Chickens Have Arrived

I found out that Half Moon Bay Feed and Fuel sold chickens once a month. And it happened to be last Saturday. So, I had a couple options, 1) Ramp up the energy needed to finish the chicken coop and take a drive to Half Moon Bay; 2) finish the coop over a couple weeks and wait until the next month; or 3) finish the coop and order the chickens online. 

Ellie putting the finishing touches on the coop

I went with option 1. So the kids and I ramped up construction on the coop, which meant a few more trips to Home Depot, a few more splinters in my hands and one screw into my finger (yep, that one hurt a bit).

We had it nearly complete, just needed to set the roof on top.

We took a trip to Half Moon Bay, stopped off at Pastorino Farms. Got a chance to see an old friend, Scott, before heading into town for lunch at Sam's Chowder House then to the feed store.

We got everything we needed from the feed store in addition to the chickens (bail of straw, some shavings for their nests, chicken food, etc.).

Been a long time since I had to move bails of straw

Once we got back home we put the chickens in the pen, and tried to show them the coop, without the roof. This was a mistake. One of the birds quickly flew up and out and it turned into a scene from Rocky. I finally got him and returned him to the coop. Ellie and I finished the roof and put it on the coop. And just like that we were done. For the most part. I'd still like to paint it and polish it up, but as for its main function, housing chickens, it's complete.

In total we got 4 chickens. 2 Rhode Island Reds and 2 Barrell Rocks (the black and white ones). Everyone is excited for them, except maybe Zena. She's a little bit of a pain would really like to attack them. Jedi is curious, but when the start flapping their wings he runs away in typical Jedi fashion.

These are 3 months old, so we should start getting eggs in about 2 months. Each chicken should lay between 250-300 eggs per year, so we should have fresh eggs aplenty soon.

Lukas with one of the Barrell Rock hens

The two Rhode Island Red Hens