Putting on the pressure

The chicken coop is not yet finished, but construction is still going strong. Slow, but hey, the hubs works Mon-Fri and builds a chicken coop on the weekends. He also sometimes takes a day off just to stay home and work on the coop. He’s the boss, he can just do that if he wants to. He’s busting his butt on this coop and we expect it will be ready for birds in the next few weeks.

But a thing happened today and I have inadvertently put the pressure on to get it finished. Tractor Supply had chicks. So I went to go look at the chicks. And maybe, ok probably, come home with one. A CHICK. Singular. One. And then me being me, I came home with FIVE.

I mean, it’s not my fault they had a minimum purchase of 4 chicks. And then there were only 5 in the tub and I couldn’t take 4 and leave 1. But to my credit, since I asked for 4, and the lady said she only had 5, and I couldn’t leave 1 behind, she gave me the 5th one for free. So I only bought 4. Chicken. Math.

There’s this thing among chicken people called “Chicken Math”. Example: you start with 4 birds, and buy 4 more because omg they’re so cute. Now you have 8, but uh oh, you lose 2 from predators or illness, now you have 6. You intend to hatch 6 eggs so you hope for 12 chickens, but only 3 hatch, now you have 9 chickens. One turns out to be a rooster, so you give him away, but while there you pick up 3 more hens, now you have 11. And pretty soon you have like 40 birds and you don’t know how that happened other than this thing they call Chicken Math. And I thought ok, whatever that probably won’t happen to me, but here I am and the coop isn’t even finished and I have already fallen prey to Chicken Math. I went to get one and I now I have 5 and math is hard. Whoops.

We have them in the spare bedroom right now, which is actually a storage room full of stuff, but we made room for the chicks because we also have a house guest with a Jack Russell terrier and she will eat chicks if given the chance. It’s not her fault, she is just being a Jack Russell and is super sweet but also eats critters. So the babies are safe, inside, and behind a closed door. And it is taking everything in me to not just sit on the floor next to them watching them. Guys they are so cute with their little tiny fluffy butts and tiny wings and cute peep peep peeps! They are White Leghorn chicks, and I have not named them yet. But I have ideas. I’ll reveal them later once they start to show their personalities and I know who is who.

So, the pressure is on to finish the coop because these little girls will be ready to go outside in a few weeks. While they won’t be ready to join the flock for 6-8 weeks, (when we also get some older laying hens), the coop design includes an access room which is separate from the hen house and chicken run. This room is where I can access the egg box, store feed and supplies, and keep the chicks separated until they’re old enough to join the flock. So that’s where they’ll go once the coop is finished.

Speaking of the coop, here’s how it’s going! Pierre has stopped calling it the “coop” and is now referring to it as the chicken palace or mansion. Because it is big and it’s gonna be glorious.

We had a friend over to help on this day, this is Pierre (left) and Colby (right).

The hen house floor, with shaded area underneath.

This opening will be the door into the access room. This room will be closed off to the chickens most of the time, but we will be able to open the door to the coop and the door to the access room to allow the birds out into the yard.

We have egg boxes! (The canopy seen above is to provide shade for Pierre while he works, that’s not staying in the coop.)

This is the access into the hen house for cleaning, it’ll have doors.

The hen house will be painted the same color as our house, blue with white trim. I also plan to grow lots of plants in and around the whole coop, some for the chickens and some for me. It’s gonna be cute and wonderful and these are gonna be some spoiled happy chickens. Pierre is amazing and I’m really glad that he’s as crazy as I am because he didn’t even mind that I came home with 5 chicks today.

My first decoration for the coop. I mean, it’s gotta have a rooster, but we can’t have real roosters and this one doesn’t crow!

Well friends, my chicken adventure has officially begun. I’m already in love with these little birds and will do my absolute best to give them the best life possible. I mean look at this little precious thing. She fell asleep in my hand and I totally fell for her. I will do my best to make sure she’s always happy and comfortable. 🐓