A little over two years ago my sister randomly suggested we start a back yard chicken flock. I remember vividly blowing her off and laughing but a part of me thought it would actually be fun to do so when she called me during the summer and said “Hey lets go check out the chickens at the chicken place” I went for it. We are pretty lucky here in Westchester to have Rob’s Poultry Supply Store right in Cortlandt Manor. The owner, Rob is the kindest most knowledgeable chicken guy in the area.
We went in to just get the basic information and walked out with 6 baby chickens and a starter brooder box. A brooder box is a place to keep baby chicks warm, safe, contained and dry. The starter kit also consisted of medicated chick feed, a waterer and bedding. Overwhelmed by my impulse by I rushed home to research.
First thing was to look up my town codes on chickens. Four hens per coop with neighbor permission and we are also not permitted to have roosters, so the obvious next step was to call the neighbors and luckily they were totally on board. Phew! Each town in Westchester actually has its own code on backyard chickens.
Towns like Ossining also have specific acreage guidelines.
Next step was the coop. The chicks have to stay in the brooder for at least six weeks which gave me time to figure out the coop. We decided to attempt a DIY coop using repurposed materials from around the yard and only purchasing the essentials, zip ties and galvanized hardware cloth. It’s recommended to use galvanized hardware cloth versus chicken wire because chicken wire can cause injury to chickens and is easy for predators to chew through. We found some really great ideas on Pinterest but ultimately chose to use an old kids play house and our swing set as the run. We chose to purchase green corrugated panels as well to use to cover part of the run.
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After we secured the coop and run we were ready to have the chicks outside. We set up a nesting area for them and a ramp for the chicks to get out of the coop and go into the run. If I could of done things differently I would of mounted a perch for them and I would sealed the roof better. There are a lot of coops you can also purchase online or from local stores like Tractor Supply. We do have to worry about predators like coyotes and hawks but for the most part we‘ve been pretty lucky. I do recommend predator deterrents like electric fences and “predator eyes”.
