Hi Kayla, glad to hear you found us! It’s also great to hear you are ready to hit the ground running in your garden once the temperature starts to warm up and getting your first chickens is really a fun and special time. Have fun and we hope to see you around.

Sounds good Michelle, I am from Chico and that is where Deanna and I met, very familiar with squirrels although they were mostly the gray tree squirrels that were an issue.

Thanks for the feedback! I actually meant the run not the coop, we’re in California near Sacramento so they don’t spend a lot of time in there. Glad to hear you don’t have a ground squirrel problem, they are worse than the gophers on the tunnel digging!

Hi Michelle, keeping out squirrels and other birds can be a problem, we never had squirrel issues here but we would get a few song birds that would go in and out of the run to eat some feed but it was never too much of an issue, but they would never venture into the coop itself as we only never had feed in the coop. Hanging fabric strips can be an option if your chickens don’t seem to mind them, you may have to watch how your chickens respond to the strips as their response could go either way. Do your chickens spend a lot of time in the coop during the winter and is keeping the feed in their coop necessary? Sorry couldn’t be of more help but it may take a little experimentation on your part to figure out what works best, we appreciate your support and hope the irrigation system makes your life easier in the garden while growing great plants!

Thanks!

Ps. Also recently purchased an irrigation kit for raised beds through your link to Drip Depot so hopefully you got the commission!

Hi Jennifer, thank you for the kind words and support. We still like to use shavings inside their coop as the chickens still spend a bit of time going in and our of their coop and they will inevitably poop throughout the coop as well. We also like to dust the floor of the coop with DE after a thorough clean out and the shavings help keep the DE more suppressed in the litter. We also have other chicken related articles that may be helpful if you haven’t read those yet.

As far as different chicken books or accounts, we have found BackYard Chickens and especially their forum to be extremely helpful when it comes to diagnosing chicken problems or health issues that may arise in your flock. We also like this book on everything chickens, hope that helps and good luck with your new flock!