken coop left empty for the last 10 years. Oh how we wish we had your help when we used to have chickens. We had some chickens given to us for free - took them home in feed sacks in the trunk and were on our own with no knowledge or internet! About 3 years later our little flock of about a dozen were decimated in 2 days by a falcon - huge, huge bird - terrible slaughter! One rooster survived hiding under our van and never went back into the coop again even in winter! He became a pet and roosted on the rail of our back porch every night for years. Then the neighbor's dog got him! We finally got our courage up (and desperation for real eggs!) and decided to go for it again this spring.
We used to have a real assortment of RIR, White Leghorn, Easter Egg and several unknown chickens. We even incubated and hatched our own chicks. Now we're planning on probably 25 chicks of Wyandotte, silver or gold, RIR, Barred Rock and possibly New Hampshire Red or Buff Orpington. Probably a RIR rooster and one more - not sure what would be best. Any ideas? Figured we'd get a few sexlinks to hatch out the next year with that combination. We live in MI as you can tell from user name and need cold hardy birds - hoping they will continue to lay in winter. The coop we're revamping is 8 X 12 with a run of about 25 X 25. We plan to cover part of the fenced in run with a 10 X25 tarp reinforced roof and netting over the rest. Also, we're thinking of slightly raised wire over boards on part of the "floor" of the shorter part of run to keep some grass alive. All the posts here are better than reading a dozen books!
Reading BYC is extremely addictive already and we looking forward to our next batch of chickens and being a part of this forum.
Gardening is something we are also passionate about and have about 1/2 acre that we work with. We are now up to 12 raised beds and are adding more every year - so much easier on the knees and to weed. If anyone has gardening questions would be glad to help. We love to cook, bake and can a lot. We have 5 children, 3 still at home and homeschooled them all - youngest still in "school". We built our home with a kit - what an adventure that was and it is still standing after 25 years!
My husband and I were tickled to find this website. We've spent several days reading and reading after finding you when searching for chicken coop ideas. Currently we have no chickens but hope to get some in a few weeks. We are working on fixing up our old chicken coop left empty for the last 10 years. Oh how we wish we had your help when we used to have chickens. We had some chickens given to us for free - took them home in feed sacks in the trunk and were on our own with no knowledge or internet! About 3 years later our little flock of about a dozen were decimated in 2 days by a falcon - huge, huge bird - terrible slaughter! One rooster survived hiding under our van and never went back into the coop again even in winter! He became a pet and roosted on the rail of our back porch every night for years. Then the neighbor's dog got him! We finally got our courage up (and desperation for real eggs!) and decided to go for it again this spring.
We used to have a real assortment of RIR, White Leghorn, Easter Egg and several unknown chickens. We even incubated and hatched our own chicks. Now we're planning on probably 25 chicks of Wyandotte, silver or gold, RIR, Barred Rock and possibly New Hampshire Red or Buff Orpington. Probably a RIR rooster and one more - not sure what would be best. Any ideas? Figured we'd get a few sexlinks to hatch out the next year with that combination. We live in MI as you can tell from user name and need cold hardy birds - hoping they will continue to lay in winter. The coop we're revamping is 8 X 12 with a run of about 25 X 25. We plan to cover part of the fenced in run with a 10 X25 tarp reinforced roof and netting over the rest. Also, we're thinking of slightly raised wire over boards on part of the "floor" of the shorter part of run to keep some grass alive. All the posts here are better than reading a dozen books!
Reading BYC is extremely addictive already and we looking forward to our next batch of chickens and being a part of this forum.
Gardening is something we are also passionate about and have about 1/2 acre that we work with. We are now up to 12 raised beds and are adding more every year - so much easier on the knees and to weed. If anyone has gardening questions would be glad to help. We love to cook, bake and can a lot. We have 5 children, 3 still at home and homeschooled them all - youngest still in "school". We built our home with a kit - what an adventure that was and it is still standing after 25 years!
