So, after much much MUCH thought, and talking with out neighbors, we have decided that we are going to take the plunge into chickens!
When we bought our house (almost) 3 years ago, we were actually looking for a little bit of land to have a very small farmette (small garden, few chickens, and maybe a couple goats), but in the long run it turned out that we bought a small house on a small lot in a subdivision in the country because most of the ones that we liked were at the very tippy top of our price range, and we had no idea how to keep any animals/garden, so we thought we would start smaller and branch out when my husband got out of the Marine Corps.
Fast forward 3 years.. we have a okay size place, considering we have 3 dogs that have the run of the yard immediately behind the house and live on about 1/3 of an acre! We have 6 4x8 raised beds and a section for corn, 2 apple and 1 pear trees, 4 grape vines, a mulberry bush, and 4 raspberry bushes.
When we bought the house, we of course decided that we would follow the rules and not have chickens, but, as time went on, our direct neighbor got some Guinea hens and chickens (who are constantly in our side yard pestering our dogs... LOL) and another family 2 houses up got chickens as well! We've decided that WE'RE going to get chickens as well. I've been pouring over all the coop designs and trying to come up with a good one of my own. I think I have it pretty well planned, and we plan to have about 5-8 chickens. (There are only 4 of us!
) Hopefully we will be able to start in the spring with the construction of the coop and get chicks! We're not sure what type of chickens we're going to get tho.
When we get our farmette (hopefully in 2-3 years) we want to have dual purpose birds so we can have meat AND eggs, and probably a rooster or two, but, right now we're just going to focus on eggs. Any ideas? I really want the Easter Eggers, but my husband thinks that getting birds just because they "lay pretty eggs," I think that it's a perfectly acceptable reason to want the breed!
When we bought our house (almost) 3 years ago, we were actually looking for a little bit of land to have a very small farmette (small garden, few chickens, and maybe a couple goats), but in the long run it turned out that we bought a small house on a small lot in a subdivision in the country because most of the ones that we liked were at the very tippy top of our price range, and we had no idea how to keep any animals/garden, so we thought we would start smaller and branch out when my husband got out of the Marine Corps.
Fast forward 3 years.. we have a okay size place, considering we have 3 dogs that have the run of the yard immediately behind the house and live on about 1/3 of an acre! We have 6 4x8 raised beds and a section for corn, 2 apple and 1 pear trees, 4 grape vines, a mulberry bush, and 4 raspberry bushes.
When we bought the house, we of course decided that we would follow the rules and not have chickens, but, as time went on, our direct neighbor got some Guinea hens and chickens (who are constantly in our side yard pestering our dogs... LOL) and another family 2 houses up got chickens as well! We've decided that WE'RE going to get chickens as well. I've been pouring over all the coop designs and trying to come up with a good one of my own. I think I have it pretty well planned, and we plan to have about 5-8 chickens. (There are only 4 of us!
When we get our farmette (hopefully in 2-3 years) we want to have dual purpose birds so we can have meat AND eggs, and probably a rooster or two, but, right now we're just going to focus on eggs. Any ideas? I really want the Easter Eggers, but my husband thinks that getting birds just because they "lay pretty eggs," I think that it's a perfectly acceptable reason to want the breed!
