Chickens are in their very own home

I loved Sean's idea of adding the storage closet.  It has a shelf inside and holds the bags of food and shavings.  The flooring is ugly but it doesn't matter because it will all be under shavings.

Clearly not done, but close enough for them to move in.

Moving some slabs of rock...

...to make a bench.

Ugh, time to pound some fence posts.

Finally ready for fence.

Now we're ready for chickens.

Checking out their new home.  I read somewhere that you should acclimate them to it by taking them out for a few hours a day over several days.  To heck with that, we just chucked them out there and they loved it.

And this is the mess left behind in the house.

Catch Up Post

Wow, you'd think this would be the final post after all this time, but NO, the coop STILL isn't done, and I still have 1 rooster and 8 hens living in my sunroom.  We keep not spending entire days on the weekend working on the coop, but rather, bits here and there.  Its not working so well.  Looking back at the blog though, I see we have made significant progress.  I got a bit discouraged for awhile and quit taking pictures of every teeny tiny bit of progress.  I don't have any pics of the current interior, but here's where we are on the outside:

Got all the Tyvek on and the doorway cut, but not the windows.

Finally got all of the insulation installed.

Nest boxes are in, but no lid yet.

OMG, my view from the house of the pond isn't nearly this nice.  And they'll never appreciate it.

Started with the primer coat.  Got the chicken door cut out.

Here's where I get really behind.  Primer is done, and I've already painted two of the outside walls.

Still way behind, all of the interior walls are up and primered, now my daughter gets to start decorating however she wants.  The nest boxes are Dreamy Memory (pink) and Beach Sparkle (blue).  She still needs to add pink to the underside of the lid.  She got distracted by cutting seed pods off of our lillies instead...

She loves helping me with caulk.  She lets me run a bead, since its hard as heck and *really* hurts my hand, then she smooths it out.

The goal for the weekend is to get pictures of the rest of the interior, finish painting the exterior walls, get temporary screen put on the windows.  Get the door hung.  I really, really, really want the chickens out of my house within the next 2 weeks, even if the coop isn't completed.  Oh yeah, we're busy all day Saturday, and not much is getting done tonight while I sit inside and blog...

RainBob

Stupid rooster never tries to crow when I'm ready with the camera, but I finally got him.  He sounds much clearer now than when he first started trying.  Then it just sounded like he was strangling.  The first part of the video is just to show what he looks like now, its almost too dark to see him in the bit where he actually crows.

Field Trip

We took a break from building on Sunday (well, I took a break, Sean kept working) to take the chicks out into Sophie's dog yard.  They are too big to fit through the bottom part of the fence now so its easier to watch them. 

Sunflower Seed and Rainbow.  Rainbow always has to run over and stick her nose in if it looks like someone else has found something interesting.  

Chickadee and Rainbow having a little spat.

Here is the whole flock.

Coop Building - Day 4

Today we got the roof panels on,

got the other two walls up,

got tar paper and most of the house wrap on.  I forgot to take a picture before we came in for the night, so this last one is through the window of our sunroom.  I was too tired to bother making sure the camera focused on the coop rather than the apple trees.

Coop Building - Day 3

Sean installing the nest boxes.  I didn't even know Caitlin had taken this picture until I cleaned off the memory card.

This was on Saturday, May 7.  Most of the day was spent shopping for supplies.  I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick than drag the kids through Lowes or Home Depot ever again.

Here is what the nest box looks like.  Still need to make a lid for it. No, they don't each get their own room.

Caitlin doing some decorating.

Okay, the palm nailer is pretty cool.

And the framing nailer is one of the best things ever.

Coop Building - Day 2

Sean built the nest boxes last night, pictures to come this weekend after they are installed.  We have to go shopping tomorrow for the stuff to build the walls and roof.  I wanted to go for a hike for Mother's Day, but I'd rather get the coop done ASAP, so that's what we'll be doing the whole weekend.

Coop Building - Day 1

Yesterday was the start of coop building.  The chicks are growing so fast, and can now fly/jump over the top of their brooder enclosure.  Gotta raise that fence if I want to contain them until we can finish the coop.  Anyway, our friend Mike has a lot of framing experience and came over to help.  Its amazing how the right tools and someone who knows what they're doing can make a job so much easier.

Floor is done

3 walls are up.  The nailer is in the front door.

Here is the back wall and half the roof.  That rectangle in the wall is where the nesting boxes will go.

Done for the day.  That's one of our geese laying in the corner, checking out the new addition.  The other goose is there too, just out of the frame.

Testing Video

Chicks are about 4 weeks old here.  

They crack me up how they just faceplant when they go to sleep.

This was a big moment when they were able to hop up onto the top of the feeder.

Oooo...first time outside!  The weather was finally warm enough to go out for a bit.  We found out the hard way that they are still small enough to squeeze through the x-pen bars.  They sure loved scratching around in the dirt though.

More chicks

We were originally planning to get 5 chicks, but we got 5 yesterday, and there is another store in town that carries them, so we went to look there too.  They had different breeds so we got 4 more chicks.  It was really hard not to get two of everything.

Today we got a Buff Orpington. Ameraucana, Barred Rock, and Rhode Island Red.

Here they all are in their brooder.  It didn't take us long to figure out that leaning the thermometer against the side like that isn't a great idea.  We found it laying down one day with a chick under it and thought we'd killed her, but she was fine.  

Someone had said they like to lay paper towels down on top of the shavings, but it just keeps the poo on top where they walk in it all the time, which is gross.

First Chicks!

Life has been very busy as we settle into our new house.  We've wanted our own flock for many years, but always lived in snobby communities where chickens were not allowed.  Now we can do whatever we want.  In addition to moving to a new house, I broke my arm a couple of weeks before we got the chicks, so haven't been very good about taking pictures as they grow.  Now they are about 4 weeks old as I'm starting this blog.

On April 1, we brought home the first 5 chicks.

There are 2 Golden-laced Wyandottes, 2 Black Sexlinks, and 1 Marans.