Chickens

After moving to our new house, we decided that we have plenty of space to keep chickens in the back yard! We got really excited about the prospect of having fresh eggs! So, the first week of April we went to Cal-Ranch and bought 6 cute little black chicks (3 each of 2 different varieties). Sadly I was stupid and did not take pictures of them then. It really is a shame because my boys were so cute holding them and petting them. But alas, I wasn't thinking.

Here are some pictures I found online of what they looked like as babies.

We kept them in the garage in an open box for a while... then the garage started to stink like chicken poop. So we moved them out to the shed. Then one Saturday Robby got to working on their home. He built a chicken coop and run from scratch, with the design just coming from his head! (I have an AMAZING husband!)

 The hole in the side is where the nesting boxes with eventually go, for now it is just boarded up.

 This is the inside, if you look closely you can see the roosting bar across the middle. This is not open, it now has a door on it with a chicken wire winow at the top. It is nice to have a door, so we can get in there if we need without have to poke up through the hole in the floor (back corner)...

 Which leads to the "ramp" that gets them from the coop to the run.

The whole thing is surrounded with chicken wire to make the chicken run. The front of the picture is where there is now a door (made with chicken wire and supports) so we can get in and give them feed and change their water.

 One for my favorite bonuses of having chickens is my kitchen "chicken garbage". They sure love our left over food!

 Here I caught one coming down the ramp out of the comforts of the coop.

 They like to "roost" on anything. We have a few stones in there keeping the wire down and they sit there often.

 Here they are. All 6 if them. 3 black and white, 3 black with red necks.

 It amazed me how fast they grew and got big. I loved holding them as babies, but as they got bigger, and their feet grew, and they flapped more, I let Robby do the holding and transporting. (I'm a little jittery with animals, something I'm sure I'll have to get over being marreid to Robby)

 They usually like to stick together as a group. Now we are just waiting to see if any of them are ROOSTERS... we sure hope not.

And I can't wait for eggs!