Finished building the coop

Nate finished building the coop last weekend, I still need to get outside and paint it!!

Growing up....

The baby chicks are growing bigger by the day...moved them into a larger plastic tote so they have more room! They have real wings that work, so there is chicken wire covering the top. They are tall enough that we can elevate the water to avoid poop and bedding in the water dish....yuck! I'm going to try to get some nice pics of the babies out of the box, hard to take their pic and hold them when they can fly....

Cock-a-doodle... do or don't????

The #3 most popular question I've gotten over the last 2 weeks is "Why the crap did you buy a rooster??"

Well, I'll tell you... BECAUSE.

Because, I want to make sure the girls have ample "encouragement" to lay nice eggs consistently.

Because, roosters provide the coop with protection.

Because, one of the smartest men I know when it comes to farming, building, plumbing (my father-in-law Charlie Schlaud) said..."if you're going to buy new pullets next year, why don't you just hatch your own?"...DUH, why didn't I think of that?

Because, he looks cool.

Because, roosters aren't fertile until about 10-12 months old so I don't have to worry about surprises in my omelet.

**You DO NOT need a rooster for your hens to lay eggs...makes for "safer" eggs, hahaha, to not have one....they will lay eggs if there is not a rooster, its what they do... HOWEVER, Jen's rhode island reds never laid eggs and she didn't have a rooster AND I have read on several websites that people had trouble with egg production without a rooster.

Building away....

Today was chicken coop building day!!!! YAY!!! Almost finished it...just have to assemble it, wire in a couple more panels and attach hinges to make a panel a door and voila!!!

Coopin' it up!

Ya gotta pick a coop to fit your needs...Here is the one I found on a website called Chicken Raiser that I liked...we didn't buy plans for it, I just showed it to Nate and we've been "wingin' it". I like this one for several reasons... size, easy design for construction, portability, nest boxes on the outside for easy egg collection, plenty of room for night time roosting, will be pretty easy to keep warm in the winter.

Sooo....what kind of coop do you need????

1. How chickens are you going to raise? The fewer chickens, the smaller the coop needed.

2. How much space to you have? The smaller the yard, the smaller the coop, the fewer chickens

3. What is your budget? Reclaimed materials can be found in lots of places and keep cost down

4. Are you going to "free range" them? If you are not planning to let them roam your yard, you need to build a bigger run (a run is the enclosed outdoor area for them to "run" around in; exercise)

5. Are you going to buy it or build it? There are TONS of people out there who love to build and they build some really great coops, but you'll pay for it. Prefab coops are great if you aren't handy, but you usually cannot customize it and it will be more expensive than doing it yourself. If you are handy, but lack design expertise you can buy plans online... just google "chicken coop plans" and a world of plan site come flooding at you....I found them from $2.99 to $20 (a great site is Chicken Coop Plans)

**OH!!! for prefab kits that can include chickens there is a place in MD that sells them as a set OR you can rent the chickens and a coop!!!***

** My coop cost so far**

$2.35 each for 2x4x8 (untreated), bought 18 of them

$8.47 each for OSB plywood boards, bought 3 of them

$4 (i think) each for treated 2x4x8, bought 2 of them

$3.50 each, 2 pack of hinges, bought 2 of them

$3.47 each large hinges for the door, bought 3 of them

$21 box of 3" screws

$21 box of 1 1/4" screws

$20 each, plastic corrugated roofing (2x12'), bought 2

$8 roll of large "holed" chicken wire (for bottom of the coop NOT for the sides)

About $182 after military discount at home depot and lowes

**I still need to get chicken wire for the sides of the run and straw for the nest box (i have a month, the straw can wait)**

Chick Supplies!!

There are a few things that are a must for the tweety babes.

1. a safe place to live indoors:

These little cheepers won't be ready to go outside until they have their real feathers which takes about a month so make sure you pick something you can use for a month or something you can easily transition out of and into a larger container....*plastic rubber maid type boxes work great**

2. Warmth:

You gotta keep 'em warm....you need a heat lamp with a RED bulb. Yes, it has to be red....keeps them from going blind, and keeps them from thinking its always daytime....at least that is the info i got. You also have to attach the heat lamp on or above the home so that the chick level temp is 95 degrees and the home needs to be set up and warmed up to temp 2 days before brining them home. You will be decreasing your temp 5degrees a week until you reach the temp you keep your house or garage or where ever you are putting their home. (All the temp info came from My best buddy Jen St.Clair *thanks chick)

