We have chickens!

Well. We did it.

We promised ourselves over and over that we wouldn’t get any farm animals until we were completely set up and ready for them. But…a few weeks ago a deal on a flock of 30 young laying hens came up unexpectedly that was just too good to pass up. So, we picked up the chickens but didn’t have a house or pen for them yet.

For now they are spending the nights in our stock trailer, while Jordan works on completing their permanent house.

Marian is absolutely thrilled to have chickens. Her big fun in life now is letting the chickens out in the morning, feeding them and collecting scraps for them, and locking them up in the evening and telling them ‘night -night’. Whenever we hear a chicken clucking outside or the rooster crowing, she has to repeat the noise with great enthusiasm!

We got two breeds of chickens – Barred Rocks and Buff Orpingtons, and a couple that are a mix thereof. I really like both of these breeds so I’m happy about that!

We’ve had quite a time hunting eggs, sometimes we have found big nests, or a few here and there, but overall the chickens are being very sneaky. When we have their house completed we are hoping they will lay there so we won’t have to hunt so much!

Jordan began on the chicken house as soon as we knew we were getting the chickens. Here he is digging holes for the posts.

Marian is quite fascinated with the whole process. We went out and watched the progress whenever possible.

Some sweet moments with my babies.

My heart is melting….

Ok – back to chicken house progress. Here are the posts in the ground, with a birds-eye view from our upstairs porch of the layout.

Floor joists in.

Jordan had a lot of bed orders to catch up on at this point, so one day he hired a friend from down the road to keep working on the framing.

Jordan finishing up the roof.

The lap siding begun. Oh – also, I forgot to mention that Jordan also had to fell trees and saw out the lumber fresh for the chicken house, as we were out of wood. (don’t I have a handy husband? I’m not a bit proud of him or anything…:)

More siding on. I got to help with this part as Jordan needed another pair of hands to hold the end of the boards steady while the other end was nailed.

Looking good!

 

Marian enjoyed exploring the new structure!

The flooring going in…

Marian loves the chicken door!

I think its looking so good! I can’t wait to see it finished.

The chickens are happily awaiting their new home – pecking and ranging all over the pastures around our house.

One happy girl!

 Marian likes to spend time with the flock, just watching them and trying to get a chance to pet one. This picture of her and her baby doll sitting with the chickens cracks me up.

Hope to be back for an update soon with pictures of our newly finished chicken house!