Chicken Craze!!

Guess what?


Yup, you guessed it, we are now the proud owner of 4 Buff Orpington Chickens!! And may I just say, they are beauties!!!

Are they not just the prettiest little things??!!!

We plan on getting more soon, but we at least now have our feet wet!!

We started building the coop a couple of weeks ago.  We did not really have a plan, besides wanting a portable coop, we just set out using some of the items we had around the shed to see what we could come up with.

After building most of the frame with items we found, we headed off to Lowe's and to buy the rest of it.  There we run into our first problem.....It is hard to load a bunch of wood and roofing material into a minivan full of six people!!!  (We all had to go cuz you know we all wanted to help!!)  Problem Fix:  I drove the 20 minute drive back to the house and dropped off three of the girls and one seat from the van and headed back!!  Problem Solved!!

Farmer Willie was waiting for us when we got back and we were able to load everything into the van, head home and get building!

Problem #2 hits...The sun is setting and the coop is not done.  Farmer Willie is in the midst of his busy tax season at work and does not have extra time during the week to work on it.  Another problem is that rain is coming later in the week and they are predicting it to be a soaker!!  Problem Fix:  DD's and I decide WE will finish building it on Monday and surprise him!!

So on Monday, after we get aCOWntant Willie off to work, DD#1 and I head into town to finish buying supplies from Lowe's.  What a crazy duo we were!!  First, we really have no earthly idea what we are doing!!  We tried to pull down some plywood sheets and nearly knock the entire pile down on our heads!

Then, when we are pulling down the siding we need, a friendly employee comes to our rescue!  They point out that the piece of siding we want is damaged in the corner.  I let her know that is NO PROBLEM!!  We just need it to keep our chickens safe from being eaten by mice.

We walk away and DD#1 is looking at me in serious disbelief!  She says "Mom, have you ever seen a mouse?"  Well of course I have!!!  Then she asks "Mom, have you ever seen a chicken?"  Well, again, OF COURSE!!!  To tie her little cutesy comments together, she then asks how in the world a mouse would eat a chicken!! Well...One bite at a time!!  Duh!

Okay, I thought about that one a while and I just knew I remembered reading that mice are a danger to chickens.  After a little discussion between the two of us, I now realize it is the eggs that are in mortal danger, not the chickens.  I knew it all along....I was just testing her :)

So, we get all of the stuff we need and head to the van.  the boards may look light, but they are NOT!!  We had a time loading all of the stuff, but we got it in!  The only casualty was that a piece of wood went into my hand and came out about 3 inches lower.  No big deal, I am a farmer now!  I just toughed it up and yanked that puppy out!!

After arriving home and unloading, we went to work!!  Took us all day, but we got the main part of the coop finished and ready to withstand the rain!

Here is the front!!  The door can open with just the top panel or the bottom panel, or both!!

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention, we realized that we made a mistake in putting down a plywood floor being that it would absorb the chicken tee-tee and all, so we decided to pick out some beautiful stick-down tile for their enjoyment!!

DD #1 is putting in the tile squares.

And this is the back of the coop.  You might notice the yellow foam stuff!
It is an expanding foam and I had some serious fun with that stuff!!
It is the new duck tape!

After building the coop, we needed a run for them to play outside in.  They will be allowed to spend some days playing in the garden (helping get the soil ready for planting) and some days just running around with the girls, but on days that we can't pay close attention and keep them safe from predators, we needed a secure run.  So we worked on that this weekend.

I will show you that adventure tomorrow!!  See ya!!