Hey, me and my family live in the country about a hour outside of Charrlote,Nc. We got into chickens in 2009 around the end of January. We had goats for about 6 months and we went into TSC to get feed and they had  chicks, ducklings, and rabbits for sale. It was me, my dad, and my little brother, me and my dad had just said it would be nice to have some chickens when my little brother threw a fit for some ducks. My dad said we can't have any ducks because we dont have a pond but we can have some chickens. He called one of his buddys who had chickens and asked if it was a good price and his buddy said yes. So we packed the buggy full of supplys and got 4 RIR chickens and 4 assorted bantams. When we got home we set up and brooder box in our heated basment in a 3x4ft wooden box. So the next day me and my dad build a 6x4x3ft wooden brooder box and moved then chicks into there new house. Sadly one of our RIR chicks died after about a week. When we bought the chick that chick was off to the side but it was the only one left so they gave it to us free.Then we started  building on to the goat barn to make the coop. It took us about 4 weeks woking on and off. Then in about late March we moved the chickens into the coop. They were not alowed to free range untill mid-novemeber. I am open to any idea, questions, comments.