Well, it’s been awhile since I have posted here. Three months to be exact. Well, almost down to the day. It has taken several to get this post off. I truly can’t believe it, but sometimes life just happens and even with the best intentions things get pushed to the side. Clearly, this was one of them.
A lot can happen in a few short months. For us, that looked like adding 12 new members to our family! We have always known that keeping chickens would be in our future, however it wasn’t looking like it would be this soon.
Over the past 2 years living on our property, it has felt like reality keeps slipping in and this dream of ours (or mine) was further and further out of reach.
There is so much good in owning a property like we do. We have a couple of acres to call our own, and a home with a lot of history. I won’t ever get over how special it is that we get to build our life in a home that was built by my husbands grandparents.
There’s also a lot of work that goes along with living in an older home with many structures on the property that need rebuilding. Most of our time has been just trying to revitalize, rehab, and make this place our own. Sometimes progress feels like a distant idea. In early spring of this year, our hope was that the chicken coop and the greenhouse would get rebuilt this summer. Well, it’s the end of July and I’m sure you can see where this is going… neither have happened. Such is life. There is much more to do than there is time to do it.
Mid June I found someone selling hand made, simple yet solid, A frame coops on our local buy and sell. I threw the idea of purchasing one out to my husband. I liked the idea of being able to get started with keeping chickens before we could get around to rebuilding our permanent coop. No part of me was expecting him to jump onto the idea. I tend to throw out crazy ideas on a nearly daily basis. But, he did.
To say I was giddy would be a massive understatement. That Monday evening, I purchased our coop. Tuesday, I called our local farm supply store, as they needed a months notice for chick orders. Their last day to bring them in was mid July. I was told that if I called back the next morning at opening, it was first come first serve for any chicks they had left from the previous weeks shipment. I told the lady helping me that it was way too soon and we weren’t even remotely prepared to bring chicks home the next day. Then, I called my husband and threw that one at him as well. And he went for it.
He’s a good man.
I called back the next day right at opening. I called multiple times on multiple phones, just hoping to get through. I had shifted my gears from chicks being a month a way, to placing all bets on getting them that same day.
She had warned me that it’s hard to get through in these situations. Well, I did. I was the first one to get through and I had my pick. By the way, this is Wednesday, are you keeping track?
I wanted a variety for our flock. They only had specific breeds available that day. As much as I wanted a flock that would give me a rainbow assortment for eggs, those weren’t available yet, and they also weren’t sexed. The sliver of reasoning within me knew that for our very first chickens, I should probably opt for sexed. I ordered 3 of each: Rhode Island Red, Columbian Rock, White Leghorn, Sex-sal-link Brown’s.
By the end of the day, we were scrambling to pick up the largest rubbermaid container we could find, any supplies, and of course, our chicks.
On a Monday, as we were driving home from the pub, I threw this idea at my husband, and by Wednesday, we had 12 little ladies (or so we thought) in our basement. The coop was delivered the next day. Impulsive? Yeah, probably a little, but that seems to be how we roll.
The ladies just turned 7 weeks on July 27 and we just moved them out to the coop a couple days ago. You better believe I added that date right into our calendar. Busy life, plus wanting to make sure the coop was fully protected from predators had us keeping these birds inside a few days longer than originally expected.
Also, I keep saying ladies, and I keep editing it out. I should mention, we are quite confident we also have 2 roosters. At 7 weeks, I suppose you can’t be positive however it seems pretty obvious to us. One of which is certainly dominant, while the other is very docile. I love seeing our roo stand guard outside the door to the run as he shuffles his girls inside.
As I said, a lot can change in a few months.
