da COOP!

 

Hey sweet friends!

I hope you had a great weekend!

I wanted to share some good news with you…

Our chicks have a home…da COOP!

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They actually have been living in the coop for over a week.

Remember how I told you we bought the little chicks without first making them a home?

And remember how I told you they grow BIG really quick?

Well, the day I wrote that post, Cy and I took the boys to Lowe’s to get some supplies for our coop.

We decided to build the coop off the back of our small red shed.

We measured it off, and began to dig the holes for the posts.

Cy showed them how to dig the holes 18 inches deep.

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Jonathan got busy digging the next hole.

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Eli got in the action too.

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Once all the holes were dug, Cy set the posts in the holes and added some “quickcrete.”  He made sure all the posts were level.

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The boys were beside themselves as the building began!  Luke said it was the best day of his life! Smile

I absolutely adore this picture of my four boys standing by the poles they helped to build.

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The next day, once the poles had set, we began measuring the distance between the poles and building the sides of the coop.

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Here’s Luke and Jonathan carrying one of the long boards…

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They worked soooo hard!

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Yes, that is my sweet husband working in his “church clothes.”

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The picture above is what the coop looked like before I left for Utah for the SNAP conference.

This is what it looked like when I got home…

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Cy said he and the boys worked together to finish the coop.  It was great father/son time.  Cy called me while I was in Utah and said that Luke told him, “Dad, I will never forget this.  When I get older, I will always look back at this time and remember how much fun we had.”

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So the chickens have been in their new home over a week, and we do not have chicken poop in our house anymore. SmileThere is still some more work to do on the coop, but for now, it works perfectly.

 

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We let them out during the day to roam around a bit.  Eli usually climbs in the coop and “shoos” them out.

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This is Eli’s chicken.  He loves it!

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We won’t have any eggs for a few more weeks still, but when we do, I will be sure to share it with you. Smile

 

Have a blessed day!

20 Comments

    1. I agree, they will remember when they are old and gray themselves. I remember my parents chicken house and how we all painted it one year, what fun!! By the way my maiden name was Lowman. Small world

  1. SOOO exciting! What a fun project for the boys :) I love that pic of them standing by the posts. I wish our town would let us keep chickens, I would LOVE to have fresh eggs!!

  2. It looks great. How do you get into the coop to clean it out and collect the eggs? We bought 12 chickens last year and are down to 7 for various reasons (dog/1 rooster/cold weather). We bought 12 more chicks this year and are getting ready to integrate the new chicks into the yard with the older girls.

    Have fun with your girls. It’s a great family activity and it looks like your boys had a great time with their dad.

    1. Suesan,
      We will be building a door opening on the back of the coop when they get a little bigger. We will be able to clean out the coop and get the eggs that way.
      :)

  3. Traci our three boys are all grown – 38 – 35 and 30 and it still amazes me when they talk about things we did when they were younger and what made the biggest impression on them. Things that we didn’t give a second thought to made a big impression on them. Enjoy you time now because it goes so, so fast. Also by the way I NEVER eat eggs – can’t stand them but I LOVE chicken.

  4. What a great father/son project – and a great looking coop too! When they get older I suggest you hang the food/water under the coop otherwise they will poop in it all night long. Now the wait for those first eggs! So exciting!

  5. The coop looks nice and sturdy, and it’s wonderful that your boys had such a great time with their dad building it. I love making memories with my children. I would like to humbly suggest that you consider wrapping the run area in stronger wire fencing. Predators can be stronger and more determined than chicken wire can withstand.

  6. It’s totally cute and you will love the eggs. I’ll have to send you some great egg recipes for freshly laid eggs. In addition to Mel’s advice, I might suggest putting some wire over the top. ( I couldn’t tell if you had done so.) My BF had beautiful chickens, but the first ones all got eaten by a fox, owl, hawk, etc. They finally reinforced everything and now it’s all good!. I’d just hate to think of your kids finding only feathers some morning. :( CTD

  7. I LOVE chickens!!! Oh how I envy you and your “boys”! It all looks awesome and what wonderful memories to boot! A truly stellar day!!

  8. I am sending much admiration to Cy for taking the time to not only let his sons help with this project, but to teach them why they are doing a certain step. Just think what wonderful helpers they will be for years to come. Sounds like you are getting some good advice regarding the fencing. I DO NOT want to see a picture of Eli’s face if something were to happen to his chick.

  9. Great job!!!! And I have to laugh at how your chickens look. I remember when ours hit that “awkward teenage” stage, lol. Our three are beautiful now!! As will yours be soon :)

    What breed are they? You mentioned they’d be laying in a few wks. Gosh, ours took forever!!! All were around 8 or 9 months. I didn’t think we’d ever have eggs.
    One day I was at a flea market, and came across this HUGE ostrich egg. I bought it and stuck it in the nesting box right before the kids came home from school. Only the two younger ones really cared to check
    for eggs any more. The others had got tired of waiting..typical teens :) But, that day I indivually sent them out to check for eggs. The look on each of their faces were priceless!!! The 16, and 11 yr olds were on to me pretty quick. 11 yr old laughed. 16 yr old rolled his eyes :) But, the 9 yr old wasn’t quite sure. And well, the 14 yr old is a bit of a ding bat. He denies he fell for it..but, I think he did for a minute :)

  10. Traci,

    We usually keep 50-90 birds at-at-time. We move them across our pastures in portable pens. We, like you, started with a coop, but soon decided mobility allowed the chickens to give us eggs, supplement their own feed with all the yummy pasture bugs, etc. all while fertilizing our pasture grasses naturally and with absolutely no cost to us!

    Our only real challenge has been the occasional raccoon. Raccoons are very smart and will grab a chicken’s head as soon as the unwitting chicken pokes it out. Believe me, it is a bit unnerving the first time you find a headless chicken! Raccoons love to suck the blood out of the chicken like drinking through a straw…ugh.

    Strong fencing, a ferociously barking Pyrenees and vigilance usually eliminate any predators. Once we moved our chickens onto pasture, we almost eliminated the whole cleaning up process. Now, it only consists of grabbing the old hay out of the nesting boxes and shoving in a handful of new. Old hay goes to the compost pile to be used on the garden each year. We’ve eliminated any over-crowding issues such as poor health, low egg production and cannabalism. I really can’t say enough good about going mobile!

    Farming or any agricultural effort like most other things (such as healthy living) is a journey. You may never outgrow your coop, but if you do decide to make those chickens work harder for you and you long to avoid mucking out…there are wonderful resources to help you get started in pastured poultry.

    And, for the reader who questioned how long it takes for pullets to lay: most breeds will start around 5-6 months and will lay increasingly better as they grow older. Their initial eggs might be smaller with subsequent ones getting larger. We usually cull after 18 months since we also have setters providing a continuing supply. Since our dogs eat a raw diet, culling serves many purposes.

    Happy farming!!!

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