My Chicken Adventure:
Here are the chicks the day we got them, they were one week old, we bought them from a local elementary school that had them for their first week of life in order teach the kids about animals and sustainable living. Our pup Emmi was very interested in meeting the new members of our household. We picked out three that were all different looking in order to make telling them apart easy. The yellow one we named Omlette (formerly Belle), the black and white one was named Penguin by the kids at the school and we liked it, and the brown one was named Chipmunk and was renamed Bennedict, but later renamed again to BirdBrains.
So now that we had chicks it was time for me to start building the coop, we picked out a shady area that hopefully will keep the temps down in the summer
We decided to make the footprint about 5x8, and the reused 4x4's limited the height to about 7', and I found a nice branch to use as a perching spot for them when they get bigger
I ended up having to keep updating their brooder as they grew, This next picture is Omlette showing us that she can jump up on top of the water jar, thus getting one step closer to escape and our lovely pup Emmi.
This is the new brooder which we still kept inside the kennel so that Emmi didn't try and knock it over
Here are some more pics of the coop in progress
I decided to make the outside side of the henhouse a door to make cleaning a little easier
This is Penguin, exploring the house
Although the coop is nowhere close to being done yet we decided to let them explore the area a little
After some more researching I decided to try and make the henhouse more open, I am worried about it getting too hot in the summer, I tested it out with Emmi
And finally here it is with out the roof and then with the roof
I still have some finishing work to do, but the chickens are in there and happy, I put an automatic waterer in there for them and built a feeder out of a stainless steel bucket, Now we wait and in a few months hopefully eggs.
7/7/2011
Update: We got our first egg today! It's tiny and completely white
We are guessing it was laid by Omlette but arent completely sure. We actually weren't even expecting eggs for another month as our chickens are only 4 months old, so as you'll notice from the picture we haven't even put bedding in there yet.
Here are the chicks the day we got them, they were one week old, we bought them from a local elementary school that had them for their first week of life in order teach the kids about animals and sustainable living. Our pup Emmi was very interested in meeting the new members of our household. We picked out three that were all different looking in order to make telling them apart easy. The yellow one we named Omlette (formerly Belle), the black and white one was named Penguin by the kids at the school and we liked it, and the brown one was named Chipmunk and was renamed Bennedict, but later renamed again to BirdBrains.
So now that we had chicks it was time for me to start building the coop, we picked out a shady area that hopefully will keep the temps down in the summer
We decided to make the footprint about 5x8, and the reused 4x4's limited the height to about 7', and I found a nice branch to use as a perching spot for them when they get bigger
I ended up having to keep updating their brooder as they grew, This next picture is Omlette showing us that she can jump up on top of the water jar, thus getting one step closer to escape and our lovely pup Emmi.
This is the new brooder which we still kept inside the kennel so that Emmi didn't try and knock it over
Here are some more pics of the coop in progress
I decided to make the outside side of the henhouse a door to make cleaning a little easier
This is Penguin, exploring the house
Although the coop is nowhere close to being done yet we decided to let them explore the area a little
After some more researching I decided to try and make the henhouse more open, I am worried about it getting too hot in the summer, I tested it out with Emmi
And finally here it is with out the roof and then with the roof
I still have some finishing work to do, but the chickens are in there and happy, I put an automatic waterer in there for them and built a feeder out of a stainless steel bucket, Now we wait and in a few months hopefully eggs.
7/7/2011
Update: We got our first egg today! It's tiny and completely white
We are guessing it was laid by Omlette but arent completely sure. We actually weren't even expecting eggs for another month as our chickens are only 4 months old, so as you'll notice from the picture we haven't even put bedding in there yet. 