3. Food:

Pick a food that is for chicks. I chose Purina chick starter/grower. Was about $16 at Tractor Supply for a 50 lb bag. You don't need a 50 pound bag....I'm either an idiot or just hopeful that I'll do sooooo well this year that I want to hatch my own next year. *you need a feeder....I chose a small chick feeder from Tractor Supply that "auto feeds" with a mason jar type container (plastic for easy cleaning) $2.50 per piece...top and bottom about $5 together

4. Water:

Fresh water changed out a few times a day in the beginning. Chickens are stupid, no really....stupid....they poop in their water, they get bedding in their water....it gets gross quick, so change it out often! *you need a water container** I chose one from tractor supply that is plastic "auto feeder" one. $2.50 per piece...top and bottom about $5 together

5. bedding: I chose pine shavings from Tractor supply. about $5 for the HUGE brick...no idea how much is in there, I just know it was a big'un! EVERYONE who raises chickens said NO CEDAR CHIPS/SHAVINGS....I guess it makes them sick....

*TOTAL SPENT ...so far :

$23 - Chicks

$16- 50 lb bag of feed

$10- a 2 part feeder and a 2 part waterer

$5- Bedding

$9- heat lamp

$8- red heat bulb

$6- dollar general plastic tub (i have a large one to grow into in my attic, so that would have been free, GGRRR!)

$77 ** soooo far! there is still the coop to build....

there are HOW MANY breeds of chickens????

There are HUNDREDS of different breeds of chickens, but only about 60 of these are popular in the USA. Yeah, "only"....lol....So picking out what kind of chickens you want can be difficult.

You need to figure out how many chickens you want to raise and what you want out of your chickens: eggs only? meat and eggs? meat only? look pretty in the backyard?? We went for a chicken we felt met all 3 of those.....the winner for us was the Barred Plymouth Rock.....freggin adorable!

"Where do you get your chickens?" #2 question I've gotten in the last 2 weeks since we decided/started to raise chickens. Well, since my friend Jen has been raising chickens for the last year or so, I asked her. She ordered her chickens from an online hatchery last time, so we looked up different hatcheries for pricing, breed, and shipping. We also looked on craigs list and at our local Tractor Supply Company store in Fredericksburg, VA.

We went with an online hatchery that gave discounts for ordering more chicks, sold pullets and cockrels, and had a live delivery guarantee. www.esteshatchery.com fit the bill for us !! Since we were ordering 25 pullets to be split between us, we paid $1.52 plus $0.47 per chick because of the sexing. Since I wanted 8 hens and 1 rooster i ended up paying a little more than $22 for my portion of the order. Not too shabby!

**SIDE NOTE: if you don't care how many males/females you get, you can order a "straight run" and anywhere who sells chicks will always be priced lower for a straight run.**

What you really need...

All you really truly need to raise the chickens is a little bit of space and the desire to actually take care of them. You don't need a huge yard, or even a fenced yard since the chickens really wont wander too far from their coop and hen house. You need to be available to clean out the water every day (sometimes more than once a day), check food, collect eggs and clean out the coop and nesting boxes. That is basically it.

What I have is a total yard of about 1.45 acres with the back yard all fenced in. What I also have are dogs...2 of them...pit bulls (sweetest babies on the planet, but that is another blog).....and of course 4 children (not to mention that pool, so i hope they can swim LOL). Soooo, coop design is important for me in that i need to be able to leave the chickens in the pen while the dogs/children are using the back yard and still let the girls have some exercise. And I have time....I stay home during the day with the youngest of my 4 and work at night, so I can monitor free range time and the cleaning/feeding daily.

So, now you can sit on the internet and google some chicken breeds....Next post, picking our chicken breed I'll start giving a run down of money spent!!

SOOO, we decided to raise chickens....

Been getting a lot of mixed reactions when we started telling friends and family that we are going to give raising chickens a try...From "yay, that is wonderful...fresh eggs and a family project, great!" to "yuck, chickens are disgusting"......

I guess I should explain why we decided to raise the little cluckers.

Well, first and foremost, I wanted to. Plain and simple; because I can. And of course the ever popular reason, why not? Well, why not would be easy to explain: money, money, and who's gonna clean out the poop. But all the other reasons far outweigh the "not". Fresh eggs are healthy and free when you have your own chickens. No egg scares of bacteria and recalls...my eggs will be from my hens and I am the one feeding them and will know what they are eating. Fresh chicken is tasty as well....yes we are naming the chickens and yes we will be eating them at some point...I will explain in future posts why this will be done. I'll get some pics posted asap too! Building the chicken coop is going on this weekend and should be done aside from paint and siding.....hopefully you come along for our ride ! :)