The Family Farm

Over the last year or more, I have been trying to get my health in better working order.  More on that in a later post, but this past May, my husband mentioned that he'd like to have some chickens.  As in, real.live.chickens.  I had been thinking about this as well but figured he would laugh me off if I mentioned it (which he tends to do whenever I make a suggestion at a healthier lifestyle change...men and all that).  So imagine my surprise when a week later we came home with 6 baby chicks, 4-5 weeks old!  Our goal was/is to have our own egg layers.  People have laughed at us when we bring up the fact that we are now chicken owners, and have make the typical "fried chicken" jokes.  That's okay, though.  Look how cute they were! How could you NOT want to take them home and love them?!

 

 


We are new to chickens, so we have really relied on family that have experience, along with the amazing site: backyardchickens.com.  The first few weeks home they lived in a tub in our garage with a heat lamp.  We made sure to hold each one at least once a day so that they could get used to being "handled."  My son immediately claimed his favorite one, which happens to be the smallest of the group (it's the one in the top right), and named it "Big Wheel."  Big Wheel and Lightening (bottom left pic) are bantams, with Lightening being a Gold Sebright.  We also have 2 Rhode Island Reds (who are currently named "Red" OR "Reba and Rayna" depending on the day) and 2 Brahmas ("Cookies and Cream").  We are pretty convinced that the bantams are both going to be Roosters...which is a bummer because we can only keep one and we've all fallen in love with both.  The other 4 are more than likely hens and should be pretty decent layers.

The dogs have not taken a liking to them.  Well, unless you count the obvious desire to chased them down, pull them out of the coop, and gobble them right up?  I think they'd be better if we had them out in a controlled environment, but until our main coop and run are in working order, they get zero visitation.

Daily chicken life is pretty fun and easy.  It didn't take long for them to out grow the garage tub....or to stink it up.  My husband works odd hours and has been building them a coop when he has had time.  It's almost done, but we still have to put the run together.  As a temporary fix, we have put them in a little tykes playhouse with chicken wire over the windows.

Every day we change water and food (they LOVE to ruffle their feathers and make the pine shavings go in the water bowl multiple times a day) and try to let them out to roam and eat the grass.  They're so cute when they get "outside time."  They take off running, flying, chirping and squawking like there's no tomorrow.  You can feel their excitement as they eat the clovers and bugs.

The Brahmas have been the friendliest and will climb right up your arm or leg and perch on your shoulder.  No joke.  They like to cuddle!  And at about 10 weeks old, they have really gotten big.  The kids have a great time playing with them.  B helps feed, water, and clean their coop.  LJ follows them around, waving and talking to them like they are her BFF's (well, other than her brother, of course).

They won't start laying for about another 10 weeks or so, but we are having the best time with them.  It's a fun, family adventure and educational at the same time!  We are learning about responsibility, caring for God's creatures, providing healthy food choices (non-gmo feed/eggs) for our family, finding out how nature provides resources such as food for us (even in the grass, cloves, weeds that the chickens chow down on), recycling our food scraps, and so much more.  We have lovingly decided to name our coop: Creekside Manor (thanks to living along a local creek).

As we are all learning together, I am finding these are some of the best days of my life so far and I am looking forward to more.