We’ve only started keeping chickens in March, but Im already addicted! It seems like I’m adding to my flock every week and we’ve never had any problems. Whenever I buy new chickens, I keep them in a carrier and put them in front of the coop during the day, so the other chickens can get familiar with the new arrivals. That night, I stick them in the coop and usually try to watch over them the next morning just to make sure the transition went smoothly. Easy peasy!

However about two weeks ago, I bought three new chickens. They were young pullets only about 6-8 weeks old. I had a feeling that with their small size out wouldn’t be so easy. Things seemed alright that night in the coop, however the next morning, the smallest of the pullets had a bald spot that wasn’t there the day before. (Her feathers are already starting to grow back in)

Most of the research I’ve read suggests removing the chickens if the pecking leads to bleeding. Her injury wasn’t that bad, but I was worried, mostly because of the size of the patch and the small size of the pullet. So I immediately got some fencing, and set up a run for the little ones.

I also put up some wooden boards I had lying around, so that they had a shady place to hide.

It’s been a little about two and a half weeks of them staying in the run during the days, and going into the coop with the rest of the flock at night and everyone has been getting along.

They seem ready to integrate with the rest of the flock (trying to run out in the morning instead of going into their designated area), but I think I’ll keep them separated for a few more weeks, at least until they’re closer in size to the older chickens.

Since we’ve moved into the house, I’ve been pretty anxious to get my farm life started. Matt and I decided it would be easiest to start off with getting some chickens, so I’ve spent the past few weeks researching and pricing coops like crazy.

Whenever I want to buy anything, I usually start off with Amazon. They had some fairly cheap coops at around $250 or so, but once I started to read the comments, I realized they were all cheap for a reason. This was pretty much the case for any affordable pre-fabricated chicken coop I looked up.

According to various message boards, a handmade coops seem to be the way to go. Except we can’t really afford one of those sturdy looking Amish coops that go for around $1,000. We found some pretty good used ones on Craig’s List, at good prices, but since we don’t have a truck to transport them, that caused a whole other set of problems.

We were referred to this Amish guy, who I was told makes really good coops and his pricing is half the cost you would see them at the store and even better, he would deliver to our area (for a large fee).

I was pretty excited about finally getting a good, quality, coop, but I still wasn’t too thrilled at the price. I tried to convince Matt that I could build one myself, but he didn’t seem too confident in my skills.

Eventually I came across a used shed on Craig’s List that was previously used for chickens. It was going for just a few hundred and even better he would deliver to us for free!

It didn’t come with a roost or nest boxes, but it’s big enough to fit around 15 or so chickens (just in case I get chicken crazy). It still need’s a lot of work and isn’t chicken ready yet, but I think it was a pretty good deal for the price.

It needs a new floor, we’re planning to use some cheap Linoleum so it’s easy to clean and we won’t have to worry about the wood rotting.

There’s also some gaps that need to be covered to prevent predators from marching in. Matt also wants to paint it and give it a new roof. But all in all, he seems confident that we’ll be ready to get some chickens by next weekend. Yay!

Home Sweet Home

The past few weeks has been a blur pf packing and unpacking and we’re not even close to settled in yet. But that hasn’t stopped me from doing some major chicken coop shopping.

Matt thinks we should keep any chickens in a run to keep them safe from predators, but we have two huge enclosures already set up, so I think our future chickens should be able to free range as much as they want during the day.

From what I read, one of the ways to keep free range chickens safe, is to have a rooster in your flock. But being as we’re so new to the neighborhood, I think keeping a rooster right away might be pushing it.

So, my initial plan was to use some sort of baseball netting to cover the enclosure, so we wouldn’t have to worry about hawk attacks. However, I do think, at least for now, that there’s probably enough bushes and tree cover to sufficiently protect the chickens from hawks.

Being that I’m so lazy, I’m hoping the chickens will clear most of the weeds in the enclosure,so I don’t have to do it. Once that happens though, we might need to make sure they have some overhead protections, like the baseball netting.

Other than hawks, my main concern is that we have is a large number of feral cats that like to hang out in our backyard. Because of this, I’m considering making sure the enclosure is covered in Hardware Cloth that’s more likely to keep predators out. Since cat’s are sneaky, it won’t be able to keep them out, but it might make it a big enough hassle for the cats to deter them. Also, it’s probably better to get larger chickens that small cats are less likely to attack, which means no more Bantams.

As I’ve mentioned before, I have done a fair amount of research on how to raise chickens. I even attended a poultry rearing workshop at Midsummer Farms. I just haven’t done much research on the different types of chicken breeds. The only thing I really care about, is that any chickens be kid friendly and also hardy enough to survive harsh winters. But since there are so many breeds to choose from, it’s pretty difficult to narrow down

The winters here can get pretty bad, and also we plan to use the Deep Litter Method to keep our chicken coop warm. Even though the deep litter method requires ventilation in the chicken coop, I’m sure it’s pretty effective if done correctly, but since we’re newbies, it’s probably best to err on the side of us not knowing what we’re doing. Which is why it’s important that our chickens be cold hardy.

The chicken raising workshop I took at Midsummer Farm was 2 years ago. While I still have my notes, all it says is “Blue Laced Red and Winnebago” and for the life of me, I can’t remember why those two breeds were particularly good. My Pet Chicken also has a chicken breed selector tool, but my answers came up with 26 different types of breeds! Way too many for me to choose from.

So My takeaway is that it doesn’t really matter what breed I end up getting, especially if I buy them locally. I might pick Bantam Chickens, just because they sound cute. But I’ll most likely end up adopting chickens from our local animal sanctuary.