So Leo and I have jumped in and purchased eight baby chicks. They were hatched two weeks ago today. Right now they are living in a plastic tub with a heat lamp out in Leo’s shop. We kept putting off buying them until we read up more on what kinds to get and how to care for them, etc. One day I got sick of waiting and talking about it, so I just drove by the local Farm CoOp on the way home and picked some up! I took the last four Barred Rocks that they had (we had read that those are good egg-layers and friendly, entertaining chickens to watch) and I also got four Silver-laced Wyandottes (which I didn’t know anything about, but the farmers there told me they were similar to Barred Rocks in personality and egg-laying). I grabbed a waterer and a feeder and brought the little guys home.
When I walked in the door, one of the first things Leo asks is if I bought sexed chickens or unsexed. I realized I didn’t even ask if they were hens or roosters! So, we might end up with eight roosters. If so, I guess we’ll just eat chicken for a while and start all over again for the eggs. That’s what I get for impulsive shopping.
Leo has built an amazing portable chicken tractor for the little guys. It has chicken wire all around, including underneath, so raccoons and coyotes (and Olive) can’t dig under the coop and get them at night. There are nice nesting boxes for them to lay eggs in and a handy little door for me to open and grab the eggs through. It also has a side that lifts up for easy cleaning. Hopefully we won’t have to do too much cleaning since it is portable. That’s the whole idea: After they make a big mess, we just move the coop to another part of the yard. We’ll see how it goes! We’re definitely amateur chicken farmers!
Side panel that lifts up
Nesting Boxes - Easy access to eggs
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It was so excited the other morning when Leo discovered a nest of beautiful brown eggs in our nesting boxes in our chicken coop. It appears that the barred rocks are a little quicker in the developing stages than the silver laced wyandottes. Because it looks like they are the only ones laying as of yet. But…we have lots of eggs! Just with those two! When they all start laying I guess I’ll just have to get creative with the quiches! Anyway, here are some photos of my first breakfast with our homegrown eggs:
Adventures in Arkansas 