Our first flock

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SaddleviewAcres

SaddleviewAcres

Hatching
Joined
Apr 22, 2015
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Location
Black Hills of South Dakota
We just picked up 10 chicks at Chick Days at our local Runnings store. A week later I went back and got six more.
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So they are comfy in a 150 gallon plastic stock tank in our den for the time being while we construct a chicken coop on the north side of the backyard. We've never had chickens before so I am reading and researching as quickly as possible. Turns out building the coop is an enormous project. It took me six hours the other day just to square up and level the four main posts. Everything is a learning experience and I'm hoping we can get it done in time. Looking forward to reading all the threads at night and when it's raining and any time I can't be working on the coop.
 
Do you know how many chicks you will be getting? Rule of thumb is 4-5 sq.feet per bird in the coop. Excluding roosts and nest boxes. The outdoor run should allow 10 sg. feet per bird. Tight quarters can trigger fighting, feather plucking and in extreme cases, cannibalism.
 
We have sixteen chicks but some of them are straight run so we will give the roosters to a local farm as we can't keep them at our city house. We are still in the process of building Saddleview Acres (our property in the country) and I don't want chickens out there unattended so until we move out there the chickens will have to reside at the city house with us. I'm assuming when all is said and done we should have 8-10 hens total so the coop is 32sq ft with an attached 80sq ft run. I hope that is enough space. Each chick is a different breed so I'm hoping they all get along and that is enough space for so many different personalities.
 
Hello :frow and Welcome To BYC! In case you haven't seen it, there is a great article in the Learning Center on figuring out how much space you need for the birds you want. https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-room-do-chickens-need You're coops a little on the low side for the numbers you are looking at, especially if you will lose floor space to feed/water/storage/nesting boxes etc.
 
Thanks Kelsie, I read the post you suggested and we will make some adjustments. :-) We won't lose space to nesting boxes as I didn't include those in the 32sq ft. We have 6ft of height to the coop so hopefully that will give the hens so extra freedom but we will add an extra 18" to the dimensions to increase the size to 45sq ft. I think the 80 sq ft for the run is adequate because they will be allowed to free range our 1/2 acre completely fenced back yard whenever they like.
 

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