Getting Ready for Chickens

A few months ago, we finally closed on a home with some land. After months of looking, we found the perfect place for us. We're ready to dive into the farm life! First animals on the list: Pets for Kayleigh & Paige! 3 cats & a dog, to be exact.

 

 

 

But top on my list: CHICKENS! I've always wanted chickens. They will be fun to keep...I've heard they can be very entertaining....and I'm so excited about gathering the fresh eggs. We are converting one of our carports into a chicken garage, I mean coop.

 

 

We have a lot of clean-up ahead of us: lots of mowing, raking & tree trimming. Jeremy swept about 5 years worth of leaves off the carport. This photo shows one roof finished & one roof to go.

 

 

Then he cleaned off the barn roof. Fortunately it has a metal roof so the sitting leaves did not cause any damage.

 

 

Next we built a brooder that we'll keep in our barn. It will comfortable hold 20-25 chickens until they are 4-5 weeks old, at which time the coop will be finished...right? right? RIGHT!!!!

 

I put in a divider to keep the chickens and the mess a little more contained. When they get bigger, I can take out the divider.

 

A dual purpose brooder: If Kayleigh & Paige misbehave, they'll have to spend the night IN THE BOX!

 

 

 

See that headboard in the background? Watch for a future post to see where that turns up in the chicken coop.

 

We picked up 10 chicks today from a local breeder. We're going to get 10-15 more in a couple of weeks when some other breeds are ready. The 10 we got today:

2 Rhode Island Reds (brown eggs)

1 Black Copper Maran (dark chocolate brown eggs)

4 Easter Eggers (blue or green eggs)

1 Red Star (dark brown eggs)

2 Black Australorps (brown eggs)

The egg color applies only if these chicks actually turn out to be all female. The lady says she "guarantees" her chicks and if any of them are roos, we can return. So....we shall see!  But in the meantime, I have two very excited chicken caretakers.

(The chicks will stay in our laundry/utility room for a few nights....then we'll move them to the barn brooder)