I am a new backyard chicken rancher and I want to thank you for this website. I am from Indianapolis and my wife said she wanted to raise some chickens in the back yard last Fall and "live off the land". She said her father raised chickens when she was a child in the Philippines so she grew up with them. In April, 2013 we went to TSC to get four pullets. I asked if they would pick them and the girl said that six was the minimum we could buy. I told her we want six, four brown and two white. We brought them home, along with a feeder and waterer, a heat lamp and bulb, some wood shavings and a bag of starter feed. My two sons were not as excited as I expected.
Apparently, the chickens were not part of my wife's chores when she was growing up. I assumed that she knew how to raise them. It became apparent that I was on my own after a few days of asking her questions and getting an "i don't know, my dad did that". It's a good thing that I was at least familiar with birds as pets because I had a pair of Cockatiels when I was younger. At least I had some experience with birds.
We put them in a big cardboard box at first and kept them in the garage. A couple of weeks later I built a 2 x 4 foot plywood box, 2 foot high with hardware cloth on top to keep them in. This worked well until I was able to convert our boy's old playhouse tower and swing set into a coop and run. Currently the tower is about 4 x 5 foot with total height about 10 foot high. The floor of the coop is about 4 foot off the ground with an open area under it filled with sand. I built a run off the side of the tower about 5 x 8 foot long and 8 foot high. All of the exposed sides and top are covered with 2 x 4 inch hard wire fencing. I still need to add nest boxes and I plan to add walls for the exposed sides on coop that can be opened again in the summer. I have to credit Backyard Chickens website for most of my planning so far and in the future. This has gone pretty good so far.
I look forward to interacting with y'all here and I am very grateful for all of the advice that I have found on this site since we started raising these chickens. I have learned a lot and I think I have a good idea how to make most of it work. I will post pictures and ideas as I see fit.
Thunder Chicken!
Apparently, the chickens were not part of my wife's chores when she was growing up. I assumed that she knew how to raise them. It became apparent that I was on my own after a few days of asking her questions and getting an "i don't know, my dad did that". It's a good thing that I was at least familiar with birds as pets because I had a pair of Cockatiels when I was younger. At least I had some experience with birds.
We put them in a big cardboard box at first and kept them in the garage. A couple of weeks later I built a 2 x 4 foot plywood box, 2 foot high with hardware cloth on top to keep them in. This worked well until I was able to convert our boy's old playhouse tower and swing set into a coop and run. Currently the tower is about 4 x 5 foot with total height about 10 foot high. The floor of the coop is about 4 foot off the ground with an open area under it filled with sand. I built a run off the side of the tower about 5 x 8 foot long and 8 foot high. All of the exposed sides and top are covered with 2 x 4 inch hard wire fencing. I still need to add nest boxes and I plan to add walls for the exposed sides on coop that can be opened again in the summer. I have to credit Backyard Chickens website for most of my planning so far and in the future. This has gone pretty good so far.
I look forward to interacting with y'all here and I am very grateful for all of the advice that I have found on this site since we started raising these chickens. I have learned a lot and I think I have a good idea how to make most of it work. I will post pictures and ideas as I see fit.
Thunder Chicken!
