So, we started with chickens... I've never had chickens before, but was told they are easy, and in my homesteady desires to try my hand at raising our own food as much as possible, I thought I'd start with these!
We got a brooder tub, the heat lamp, pine straw, baby chick food and nutrient bar, the water and feed containers... and then we set it up in the master bathroom where the chicks would be safe from little overzealous hands... we bought ten little chickies from the local farm supply store, assured that we would have ten layers...
One of the chickies got trampled by the others around the nutrient treat :( the other nine have thrived and flourished.
One of the chickies we named Duchess - we later realized Duchess would be more aptly named Duke ;)
Well, the chickens in the bathroom idea proved to protect the chickies from little anxious to hold those fuzzy little babies hands - but it also proved to make more dust in any given week than I think I have ever seen in my home in years and years - oh my!!!
So my wonderful husband took on the task of renovating the shed on our property... the flood had dry-rotted boards and unfinished walls. When we bought this house the shed was already here, as was the barn, the fenced in dog run (which has become my primary garden area), and the garage. We've never had a two car garage before, or a detached shed, so you can imagine that we simply did not have *stuff* to put in them, and even played with the idea of tearing down the shed. Well, my brilliant husband had the awesome idea of turning that otherwise un-needed shed into a chicken shed! Yeah! So, he ripped out all of the floor boards (I helped a little, but he did the large majority of it himself) and replaced them, cut, tongue and groove, nailed in, walls covered (more cutting and placing tongue in groove) and then he created a divider wall of wood and mesh screen doors, covering the lower portion with chicken wire. The finished result was FANTASTIC! (and if you consider that this was his first ever renovating project, it is all the more amazing - I really do not think a professional could have done better!!!)
The chicks just grow and grow and grow... we added some more nesting boxes and continue to watch them grow!
Fast forward almost a year! They are full grown and great layers!
(I don't have a picture right now, but will come back and add one!)
Chickens are fun, easy to keep, and contrary to all that I've heard about how they peck you when you gather eggs, and all of that, I haven't experienced anything like that... (just wait until they aren't on a nest to gather the eggs in the nests!)
Interesting notes - it seems with our chicks, there are two or three favorite nesting spots... never mind that there are enough boxes for them to each have their very own - and by putting an energy saver light bulb in one of the brooder lamps/ heat lamps, we can keep light on for them even on the darker days without running up an astronomical electric bill!
Home raised chickens' eggs are darker in color, richer in flavor, and fun to gather ;) it's exciting to see how many eggs we get each day!
This coming spring, when it's chick season again, we're thinking about getting another batch of baby chicks - doubling our little flock! We couldn't possibly use that many eggs, but I learned from a friend of mine that by having the extra eggs to sell, it basically makes the chickens pay for themselves!
Coming up next, our pig adventure!
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