NYC area folks!

[AntiqueB]

Yeah, you're way over. I'm near Riverdale. Manhattan is much easier.

 

[LilChicksBigAttitude]

Hey! Is anyone planning to get chicks soon? I’ve been thinking about it but would possibly like to split the minimum order of chicks with someone (if buying from a hatchery). If so are you buying from a store, hatchery or local breeder in NYC?

 

[Zud]

I personally am not this season because my wife said no. But, if you wait until April, Meyer Hatchery has a 3 chick minimum in the warmer months.

Not a bad idea to order together, though, to save on shipping! I'll make sure to let y'all know when I'm planning on adding to my flock!

 

[CaroChickenMom]

Hello everybody! Thank you @Zud for creating this thread! Great to know that there are more fellow chicken keepers around the area!! I’m Caro,I live in Ridgewood, Queens and I’m also an urban farmer, I started chicken keeping 3 years ago, my flock currently has 6 chickens, but I’m adding more soon I’ll have 10 total as that’s the limit of my coop space, (if you would like to check them out this is their IG: @luckyflock )
I also have 3 cats that we found in our backyard as kittens with their mom, we gave the mom to one of our good friends and kept the 3 cats. I hear you all about the frustration of no having a feed store around, I get all my feed and supplies from chewy or Amazon and for vets im lucky that my cat vet also admits exotic animals and accepts chickens, I also used the Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine with one of my chicken that was very sick and ended up been positive for Marek’s. I agree that with the great joy of having chickens also comes a lot of challenges and sad moments, in the past we lost Anke to Marek’s, Chata to unknown causes, she just didn’t wake up one day, and Hortensia to a Racoon attack
I’m also constantly having projects around always trying to stretch the planting season as Much as possible, propagating plants, building around the veggie beds to protect against the awfull thieves the squirrels, and making new “playgrounds” for the girls in our small urban backyard! Great to find you all!
PS: this is the waterer that I use for winter:

 

[yakitori]

Hi all

Hey! Is anyone planning to get chicks soon? I’ve been thinking about it but would possibly like to split the minimum order of chicks with someone (if buying from a hatchery). If so are you buying from a store, hatchery or local breeder in NYC?

well if you want to drive up an hour to orange county I’ll probably be needing to get rid of some chicks starting tomorrow!

 

[Zud]

Spotted this guy hanging out above the coop when I let the chickens run free in the yard. Thinking about getting a guardian dog, but we *do* still live in NYC. Anyone have small or medium sized dogs that are good with their hens? Maybe with a less energetic temperament than a traditional working farm dog.

We're planning to adopt, but are hoping to find an adoptable dog of good breed mix for chickens.

 

[PurplePlum]

Hello from Queens! Just got my chicks from tractor supply in Stonypoint. Coop is in the process of getting done. I’m scared that raccoons and possums will get them, driving my husband crazy trying to build a chicken Fort Knox . Also know that there’s a hawk in the area, so unsure if I should let them have supervised free range. And, there are stray cats (my neighbor feeds them so hopefully they’re too full to bother my birds) . I have seen other people have chickens in their backyards by me but I’m still sort of freaking out with everything that can possibly hurt them .

 

[Zud]

Hello from Queens! Just got my chicks from tractor supply in Stonypoint. Coop is in the process of getting done. I’m scared that raccoons and possums will get them, driving my husband crazy trying to build a chicken Fort Knox . Also know that there’s a hawk in the area, so unsure if I should let them have supervised free range. And, there are stray cats (my neighbor feeds them so hopefully they’re too full to bother my birds) . I have seen other people have chickens in their backyards by me but I’m still sort of freaking out with everything that can possibly hurt them .

Congrats!!! How many chicks and what kind?!
Predators are absolutely fairly easily managed in NYC.
What's your design plan?
We have our run covered in 1/2" hardware cloth, with a 3 foot deep hardware cloth skirt around the entire run and hen house. You can also bury hardware cloth or chicken wire, but we've found the skirt has kept any burrowing animals out just fine and it's easier to install.

Racoons are more likely to get in through doors. We have multiple latches on our doors and carabineers to secure them. That's worked just fine for us. No sign of anyone getting into the hen house or run. No sign of even mice.

As for hawks, there's a number of things you can do, running lines or colorful wire or those "grand opening" flags above, scarecrows or owl statues (that you move regularly), wind chimes. We have a few that hang out occasionally in a tree but so far the haven't bothered our girls at all. We'll see when the osprey come back in the summer, but the hawks right now are smaller than the chickens and seem to prefer going after pigeons and small seagulls. We do let our chickens have free run of the yard while we're home *only* so that if something happens we're likely to hear the ruckus and hopefully intervene. We didn't start out with the plan of letting them out so much, but once we'd let them out for a couple hours a few days in a row, it became clear that they expected that freedom and we just didn't have the heart to keep them locked up.

Here's a post about our coop if you're interested: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/girls-first-chicken-coop.1550573/

The chickens will probably go after the cats if anything, not the other way around (that's how it works in my neighborhood, anyway - though mostly they just ignore each other).

Excited to see what you do.

 

[PurplePlum]

beautiful coop. raccoons are who I worry about most. We’re using hardware cloth, I’m just worried how determined they would be. I used to own ferrets and know how determined little predators can be, those guys got into the most improbable places. Hopefully the raccoons will just go across the street to my neighbor and eat the cat food she puts out.

 

[FoxySonia]

Another animal that we need to worry about are rats. Rats will make tunnels under coop and run, and will chew through chicken wire, and they will kill chicks, and if hungry enough could bite adult chickens while they sleep. Last spring in my yard I had to eliminate a broom of young rats, using natural, non-toxic homemade bait.