Since we can only have 6 hens in the city, I've chosen a mixed flock so we can experience the different personalities, egg color, and beauty different breeds posses. Our brood will consist of an Araucana/Ameraucana (Mable), a Barred Rock (Betty), a Buff Orpington (Lucy), a Golden Comet (Gertrude), a Golden Laced Wyandotte (Ethel), and a Rhode Island Red (Scarlett). The girls should be arriving from Mt Healthy Hatcheries sometime mid September. As of right now, we're planning to brood them in our second, mostly unused, bathroom. That may change if they prove to be too noisy and/or don't stay in the tub. I've ordered a Brinsea EcoGlow Brooder as a heat lamp alternative. It's supposed to mimic a mother hen's heat more so than a lamp, has less chance of causing a fire, doesn't interrupt circadian rhythm by having a light on all night, and is more economical energy wise. We're hoping to raise batches of broilers regularly so it's an investment purchase. I also have poultry water nipples on order to make both a chick waterer and a (hopefully) mess and leak free waterer for the coop.
Hubster has been building a 4' x 4', 2 nesting box chicken coop in what little free time he has, following this tutorial with a few minor changes. Ideally, the coop would be large enough for us to walk into and allow for expansion of our flock, but since we don't know how long we'll be at this base and we're limited to 6 chickens, we're going with small, cheap, and easy for the time being.
Many of my chicken keeping decisions have been influenced by this blog and I'll be following a lot of her advice as I learn from my own trial and error or what works for us. Unlike her recommendation of the deep litter method, we'll be using sand in the coop and run as suggested here. Hopefully the brooder and nipples arrive soon so we can get started on our waterers and get the bathroom all set up and ready for our peeps. I keep all of my chicken related links saved to my chicken board on Pinterest and it's where most of my DIY tutorials have been found if you're anxious to get started before I post my own versions.