February- Everything Beside the Chickens!

Everything else that happened! 

 I just like wearing my badge. haha.

After seeing me in mine, Will wanted overalls as well. He was pretty happy about them.

He looks so vicious!

 I can't remember what project they were doing. I think they were drawing on their shoes??!!?

I did the Hot Chocolate run. You get a prize if you do it for 10 years. I think this was my year 7 or 8. Just a few more to go!

Our annual Super Bowl Party game. Always a favorite.

 

Will started passing the sacrament at church. I always wondered how they knew how to do that. It turns out there's a map! Who knew?!?

Tyler enjoys sitting on the dryer and using the washer as a table. Why? I have no idea. But I had to out an end to it after this moment. We had just gotten a new set, and this set had a glass top. So that just wasn't going to work anymore!

Tyler is shooting on lane 3

He wanted breakfast in bed one day.

Beautiful lemon crop!

 

February- The Chickens

Amy and I set a date near the end of February to get chickens. A breeder was recommended by our neighbor (who also has chickens) and breeder chicks seemed to be a bit healthier than the mass produced ones you find at the stores.

But Will and I found ourselves in the Co-Op one day and we just could resist. We bought 3 chicks and cuddled them all the way home.

We surprised Amy and Tyler with them after school. And it WAS a surprise! They were sooo excited. I wish squeals and excitement could be captured in photos, but you'll have to take my word for it. Even the dog was curious.

They slept in a container in Amy's room and cheeped all night. She loved it. By day 3, they had to go into the garage because they are noisy!! 

That weekend Amy and I drove to the chicken lady and got the remaining 7. (Our goal was to get 10 total. Well, it started at 4, then went to 6, then went to 8 and if you are going to get 8, you might as well get 10. Chicken math is real.)

I mean, really!? HOW cute are these things???

It was so cold the day we drove out there, but here is Amy, happy as can be with a box of chicks. You know she held onto that thing the whole way home!

We originally wanted one certain breed, but they were really hard to tell the males and females- and we did not want a rooster, so we opted for an "easier to identify" breed.

We ended up with:
3 Black Australorp (the ones from Co-Op)
3 Isa Brown
4 Salmon Favorelle

All good, tame breeds that were great layers.

As they grew we did realize that one of the Salmon Favorelle was a rooster. We weren't thrilled about that at first. The chicken lady offered a trade, but by then we had grown attached to him. Actually, in a large flock, it's good to have a rooster. It helps keep the ladies calm and he is protective of them. He's just part of the family now. And anyone up and down the street can hear his crow. Oops! Actually, we tried to ignore it, but each of the neighbors came to us and said "I love listening to the rooster every morning. It doesn't bother us at all!" So phew on that one! (We live in the county so we can do what we want. There aren't any ordinances against it. But the last thing you want to do it make your neighbors mad!)

When the chicks outgrew the container, I needed a new place to store them until it was warm enough for them to go outside. Enter the old pack n play. haha. It worked perfectly!

Finally, it was time to move them into their new home. We worried about them all night that night! But they were fine and loving all their space. You know Amy wanted to get right in there with them!

It took until August to get our first egg. And since then they've been consistently laying. With 9 hens, we got 8-9 eggs per day. Which was a lot to keep up with! Since then we've added one more hen to the group. A friend of mine asked if we'd take her as she was the last of her flock and she knew she'd need a flock to keep her warm through the winter. I was hesitant since introducing a new lady to the group is touchy at best, especially since these have grown up together. It took a few weeks, but she's now just another member of the family and they seem to tolerate her. So currently we have 10 hens and 1 rooster. That's all we have room for at the moment. :) 

February- The Chicken Coop!

 In 2020, Lee gave the ok for us to get chickens. He said, "They give us eggs. Why would I be opposed to that?" But Amy and I distinctly remember him begin against it at one point. But anyhow- one day we got the green light and away I went. Aside from "wanting" them, I felt a strong prompting that I needed to do it sooner rather than later. 

I had no idea what I was doing. I watched a million youtube videos, checked out a few books, read a few websites- but I had never build a structure before. Especially one that something had to live in. But one day I just went for it. I dug some footings and away I went. I call a lot of my stuff "Somewhat Planned" and this was no exception. 

I wanted to be very economical too. I wanted to spend as little money as possible. I was able to buy the 4x4 posts and a fwe 2x4's but all the plywood was pilfered from a nearby construction site. I became a pro at going in the middle of the night and swiping what I could. Lee told me to stop telling people that as it is a felony, but it's been long enough and no one has hunted me down, so I guess all is ok now.

 

Because I only had mild plans, every step became a "hmm... how should I do that...." Luckily for me though, it always seems to workout in the end.

I was grateful for the drywall skills I gained while doing our upstairs. Piecing pieces together to fit and whatnot because I did the same thing with the random pieces of stolen plywood.

A friend of ours is a roofer, so he gave us a leftover roll of the underlayment as well as some scrap roof edging that proved to be just the right thing. I wanted it to be as watertight and cozy as possible for our new little birds!

Then the question then became "What to do on the outside?" Every option seemed so expensive and I just couldn't put that much money into it. Then came the shake shingle brainstorm. A friend's husband works as a company that has tons of tons of pallets. She offered them to me several times. So this time I took them up on the offer. I hooked up the trailer and went to pickup as many pallets as I could. I then cut them down to form the shake shingles. I was very grateful for my air nailer! 

Then it was time for the professional. While the coop could be a little off (and it was!) I knew the enclosed run needed to be done right. So I called mom and dad and asked if they'd come for the weekend. They gladly obliged and Dad was able to help with the run and finish the roof. When we moved in, there was a few stacks of shingles in the shed we had held onto. They were the perfect amount for the roof of the coop!

Originally I thought I'd do a clear glaze on the shingles. I liked the variation of colors. But because of the differences in pallet color, some places looked really weird so I knew I had to paint it. The whole coop had started looking LIKE a chicken at this point, and Mom tried to convince me to paint the whole thing red with yellow at the "beak" (which was really the nesting boxes.) I wasn't going to cute-sy though, so I went with old fashioned white. I was very grateful for the spray gun though! Amy helped many days as well.

 

After adding all the hardware cloth (the metal fabric in all the nooks and crannies) finally she was done. It took many weeks but the hard work had finally paid off. We love our little coop. It makes me so happy. Especially since I look at it and say, "I BUILT that! I had no idea what I was doing but I kept going and I BUILT that." 

Now to add it's residents!