My husband and I have had many discussions on how we'd like to become more self-sufficient and more times than not, these discussions have turned to animals. The discussions never got very far though. I'd research some animals and ask if he'd like to try raising them and he'd say no. Chickens came up several times.
So, one day shortly after Easter, the boys and I made a trip to the feed store. There we found the cutest little fluffy chicks, cheeping happily in several bins inside the store. The boys went crazy! They had their chicks picked out within seconds and, shortly after, had them named. I promise I told them no. I mean, my husband and I had already discussed getting chickens and he said no, so that means no. Except.....
They were really cute!! And they were basically on clearance because they were getting too big for the bin. And this girl LOVES clearance! So when you take cute and cheap and then put it on clearance, I just can't resist! I picked out 10. 2 cute little fluffy white ones that the store called White Leghorns, but I later found out that we Southerners call "White Leggerns." Those are the ones the boys picked out and named while I was adamantly telling them no. I also got 4 Rhode Island Reds and 4 Buff Orpingtons and asked the associate to try to give me a rooster in each of those breeds because I'd like to breed them. (I didn't realize at this point that you only need one rooster per 12 hens.)
Since the chicks were a little older, it was slightly easier to determine which were boys, but still not easy. She tried to show me what she was seeing in the chicks combs, but, being a complete and total newbie, I didn't see it. Nonetheless, we walked out of the store with 3 cheeping boxes plus about $60 worth of all the chicken paraphernalia that you need in order to get started with chicks. (That $60 wasn't on clearance, so, yes, they definitely got me on that sale.)
When we got home, I made the boys promise not to tell Daddy. I carried all the chicken things in the house without causing much suspicion. But when I opened the door carrying 3 boxes of those little noisemakers, well, that raised an eyebrow.
He looked at me and said, "Did you buy chickens?"
I said, while standing in the open door, holding 3 cheeping boxes of chicks in my arms, "No. That's ridiculous. Why would I buy chickens? You already said no to chickens."
He just smiled and shook his head.
We got them set up in the bathroom in a cardboard box lined with pine shavings, put in their new feeder and drinker loaded with electrolytes and set up the heat lamp.
The boys and I spent a lot of time in the bathroom over the next few weeks playing with the chicks. It was really an adventure having a flock of chicks in our bathroom.
These chicks were (and still are) spoiled completely rotten! Every time we walked in the bathroom, they would fly up to the side of their box for a visit. They would hop from the edge of the box right onto our hands and then walk up onto our shoulders. The boys played with the chicks, held them and loved on them. The hardest thing was keeping them in the bathroom. The boys wanted to carry them through the house and I constantly had to tell them to take the chicks back to their box.
We spent the first week or two drawing out plans for the chicken coop. We researched all the things that chickens required in the housing department and tried hard to find the best ideas to simplify cleaning the coop and caring for the chickens. Then we (and by "we", I mean "my husband") started the actual building process. He was able to use a lot of recycled materials, but still had to spend a significant amount of money on new materials. (So much for "clearance chickens".)
It took about 3 weeks of evening and weekend work to get the coop and run finished and ready for its new occupants, and, boy, was I glad when it was finally finished. By then, the chicks were big enough to fly around the bathroom and they were making quite the mess and quite the smell. Their coop offered them so much more space, roosting posts, and lots of ventilation, making it a much nicer place for them. And I was beyond grateful to have my bathroom back!!
We've had a few bumps in the road since putting the chicks in their coop, but nothing we haven't been able to easily handle. They are healthy and thriving now and producing lots of yummy eggs.
We've learned a whole lot in a short amount of time. The biggest thing I've learned is that I really, really love raising chickens. So much so that we have added another 37 to our farm (plus 4 ducks) and we are on the lookout for more chickens. No one could've told me how much joy I would find in raising chickens. I'm so glad I didn't listen to my husband when he said "No" to getting chickens. I never was good at listening anyway.
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