Chickens!

Those of you who know me from other websites or follow me on facebook know we got 16 chickens last week. 5 Black Australorps, 5 Barred Plymouth Rocks and 6 Buff Orpingtons. These are our first official farm animals and we look to get a steady supply of eggs from them in a few months. They will give us eggs for about 2 years before heading for the rotisserie or stew pot.

Here's a shot of them on the day we got them:



They need to stay indoors under a 95 degree heat lamp for about 2 weeks; changing the paper (LOTS of poop) twice a day. A few days from now we will be transferring them to their chicken coop, but they will be confined to the coop.



I have to say, I love the chicken coop. It's a converted dog kennel that I turned into a coop by using old bunk bed rails, the bunk bed ladder and wooden wine crates. Two roosting perches are made from leftover stair rail. We've got a grand total of $19 invested the chicken coop - some wire used to enclose a gap in the existing chain link fence.

Tonight we wedged an old piece of stair rail in their black bucket (a cattle feed troft) and they have already started practicing "perching."



Kind of hard to tell from the pictures, but they've gotten so much bigger in just a week. I'd say they've doubled in size. And they've all gotten their wings now. I had no idea, but they are born without wings.

I'll be sure to take some pictures once they are outside.