A Chick and Her Peeps
It all started fairly innocently...no big plan or scheme. I'd always had and loved horses (but boarded them) and my father-in-law, named Basil, needed an upgrade in his living conditions. So last year my husband, myself, and Basil set out to buy two and a half acres close to our house where Basil could live in a nice new home and be close to us - and I could keep my fat Norwegian Fjord close to me and I could care for him myself.
Here is Siggy (COF Sigaurd)
And no horse should live alone...so here is our second horse, another Norwegian Fjord, Ole.
Everyone needs shelter from our Florida storms, so my husband and I (who had NEVER built anything) built this barn:
Siggy, and Ole didn't need ALL two and a half acres...and...I'd always entertained the idea of chickens...now I had the room! Yippeee!!! So last year I signed up here, got a couple of magazine subscriptions, got some books, and took the plunge in 2008 with these 5 cuties that all looked identical to this one (Barred Rocks).
They grew up into these beauties (again, they all look alike!)
And, of course, they needed a safe place to live & make our breakfast.....so:
Well, it turns out that chickens are WAY more addictive than potato chips! It also turns out that our 5 hens cannot keep up with the demand for their eggs! So we decided to build a larger coop where we could keep a lot more chickens. The lady we purchased the property from use to have 3 Fallow deer as pets (who knows?!). She had housed them in a 50'x50' enclosure fenced in with an 8' chain link fence, so my husband and I set to work making it a chicken coop/run. And we now have this beauty:
I am fanatical about things matching and looking "nice" so I am having to work hard to embrace its "uniqueness". But over all I'm proud of it - my husband and I are not handy by nature - we're learning as we go. We will be painting it and decorating it the days to come...I'll post an updated picture when we're done.
Since we have the larger coop and run - we now had room to add these cuties:
5 Silver Laced Wyandottes (1 roo and 4 hens)
We have a trio of beautiful Buff Orpingtons (1 roo, 2 hens):
We have 10 Easter Eggers - If I'd known how much I was going to like them, I would have ordered more!
And our surprise Easter Egger Roo....who is welcome to stay as long as he maintains his gentlemanly behavior! He is turning out to be gorgeous! And now we don't have to order any more - we can hatch some right here!!!
We also have two more new coops built - we can comfortably house about 70 chickens....room to grow!