I mentioned recently that we were in the mood for chickens!

Most recently we bought a “coop”, four laying hens along with a few chicks. We eat an incredible amount of eggs in our house and thought this may be a nice addition to our “eat local lifestyle”.

The kids are and still are thrilled to help look after them, they delightfully named them, Thelma and Louise, Mustang and Sally…the layers, and the chicks Betty and Scarlet.

The chicks have been in the brooder, growing nicely, developing their feathers, and play fighting after long naps. They are fun and definitely have great personalities. Trying to fly the coop these days!

We are getting one egg per layer per day, that is not bad, they seem to be very happy. However the coop we started with is a bit small so we decided to recycle and re use the kids play set and then attach the two, giving them a warm house for winter and a place to held enough water, food and straw for bedding. Now there are four hens in the small blue coop now but when Betty and Scarlet are bigger we need a slightly bigger house.

We will also create some kind of run for them to be free to eat bugs, grass and dandelion. Now we have temporary fencing for them to get out and peck but I am sure they will be grateful once we make the permanent one.

I will keep you posted with our progress. Betty and Scarlet are below, very intensely watching me take their picture:)!

Start your own brood,

As you can see from the size of the coop below, you can have your own layers one day too! They really are quite easy to take care of, they even put themselves to bed at night.

Catch up with you later 🙂

Stacey

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