Chicken and Coop Update #3

 Olivia and Preston want to spend all day outside with the chicks and sunshine!

 The coop is almost there. The accountant is roofing and siding it this weekend. Next weekend we are doing the run.

 We moved the chicks outside with a heat lamp, because well, they are no longer chicks! They stay nice and toasty warm in there at 65 degrees. My house no longer smells like chickens and I got my extra bathroom back!

 During the day if it isn't raining I jerry rigged this mobile coop run! They LOVE it. So does the dog, Wesley, I don't ever wonder where he is, he is always right outside the bars.

 I love my little polish guys. Their little head piece gives them quite the attitude. Not sure yet if they are male or female. They seem to be female. We will see.

Chicken and Coop update

My wonderful husband has been working on this coop in his "spare" time. Which during tax season is next to nothing. He says he is enjoying building it though because it gets him outside, in an otherwise inside time of year.

We have to take the windows out before we put the plywood and siding on but we wanted to see what they looked like! We also are minus the gussets in the roof here...

"Okay guys I want to climb inside too!"

'"I want to build too daddy!" This is our nephew.

The chicks are getting bigger. I have them in a stove box I picked up at Judd and Black. Their feathers are coming along nicely! They hop and strut all over their box!

We took Mildred and Gertrude out for a few minutes of sun and real grass.

So far so good! The coop should be finished in the next couple of weekends (the accountant has only had Sundays to work on it), then out go the chicks...they should be well feathered by then!

We are copying a chicken coop we saw online at backyard chickens.com

Tips for Raising Chickens Organically

 So our chicken total is currently a grade total of 8. I have debated getting 3 more...better build the coop first though! We currently have 3 Black Australorps, 2 Golden Sexlinks and 3 New Hampshire reds. I love them! They already get excited when I go in to feed them, they are tamer when I hold them now, content to perch on my palm or finger. Today I am on the hunt for a larger dishwasher size box to contain them all (one got out this morning and was wandering around the bathroom floor.)

 Olivia loves to look at the chicks. She takes her little finger and strokes their head. I have to watch this closely as she is a baby and I don't want her crushing or squeezing them!

 Tips for organic raising that I have gleaned so far:

• Since the feed I am using is antibiotic free I am adding a clove of garlic and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to their drinking water every time I change the water (which is 3-4 times per day while they are in such close quarters)
• I have added natural branches for perches to encourage roosting. They ate the little bugs that came in on the branches!
• I put greens in with their food to encourage foraging that they will do when they are wandering around my backyard
• This afternoon when it warms up I am taking them outside to let them explore...two at a time. I will take pictures and let you know how it goes!

Tips I have read but not tried:

• Once or twice a week add oil of oregano and thyme to the water for their antiviral and anti fungal properties.

(I am buying some today so I can do this)

 Wesley is intrigued. He licks the chicks if I hold them close to him...I think he thinks they are squeaky toys. Little does he know they will soon be bigger than him.

Chickens have arrived!

 The accountant and I went to get the first of our chickens today! I was so excited I could barely contain myself. The people down at the co-op were super friendly and helpful. I came home with three New Hampshire Reds. Everything I read says they are large birds (7-8 pounds), they lay about an egg a day each, very friendly, strong and feather out quickly. If you want they are good for meat too. I am not sure about that part so we are sticking to eggs for now.

 This little girl is my favorite, and I think the alpha. She already comes to my hand and the other two follow her around. She looks like a Gertrude to me...

 The little one in this picture is fiesty for her size, my little yorkie is already scared of her. I am naming the little one Ophelia.

 The third one is Phyllis.

I love listening to them chirp. I am excited for them to feather out and then live out in their coop in our soon to be newly fenced backyard! I look forward to sharing their progress with you.

Are backyard chickens a need or a want?

So I suppose that for me it is the natural course to go from buying organic to growing organic. This past year I planted my very first vegetable garden. The only things that survived were beets, squash, beans and a few carrots. The cilantro, cucumbers and tomatoes for some reason decided they didn't like the weather. Or perhaps it was my soil. Anyways I am doing research on what to plant when this coming season and hopefully as I learn more, I have more success.

As my mind has turned toward more things organic I have craved many things. My latest craving or desire is backyard chickens. I wanted them last year but with a one month old baby thought perhaps I should leave it until the following year. Well, the following year is almost upon us! I have been talking about it so much I have the accountant excited at the prospect. We got online last night and requested a catalog from a hatchery just so we could look through the chickens. Our favorite so far is the black silkie look how fluffy it is! I must admit what brought this somewhat strange craving up is reading a book I had checked out from the library called "Made from Scratch: The pleasures of a handmade life" by Jenna Woginrich. It was a very entertaining read. The author is a girl in her mid twenties who moved from the east coast to Pennsylvania to "homestead". In the book she rights about chickens, bee keeping, angora rabbits (I want a few of these when the children are older), and so forth. Check out her blog here. Some of the tales she tells made me laugh out loud. Which resulted in the accountant wanting to know what I was reading about. So I would read out loud to him and he would laugh too.
So I have called my local co-op and found out the chickens arrive in mid March. They are only about 2.60 each. So the accountant and I have started planning. We have looked at many chicken coop plans. We are going to keep it simple. I am number 13 in line on the holds list at the library for the book "Building Chicken Coops for Dummies" and number ten for the book "Raising Chickens for Dummies". I think I want 5-8 chickens. Good egg laying ones. Not so into raising them for meat. At least not now. One more thing I must admit. I am not doing this to save money. Perhaps I will in the long run but that is not what I desire in my pursuit of raising them. I am wanting chickens for my children, so that we know more about where our food comes from. An egg is not "from the grocery store" it comes from a real live creature, one that walks around the yard eating bugs!
So come end of summer I might have eggs for you all! Nice organic farm fresh eggs. Doesn't that sound yummy? I welcome any advice you want to give me as this is a new and exciting adventure we are preparing to embark on!