Hello and To bird or not to bird....

[Birdinhand]

welcome home! yes, to Bird!!!!

 

[ronott1]

Welcome to Backyard Chickens!

There is no reason to question wanting chickens. I know you want them and they are the easiest farm animal to take care of.

I see a shed and think: "That would make a great chicken coop!" See perfectly normal...

 

[Pork Pie]

Hello and welcome to BYC - great that you have joined us.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Hello! About six months ago I moved out of an HOA neighborhood to a new home in a more rural area where I have privacy and room. At the same time, I started a small antique and home decor business. I found myself going to estate sales that had chicken and rooster items (and buying them all!). I'm also a photographer and while shooting a backyard wedding a while back I couldn't put down the Silkies. I keep seeing chicken coops everywhere and am mesmerized. I think I need chickens. Badly. But I am nervous about it and want to find every piece of info I can find to make this a good decision for myself and for any birds that might come in to my life. I have 5.5 indoor cats. Four came with me to this house. One was left here by the previous homeowner (for real?) and one has deselected his owner/my neighbor and decided he wants to live with me. He is the .5 that sleeps on my porch by day and just about rings the doorbell when it is time to come in and go to the garage to bed. He hates cats so he wants nothing to do with my cats. Anyway...back to birds. I was at an estate sale this past weekend and she had chickens. I made my purchases on Saturday but on Sunday, I brought my parents back and we sat on her porch and stared at her chickens. I'm sure they thought I was weird at first but then she told me about Aretha FrankHEN, Oprah HENfry, Lindsey LoHEN and I was smitten. Her buildings and the run were amazing. The birds were amazing. She recommended this site and so here I am, ready to learn and make big decisions.

Beautiful introduction. Bravo..
Welcome and pleased to meet/greet you..
-connie

 

[The Farmers' Daughter]

Hi @iambejab !

Sounds to me like you've already been bitten by the chicken bug. Welcome!

Be forewarned, there are hundreds, if no thousands, of enablers here.

It's great that you've found people locally that have chickens. I have learned a lot from this site, but am more of a seeing type of learner. I would have loved to have visited other chicken owners when I got started, looked at their setups and gleaned what I could from there.

Everyone here has taught me so much. Any and every question you may have can be answered here.

I'm sure we'll be hearing all about YOUR chicks very very soon.

 

[lazy gardener]

Welcome. Kudos to you for doing your homework before jumping on the chicken ownership band wagon! Chickens are truly addicting. To that end, I suggest that you:

Build or buy your coop first. Minimal space recommendation is for at least 4 s.f. in coop per bird, and 10 s.f. in run per bird. Chicken wire will not keep your birds safe from predators. For that, you need 1/2" welded hardware cloth which covers ALL openings greater than the size of a quarter. Ventilation in coop should = 10% of floor space, or 1 s.f./bird. I strongly recommend a walk in coop. They are so much easier to manage. I also strongly suggest a GFCI outlet for a heated waterer in the winter. You can also use it to brood chicks in the summer, and provide winter lighting.

Avoid the little pre-fab coops. They are poorly constructed, falsely advertised: some coops that are advertised for a flock of 8 are not even sufficient for a flock of 2! And poorly designed, most likely by someone who has never owned a chicken. They don't meet the needs of the chicken or the owner.