Monday, August 13, 2012

Chickens!

JD wanted chickens.
Reagen wanted chickens.
Jack wanted chickens.
Finn didn't care.
I was outnumbered.

We looked at chicken coops, new and used.  They're quite pricey.
We decided to turn part of our shed (used for storage before we built our garage) into a coop.
We already had the wire and 2x4s, so it was definitely within the budget.  The outdoor run cost a bit more as we decided to use a dog kennel and weren't able to find a decent one at a decent price on craigslist.  I like that the run can be used for a number of different things if it turns out that chicken farming isn't for us.

We've been working on this coop project off and on all summer and this weekend we finally go to the point that we were ready for hens.  A friend gave of 6 members of his flock:  three adult layers (2 Rhode Island Reds and 1 White Leghorn) and three "teenage" Rhode Island Reds which will begin laying in the fall.

On day 1, each of the adults laid and JD made the kids an omelet.
On day 2, we only got one egg.
On days 3-7, we got 1-2 eggs.
We've gotten 3 again for the past couple of days.


Apparently, they're not consistent with their egg laying.

Their names (thanks to Ryley) are Snow-Fire, Big Red, Redlight, and Flyer (which refers to any of the three younger ones as they all look alike).


Shed turned coop with guard dog Brodie.


Flyer (one of them anyway)


Snow-Fire



Redlight


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