plottster
In the Brooder
My story…Last spring I made the mistake of letting my wife go unattended to the feed store. Much to my dismay, her and the children brought home 4 baby chicks…I was a little irritated because I knew what this meant for me. As much as she and the children claimed they would take care of them I knew the end result. The first few days went well but after that the chicks began to lose their “new” status. I began taking care of the feeding and cleaning, just as I had suspected. Take in to mind that no one had planned this out, we didn’t know how to take care of chickens, and we didn’t have a coop or run…nothing to hold chicks when they outgrow a storage box. It wasn’t long before the storage box could contain the little monsters anymore and I wanted then out of the house! I made a make shift cage out of chicken wire and lumber that we could keep in the chicks in the garage while we discussed what to do. About 6-8 weeks into this the babies were just getting to big for the makeshift coop and making a mess everywhere in the garage. I wanted the chickens gone! Somehow I was talked into building an outside coop and giving them a second chance. Chickens were a lot of headache and work up to this point and I thought for sure this adoption would end poorly. The coop was built with an attached chicken run and the chickens moved outside. Moving them outside and letting them free range changed everything. The chickens no longer required much attention at all and watching them was pretty funny. They soon began following me around the property and even flying up to sit on my arm or shoulder. It wasn’t long before I was ordering 4 more chicks to expand MY flock. I now think chickens make wonderful pets, they don’t require much attention, they don’t cost to feed much when they can free range and they lay the tastiest eggs. I probably would have never agreed to getting chicks if we had talked but it would have been 100% easier if we were prepared.