Here Come the Chickens

The second animal that we thought we would try was chickens, yes chickens!  The Gateway Drug to Farming. Easy right? - how complicated can keeping chickens be? We wanted fresh eggs and something to consume the scraps from the kitchen as we are now hauling our own garbage and wanted to keep food scraps out of the landfill. Anyone knows the kitchen scraps or just regular household garbage that "ferments" in the sun gives such a pleasant smell while waiting for their trip to the landfill - therefore we had to come up with a plan to reduce the smell while benefitting the farm. Harmony is a glorious thing once you can figure it out, and we are still on that journey.

Back to chickens - We have a barn on our property that used to be a fish hatchery back in the 80's.  There was a small addition on the side that I believe acted as the "generator room" but had been gutted years ago. We repurposed it for our first chicken coop. My husband who happens to be quite nifty was able to install a wood floor, roosts, nesting boxes, and a small run outside - in October while it was sleeting - bless his heart! This was a bit of what we call everything around here - "A Goat Rodeo" - not only were we trying to build the coop in terrible weather, we were under a tight timeframe because the chickens were arriving in a few days, which was a last minute thing too. After several trips to Home Depot - which for anyone that lives in the country knows that this is not just a 5 minute trip, like it would be if you were living in town. This was our first "project" on the farm, therefore there was a steep learning curve - Lesson 1: make a list, check it twice, call before leaving town!  Yeah Right! 3 more trips...

One of the first problems was that we needed to kick the cat that came with the farm out of her "shack", to another location. We purchased a cat tree and moved her into the main barn - well I do not think she was very happy about the move as she did not come down from her perch for about a week. I do not know why - the main barn was much warmer than her shack! This move really benefited her the most!

The chickens arrived and they were already laying eggs! I was not aware that they had to be 16-20 weeks old in order to lay eggs, or that they need to learn to lay their eggs in the nest if they never had one before. This was a true egg hunt every night when it was time to collect the days harvest - under the ramp, in the corner, under the hen, in the nest, outside in the tire, between the barn and a concrete brick. One must wonder what the chickens are thinking when they pick the most absurd place to lay their potential off spring! 

Anyways...there are many joys of having chickens not just the ability to have fresh eggs everyday and for them to consume the kitchen scraps, they eat the weeds, catch a mouse at times, announce to the world when they lay said egg, cluck loudly when you are on the phone or trying to have a conversation in the barn, they learn who is the treat coordinator and will come to the fence only when that person is approaching! Those first 10 Chickens became 60 plus 4 ducks, plus 4 turkeys plus 4 geese and so on....The Gateway Drug to Farming!

 

 

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