Chickens

After months of planning, building and studying we finally did it! You can call us chicken farmers if you want, because we have our very own backyard coop set up and stocked with adorable little chicks. There are currently 11 of these little creatures running around, so many because they are too young to sex. Once we know which ones are hens and which are roosters we will bring the number down to 6.


Liam was extremely excited when we put them in the coop. He couldn't stop grinning, and pointing to them. We chose to do chicks because we want them to be hand tame, and used to having us around. They are already quite friendly, despite the fact that the farmer we got them from didn't exactly sit out in the coop and hand feed them.


We chose two different breeds, Americanas (which will be regular sized chickens that lay blue eggs) and Silkies, which are a bantam (smaller breed) that were recommended to me as a very friendly breed. So in an ideal situation we will end up with four Americana hens and two Silkie hens.


Here is a picture of the coop Jake made us. Its not quite finished yet, it needs the roof to be completed, and eventually we will paint the hardy board to match our house (when we paint the outside of our house). I'll will post more pictures of the coop when it is finished, but let me say that this picture does not do it justice. Jake did an amazing job on this thing, its all cedar with two nesting boxes and a good size run.