It can be quite stressful and problematic when trying to add mixed age adolescent birds together. If you do want to add new birds regularly, I'd recommend only once a year because by then, the flock is mature enough to be more tolerant of newly arriving chicks. Chicken math! Here's a good system that I haven't yet been able to stick with:Ī 3 Year Chicken Rotation to Optimize Year-Round Laying Or you could start with a few and add new ones every year, but you'll also have to keep in mind what your limit is, and maybe rotate out your oldest birds as you bring in new ones, though some people just keep adding to no end. You could get all your chickens at once and have a lot of eggs for a few years and then not much later on. or using the greenhouse year round? The total number of chickens you keep also depends on coop and run space available, generally each bird will need 4 SF in the coop and 10 SF in the run:
Rescue birds in bozeman windows#
Each year, during the first week in October, teams and individuals take to the streets to search for birds that have collided with buildings in their community, to social media to raise awareness about this conservation issue, and to make their own windows bird-safe.
Rescue birds in bozeman free#
Will you be free ranging? Or building a secure run. Global Bird Rescue uses the Global Bird Collision Mapper (GBCM) to document bird-building collisions worldwide. Chickens will live up to 10 years but only lays eggs steadily for 2 or 3 years before slowing way down. How many to start with depends on how you plan to manage your flock.
Any suggestions on family-friendly, cold-hardy, pretty breeds?Īny other catalogs or places you suggest to get healthy, nice chickens? Also- what health care recommendations do you have for a backyard flock, and is there a good size to start with? 5? 10? 3? She has show our dogs in AKC pee wee events. May even be interested in showing at some point as our 5 yr old reaches 4-H age.
Looking for the most social family pets, good egg layers, and just fun pretty hens in a variety. One of our “garden sheds” used to be a henhouse- has a ramp, doors in/out, glass windows and nest boxes along one wall and is large enough to park our riding lawn mower in it (it’s current use) and we also have a 100’ x 20’ commercial greenhouse that will be refurbished as a possible winter “run?” We have 2 daughters, a 5 yr old and a 5 month old, breed/compete with Labrador retrievers in conformation and performance venues, and I’m looking forward to learning more about chickens as pets.
We live in Bozeman, MT, where temps have ranged between -16 to 48 degrees F all in the past week, on 5 acres with a year-round creek. Hi all! I just received a Murray McMurray catalog in the mail and am planning my intro into chickens this spring.