L Cee

I’ve only started chickening, but all of mine beside the rooster who started this chicken adventure for, have been hand raised and trained, so I don’t have to chase or catch them. I have found that chickens are much like dogs in so far as they recognize their names and simple commands.

I’m brand new to chickens, I have six 4.5 month old chicks in an 8x10 coop, 10’x15’ run, 2 10’ perches in the coop and they still fight. Both boys and girls really love to ring my lil half size runt’s bell for no reason at all.

Chickens are dinosaurs, and no matter how hard you try, they’re still gonna be dinosaurs, I guess.
3 feet of that 8 is the human side, where the flush nesting boxes  and storage, with a man door into the run is. There’s a frame wall that separates the two sides, covered in hardware cloth so there’s still plenty of ventilation. This will be our first winter, usually fairly mild as winters go (NC) so easy to cover the hardware cloth wall and keep above freezing. Also chose breeds that can tolerate cold and heat.
Hope everything goes well.

Hey, thanks, I’m born and raised in Florida, moved to NC, and my first year getting chickens through the winter here.

A lot of great information, our substrate in the coop is sand and it was definitely great in the summer, but I think we’ll change it out for winter, seems to keep humidity up in the coop. So many unknowns as a first time chicken keeper, appreciate you.

I’ve only had chickens starting with a neighbor’s young roo he didn’t want to kill this spring-
We built a very nice run 10’ x 15’ welded dog kennel covered in quarter inch hardware cloth, roofed, with a small coop for him inside. He never went inside, only on roof.
But a roo needs a flock. So we built a 8’10’ coop. The same neighbor hatched 7 eggs for us, 4 hens and three Roos. Not enough hens for a roo. Got 6 chicks from a farm store a month later, only one roo from them.
Everyone is separated, way too many Roos, and guess what? No one wants a roo. So we built a separate roo coop and run. And only 2 Roos get along. So many thousands of dollars.

Moral of the story-don’t build your bird herd, especially as a first time chicken owner, around a roo. It’s not going to end well, for anyone.

I’d say I spend maybe half an hour to 45 minutes a day doing bird herd chores. I have two small flocks I have to blend when they get closer in size (a month a part in age), have sand in coop and run and poop scoop twice a day, feed and water refill.
I spend more time hanging out with them. First time chicken owner, I’m in it for the birds.