Crazy Chicken Lady

Two weeks ago we adopted five chickens, and now I am officially a Crazy Chicken Lady.

We eat a ton of eggs and have talked about getting chickens for awhile now, but got serious about it this winter. Turns out the Ag department (that's Agriculture for all you Yankees...it's an actual high school course that you can take for a grade and everything. I was shocked too!) at Zach's school was purchasing chicks in bulk so that a student could raise a few for the stock show. He really only needed about five, but they had to order 30 or so, and so we were able to take five Leghorn chicks for our own.

Yup, Leghorn. As in Foghorn Leghorn:

During winter break Zach started working on the coop. If you know Zach at all, you know that he doesn't do things half way. This coop was thoroughly researched and had architectural plans. It's less a chicken coop and more a chicken mansion, complete with a watering system with small nipples both in and outside the coop for the chickens to peck at when they want water.

Here are a few pictures of the coop while it was being built.

Jazz hands!

Nesting boxes. Apparently the chickens don't need their
own individual box -- they tend to all use one or two of the same boxes.

The mostly finished product, compete with door that slides up and down
for them to walk down the plank into the yard. 

The coop has wheels so we can move it around the yard. Right now it's in the shop because it's still pretty cold at night, but in a week or so they will be able to go outside full time.

Before the chicks got here I was all, "I do not want pets. I want eggs. These chickens are not pets, they are egg layers."

And then they arrived.

And I was all, "They're so CUUUUUTE! Listen to their little chirping! Look at their little feathers!"

And then I crossed over to Crazy Chicken Lady territory and began fretting, doting, and spoiling these chickens rotten. I gladly clean their coop, check their water, check their food, and the kids and I wheel them out to get some sun most afternoons and watch them. They are not terribly interesting, mind you...we just like to watch them.

And talk about eating, drinking, pooping, growing machines! It's only been two weeks, and look how much they've grown:

I'll keep you posted on how things go with the chickens, but here are a few things you're probably wondering about:

Do you have any roosters? We don't know yet. It's hard to tell what you have until they are a few months old. I suspect that we have at least one rooster, which we do not want to have because our neighbors will think bad things about us. If he does turn out to be a rooster, we are sending him back to school so he can go to a farm. 

Do chickens lay eggs if there are no roosters? Yes. They lay eggs, but they aren't fertilized so they do not become baby chicks.

When will they start laying eggs? At about 20-24 weeks old, so we are hoping to have eggs around the start of summertime. 

How many eggs will five chickens lay? They say about one per chicken per day. In the heat of summer and dead of winter production slows down, as well as when they "molt" (lose their feathers and grow them back in).

Are they hard to take care of? So far it's been really easy. They poop a lot, so I've been cleaning out the coop every few days or so, but other than that you just make sure they have food and water. Other than that they are pretty happy.

Did you name them? We had (and have) full intention of naming them, but we really can't tell them apart right now; they all look similar. The names we chose are: Ginger, Polly, Francine, Nadine, and Roxy. 

What other questions do you have? Post 'em on Facebook or as a comment below and I'll do my best to answer, despite my inexperience as a Crazy Chicken Lady.

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Workout of the Day

Asylum 2: Championship

My bottom is SORE right now because of the speed skater drills. This has been a great first week of Asylum. I really like this program so far!