Hooray for you to be capable and enjoy woodworking!!!
My husband and I are both helpless and spent most of our startup expenses on the carpenter who built our set up. Still, I'd do it again in a heartbeat for the pleasure and satisfaction our flock has brought us.
Amazing to think you can't have a roo on 2 acres. I was able to have one in our 1/4 acre backyard in suburban (but still technically municipal and busy) Los Angeles. Nevertheless, a female flock is a smart way to start out.
IF you consider younger birds, I find a folding wire dog kennel and a Mama Heating Pad is a simple, practical way to start out. You may not want all this going on inside -- there were challenges cleaning up what they kicked up and (god help me!) odors. BUT these chicks raised at eye level open to the kitchen where I spend my days are the most confident and friendly I've ever had! Happily, a garage or a sheltered porch would work well too.
One advantage of such a kennel is it's sturdy and the chicks above are now living in the run outside still in the kennel which protects them from our older girls while they get used to the new "intruders". But the truth is, for your first (potential) chicks a cardboard box will do just as well.
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And a word of encouragement and reassurance for your wife: I hadn't had chickens in the 70-ish years since I got a couple chicks with my Easter basket as a little kid. And then I didn't have to take care of them because they mysteriously disappeared by the tine they were a couple weeks old. So it was ALL new to me a few years ago too.
But keeping chickens is stunningly easy! They need a constant source of feed and water. They need a good clean up every 6 months or so (your experience in a different climate my vary). They need eggs collected (so they don't discover how delicious they are). They need secure protection from predators -- which should be a one-time effort if you do it right the first time.
Other than that, some of us find we can go away and ignore them for a weekend or a week at a time. And some of us are out sitting with them in the run on a regular basis just for the laughs!
Your wife will do fine and betcha she'll be a confident and engaged chicken keeper at the end of the first week!
My husband and I are both helpless and spent most of our startup expenses on the carpenter who built our set up. Still, I'd do it again in a heartbeat for the pleasure and satisfaction our flock has brought us.
Amazing to think you can't have a roo on 2 acres. I was able to have one in our 1/4 acre backyard in suburban (but still technically municipal and busy) Los Angeles. Nevertheless, a female flock is a smart way to start out.
IF you consider younger birds, I find a folding wire dog kennel and a Mama Heating Pad is a simple, practical way to start out. You may not want all this going on inside -- there were challenges cleaning up what they kicked up and (god help me!) odors. BUT these chicks raised at eye level open to the kitchen where I spend my days are the most confident and friendly I've ever had! Happily, a garage or a sheltered porch would work well too.
One advantage of such a kennel is it's sturdy and the chicks above are now living in the run outside still in the kennel which protects them from our older girls while they get used to the new "intruders". But the truth is, for your first (potential) chicks a cardboard box will do just as well.
_______________
And a word of encouragement and reassurance for your wife: I hadn't had chickens in the 70-ish years since I got a couple chicks with my Easter basket as a little kid. And then I didn't have to take care of them because they mysteriously disappeared by the tine they were a couple weeks old. So it was ALL new to me a few years ago too.
But keeping chickens is stunningly easy! They need a constant source of feed and water. They need a good clean up every 6 months or so (your experience in a different climate my vary). They need eggs collected (so they don't discover how delicious they are). They need secure protection from predators -- which should be a one-time effort if you do it right the first time.
Other than that, some of us find we can go away and ignore them for a weekend or a week at a time. And some of us are out sitting with them in the run on a regular basis just for the laughs!
Your wife will do fine and betcha she'll be a confident and engaged chicken keeper at the end of the first week!
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