A New Adventure Of Chickens

We have chickens. 8 of them to be exact.

Those are two sentences I never thought I would type on my blog!

But yes, we have 8 laying hens. When we moved to the country, we talked of getting chickens but not until next year. We gave ourselves a year to settle in, do some projects around the house (both inside and out), and just enjoy our new found home together.

At least that was the plan.

Then Chris got a text from a friend telling him that he had some extra chickens and that if we wanted them, they were ours. Chris enthusiastically said yes.

And that is how I became a chicken farmer's wife.

Or sort of.

Chris worked hard on designing, planning, and building his own chicken coop. I was super proud as designing comes easily for him, but building does not. Yet, he did a fantastic job! The coop has 3 boxes for laying, a waterer that can be filled from the outside, a pop door to let the chickens out each day, a side window for venting, a roost, and electricity so we can have a light on them this winter. It is seriously amazing!

As for the chickens themselves, I would say that for a girl who never really has been around chickens before, I am doing well. We let them free range, we feed them organic feed, and we feed them scraps of our food (such as leftovers from our CSA).

For a more in depth read on why we want them to truly be free range and organic, I highly suggest you to read this article on how to buy organic eggs.

I'm getting more used to them being free range and they are getting more used to me. They follow me around the yard everywhere I go. Which is quite annoying, although the girls think it is funny! I have had to chase them time and time again off our deck, and after they ate all my potted flowers out front, I was not too happy! I also had one that snuck into my house when the patio door got left open from a girl. Another one (or maybe it was the same one) jumped up on the girl's picnic table while they were eating a lunch of eggs (yes the chicken eggs) and ate the eggs right off the girls plates! One flew into Chris' car, and the new thing is chasing them off the road and away from the neighbors so we don't get in trouble for having them! So, yes outside of all of that, I mainly like them! ;) Except I do not like chicken poop. The girls have to remember to wear shoes outside now, or they get a nice surprise!

Right now, the coop is set up by our house. Next summer, I am going to have Chris move it back more into our woods so that way I don't have to chase them so much. They really have become friendly chickens who want my attention all the time.

The girls for the most part like them. Xiomara likes to try and chase them and pet them, Meridian is pretty indifferent to them, and Zoelle runs away from them as she is scared. But, they all love collecting eggs. We are averaging about 8 eggs a day which means we get way more eggs then we can eat.

Part of having chickens was so we could have fresh, organic, free range eggs. However, the other part was so that we could let the girls learn a little bit about business by collecting eggs, helping feed the chickens, clean the coop, and then selling the eggs. It is very much so a small scale business, but still something fun and educational for the girls to do.

I promise you that even though it may sound like my house or yard look hickish, we are not, nor does it. In fact, if anything the chickens have helped clean up the weeds around and in my flower beds! I also think they are really beautiful.

Yes, I just called my chickens beautiful. All in a blog post I never thought I would have to write about chickens! :)