Chickens

Here recently Ryan and I have been talking about getting some egg laying chickens.  One, it would be be something other than a dog for Liam to play with and two, we could benefit from their eggs.  I called Adam Clark last week to talk about what we needed to do and what to get.  With lots of research and online searching we found a chicken coop in Monteagle.  We picked it up on Wednesday night.  It's a small coop that only holds 4-6 chickens, which is all we need.

 The back door where you can look into the house....

Two nesting boxes .....

A perch where they can hang out.....

Looking into the house where the nesting boxes are .....

That night we looked through "The Exchange" and found a man in Beechgrove that has chickens for sale so Ryan gave him a call.  He said he had lots of chickens but only a few that were already laying eggs.  We decided that we wanted to go and see them and we would be by there the next day.  Thursday morning Ryan got up and started getting stuff together for the coop before we went to go get the chickens.  While I was cleaning out the closet in the kitchen and found a water jug that we used for the cats.  It has a jug that sits upside down and keeps water in the pan at all times.  I figured I would clean it up and see if it would work.  Ryan found some buckets and made a feeder out of them that we hung up inside the coop.  We bought some pine wood shavings and I lined the nests and under the perch with it to keep them comfortable.

Here is Ryan making the feeder ....

Thursday afternoon we stopped by Maggie's house and picked up the dog crate and set it up in the back of the truck.  Ryan wanted to use the pet taxi.  Imagine trying to put two full grown chickens in a pet taxi!  I'm glad we got the dog crate!  We entered the guys address into our GPS and headed to pick them up.  When we got there he only had 2 that were already egg laying, which is what we were looking for.  He had a white leghorn and a blue Jersey Giant.  We took them both.  We loaded them up in the crate.  They proceeded to do their business all in the back of the truck.  During my research I came across a chicken called a Silkie and I really want one.  They look like little fluff balls and are supposed to be really calm and good with children.  Tori Spelling has one and she keeps it in her house.  Not that I want to keep it in the house.  I just think it would be a fun and different pet for Liam and they also lay eggs too.  The man had some but they were only 3 days old and way too little for me to be taking care of right now!!! I told him that I would like to see them when they get older.  Maybe we can get one then. :)

My mom and dad met us at the house when we got back.  Dad helped Ryan get the chickens out of the back of the truck.  I wish I would have video taped what happened!  As they were carrying the cage into the back yard, the blue one got loose.  We chased it around the car and finally chased it into the back yard.  As I tried to catch it, Ryan and dad got the white one into the coop.  I gave up on the blue one and let the guys catch him.  After about 5 minutes of trying to corner it, Ryan finally caught her and got her into the coop with the white one.  No animals were harmed, only a cut on dads forearm. :)  They are now safe and sound and getting used to their new habitat.  We plan to keep them in the coop for 3-4 days to get them used to their environment.  After that we will let them free range during the day.  We were told that the will probably not lay eggs for a while because of the transition.  I am hoping that they love their little house and being part of our little family.  I know nothing about taking care of chickens so this is an adventure for us and I hope that we are able to keep them alive.

The blue "Jersey" giant ....

The white Leghorn ....

Liam's reaction to the chickens.  He loves them!!!

Well, I was finished with the blog Friday and was going to post it Friday night before I went to bed.  It had stormed that day and messed up our internet modem.  I'm glad I didn't post because Friday afternoon after I got home from taking mom to the doctor in Murfreesboro, Liam and I went outside to see the chickens.  I opened up the nesting box hoping something was in there but not expecting it because we were told we wouldn't have eggs for a little while until they are comfortable in their environment.  And low and behold there was a pretty little egg laying in there.  I was so excited!!!!

His first reaction was this ...

Very intrigued! ....

So far we have had two eggs. The white one is the one laying.  He must like it here.  Now we just need to blue one to start laying.  I'm hungry! HAHA!