We are totally new to this!! Just ordered our chicks!

[JeninMN]

Hi everyone

We are so excited and really really happy to have found you all!

We just placed our order and they will be here Monday morning...so we have some work to do!

I am reading all the great info on this website but would love to hear from you all about your experiences when you were new to this...

Looking for any and all advice! Do's and don'ts? Chicken coop building advice? we will have to have the top enclosed as well as the neighbor has cats , etc...

Looking forward to hearing from you!!

Jen & Mike Lawrence

 

[chickflick]

Welcome to BYC! You'll learn alot from this site. So... what have you done to prepare for the chicks? Brooder ready...feeder, waterer, heat lamp, pine shavings.... How many chicks are you getting? Have you started building a coop? They grow really fast, so be ready! Give some more details so we can help you more! What breeds? so many questions!!

 

[Sugar Sand Farm]

Hi welcome to the site. You will find alot of good people on here. We have had chickens for three years but got them as older pullets. We ordered our first baby chicks from Sandhill preservation and are still waiting for them. It will be a good experience for the grandkids watching them grow up.We have to have a covered run for the coop as well as we live adjacent to the wildlife management area. We get all kinds of critters during the night. and have plenty of hawks,owls and a few eagles near by. Welcome again Micki

 

[JeninMN]

Hi!

We went in and talked to the owner of our Country Store for quite a while and he recommended we order buff orphingtons...the minimum order was 25...so we have 25 coming along with 2 roosters...He said we will pick up everything we need on Monday when we pick up the chicks...we have a few old kennels that we were going to start them off in in the house....we are getting bldg materials ready for a coop...looking for any and all ideas from you!

 

[appleton78]

Hi Jen,

I am in MN also...Hutchinson....

I have gotten advice from here and gleaned tons of knowledge from reading previous posts.

I have had my chickies a bit over a month. My husband is busy every evening building their big girl coop. At present they keep going from brooder to brooder...it gets bigger and bigger.....

We are having so much fun though....yesterday the cricket and meal worm project we had with them was so much fun...my sides hurt today....

Have Fun!!!

 

[appleton78]

Hi Jen...

Just a suggestion...I would get your brooder area set up well prior to getting your chicks home. That way the temp is up to optimum, and you can have everything all ready so you can quickly get them in as soon as you get them home.

That way they won't suffer any major temp. fluxuations. You can have the food and water all ready to go too....From what I understand....this is the best way to go...

HTH....Michele~~

 

[Dawn419]

Quote:
I second what Michele says about the brooder. It should be set up and to temperature before bringing the chicks home. It will be less stressful on the chicks. Also, make sure to keep extra lamps/bulbs on hand as you never know when one of them could quit working.

We keep extra feeders/waterers and brooders on hand also...just incase one of the chicks gets sick, injured, or just isn't as spunky as the rest of them. Our hospital brooder is two cardboard boxes duct taped together...fancy, huh?

Some neat brooder ideas....here and check out the Coop Design pages.

Welcome to BYC!!!

Dawn

 

[Mrs MIA]

The best thing someone told me about was the non-slip matting material, usually used to keep rugs from slipping, or used in kitchen cabinets - cut a piece the size of the brooder for them to walk on for a few days before going to shavings. Helps with the spraddle leg while they're still getting their land-legs.

Plus, it's really easy to lift out, put a new one in, and wash the dirty one - they come clean really quick!

But I'll third the part about having the brooder running when you go to pick up the chicks... get it up to temp and all decked out for your babies. Sprinkle a little food on the floor, and be sure to dip their beaks in the water, one at a time, so they know what/where it is. Since you're getting them from a store, they may be old enough that you don't have to worry about that part, though.

Congratulations on your new babies, and many sleepless nights reading up on the forum! It's addicting!!

 

[cjeanean]

Welcome!!!! I, too, am a newbie, and I've been bugging everyone here about chickens 101!!! LOL!!! Everyone here is very helpful, and you'll always get at least one reply to your questions.....it's awesome!!!! Like everyone else said, get everything ready for them....we went to our feed store and randomly purchased 10 chicks, the lamp, food, and shavings all at once. Needless to say, although we set everything up as quickly as possible, they definately didn't come home to a warm, nice, comfortable bed. They had to sit under the light until the kennel half that we were using warmed up a a bit. Oh, and just to give you the heads up, they grow INSANELY fast!!!!! Mine are just about 6 wks old (something like that) and they've already got their feathers and are just plain huge. Are you using one of those large plastic kennels with the wire doors???? If so, we used the same thing, except we took it apart and used just half of it (we blocked the open end off with some cardboard to prevent drafts and AWOL's) so we could easily clean it out and also for convienience with the clip light. Just to give you the heads up, if you are gonna be using a plastic kennel or even a few kennels and you're getting 25 chicks, be prepared to need more space for them in a very short amount of time. We only had 10 and the kennel only lasted maybe 3 weeks before they started getting cramped. Also, be prepared for flying lessons!!!!!!!! I will never forget the shock of coming home to find a chick in our dog food bag!!!!! Then, when we put her back with her buddies, she flew out again!!!! The others quickly followed suit, and 10 little FAST chickens running and flying around your house is a mess you don't want to clean up!!! LOL! So don't forget that once they start to get all their wing feathers in you might want to cover their cage. Anyways, since I've only got a little over a month of experience I'll be quiet for now and let the senior chicken experts take over

. Good luck!!!!!

Christina

 

[JeninMN]

This is so great

...so happy we found this message board, whew!!

We are really getting excited about all this..and you are all being so helpful!! Please, any and all advice...this is going to be an experience for sure!!

Is it normal to start out with as many as we are?? We'll have probably 29 total they figured...

How old are they generally before you start seeing eggs?!?