Our Newest Family Members Arrived This Morning

We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our baby chicks for about a month now. While we were waiting on them this week we began to build their coop for when they are big enough to be put outside. The coop project has been a great experience, everyone has been able to participate, and despite all the usual snags in construction, not using actual plans, the extra trips to the store and the fact that not everything is square or level, overall we have done a really good job.

Yesterday, most of the framing and half of the walls were put into place. Today we were able to finish the walls and put on the roof. Tomorrow we are hoping to finish it up with the screening and the nest boxes before the rain starts. Next week we will begin painting and sealing any areas that could let in predators. Our next step will be adding the chicken run. Here's hoping that can get done before June when the baby is due.

This morning I went to the post office and picked up our peeping box of chicks. I have been told that the first few days are tricky when getting the new babies settled and sometimes there is trouble with a few dying. I am hoping that we are lucky and got a good healthy batch. When we opened the box to put them into their new crate they were so wild that one even jumped out and began to run around so I am taking that as a good sign. They are adorable and the boys are having lots of fun watching them. To start out with we decided on just hens. We have ten Americanaus, they are also called Easter Egg chickens because they will lay eggs that range from brown to a pinkish and also blue to green. I figured these would be fun for the boys because we will always be surprised when we go to get eggs. The other five are called Silver Laced Wyandottes. They are supposed to be a gentle breed that lays well and we thought they were pretty, their markings are black, silver and white. This year we are trying just laying hens. In the future, if we are successful and like keeping chickens we may try to raise some meat birds also. The hardest thing about having them so far is keeping the boys' hands out of the box for a few days, and not sitting and watching them all day...they are really cute to watch.