I'm so excited, my first offical farm animals (I don't count the horses) are in the works. I just orderd 14 baby chicks from mypetchicken.com, they are scheduled to arrive mid-september.  Now all I need to do is get ready, build a coop, work out a brooder and learn how to care for chickens.  I have a feeling these 4 months are going to fly by. Wish me luck. :)

Kat,

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!  There's all types of coops and brooders out there.  If we had room we'd use the kiddie pool with the light hanging over the middle for a brooder.  Unfortunately we don't have the room.  We have chicks coming next week.  This is what we have used in the past and will use again this time:

http://www.poultryhelp.com/brooders.html

Have fun!

awesome! Congrats!! They really are very much fun!  I am getting ready to buy an incubator so I can have even more fun!  Be careful…it IS addicting!

Thanks everyone!  I know I will be asking lots of questions and reading all the chicken threads.  I've already learned so much from this wonderful forum, I'm sure I will be able to get all the advice and help I need right here.  I will keep everyone updated along the way to baby chicken day. :) 

CindyP – I guess technically we do have "winter" in central AZ but being an Ohio transplant, I wouldn’t call it winter.  “Winter” here is actually a big growing season (we have two here), the highs are in the mid-50’s to mid-60’s but those temps don’t usually hit the valley until late January or early February. Last year we had a week were the lows dropped to the 30’s and we had frost but it was an unusually cold winter. The heat here is the bigger concern for chickens (all animals really).  In September when they are due to arrive our temps will still be in the triple digits, but hopefully by mid-October when they are ready to go in there coop, temps will have dropped into the 90’s. I plan on putting the coop in one of our empty horse pens; the pens have misters which keep them approximately 10 – 15 degrees cooler then the ambient temp.  I hope they adjust okay.  My horses had a hard first year (they were shipped out here in around the end of March in full winter coats (40’s in Ohio) and when they got here it was mid-eighties) but they seem to have adjusted better than I have.

For a brooder, I think we have decided to use a large (giant puppy sized) unused dog crate, with cardboard tied to the sides and some chicken wire across the top. As for a coop, I found one I liked on Craigslist but I’m still waiting for a reply from the seller.  If that does not work out, we have a backup plan of hiring a local guy to build one. I know, I know, that’s probably not the most economical route to take but I really want a pretty coop (please don’t judge me).

I'm getting pretty excited, it seems far away but time will fly with all the things we need to do before they get here.  Plus, they'll be something to look forward too and help get us through the long HOT summer.

Good luck Kat….and be sure to share pictures!

Day one one of chicken coop construction.  We have decided to made the coop modular for easy moving in the furture. The courrent location is inside an unused horse stall, so if we ever need to make it into a used horse stall the coop needs to be easy to move.  So with that in mind the construction photos may look a little strange at first. 

 On day one, we got both of the side walls for the coop portion done,  they are constructed out of 4x4's, 2x4's and hardware cloth.  The portion at the bottom that is covered by the hardware cloth will be part of the attached run under the coop.  The coop is 6' by 8' and sit 24 inches off the ground.