I AM THE PROUD MOTHER OF....EIGHT CHICKENS!
Today was a very long and eventful day.
On my drive to Sylvia's house I happen to drive by some scrap wood which had hinges on it!
SUCCESS!
This was exactly was we needed to make the doors for the chicken coop and goat pen. The only things we needed to do now was put doors on the pens, a lock on them, set them up for the animals, and attach the blue plastic tarp for the rain. The wood we found was covered in dirt and bugs so we went back to my house for a broom. Then we went back to where we found the doors and cleaned them off.
Away to our homestead we go.
Once there, we looked around for the other material we needed; nails, hand saw, screw driver, hammer, etc. Orlando and I very successfully and quickly attached the doors, since they were conveniently pre-made for us. Now to close up all the cracks. We folded a huge blue tarp over the roof of the double pen to prevent rain from rotting the wooden roof and to not let water get into the ceiling part of the shelters. With a very helpful staple gun this took no time.
Next we used old sod crates to lay on the floor in the chicken coops for the chickens to be elevated from the ground. In Sylvia's wood stock we found some scrap wood to cover the holes with and to make the resting pole and boxes for nesting.
Now, the most important part.
BUCK BUCK BUCK CAW! Having found those doors saved us a lot of time and being only three in the afternoon we had just enough time to go to Riverhead to get the chickens. I could not believe I was actually going to go get the chickens! Orlando emptied a big plastic bin he had in his van to put the chickens in and we were off.
We went to Agway first to pick up hay, wood shavings, a feeder, water bucket, and layer pellets. With what I got, it is perfect for about a dozen chickens to live perfectly fine. The bag of layer feed was 50 lbs and only cost $10.25. Chickens eat about 2 lbs of food per week. MATH TIME! 8 chickens x 2 lbs of feed = 16 lbs of feed per week.16 lbs of feed x 4 weeks = 64 lbs of feed for one month for eight chickens. BUT! Since our chickens are going to be free range and will eat compost those 14 lbs of feed they won't get will not be missed.
In the end, think of it as less than $15 a month to maintain 8 chickens that lay an egg a day each.
Once we got all the supplies for my chickens we headed over to Garden of Eve. What an amazing place! I wanted to live there the first time I went the other day. It is exactly how I want to live. There were turkeys, chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, all the seasonal fruits and vegetables, and much much more. Everyone was incredibly friendly and the how atmosphere was extremely peaceful. My mom described it as, "when you're there all your problems just go away." I had previously e-mailed back and forth with the owner, Eve, about my project and purchasing chickens. She is incredible. Her and her husband live in a yurt and only live off of their land and what they produce! I was so thrilled to find out she was doing that because that's a big help for us to talk to her about how to successfully survive.
Today, I called and told them I was coming to pick up the chickens. I had to literally pick them up. We drove down a very cracked and muddy path to the HUGE chicken coop of Garden of Eve. There were a couple people there and we told them I had talked to Eve and I needed about 6 or 7 chickens. They said, "go in there and pick what you need. The redder ones are the youngest and the older ones are rosy and white." Orlando and I went in the coop and chased around, cornered, and tackled 6 beautiful chickens. The entire time there had been one chicken that had followed us around. We grew pretty fond of it and it happily came along with us. Then we stopped and saw the black beauty.
One of a kind.
It was a beautiful ebony chicken. Orlando and I looked at each other and eight was both of our favorite number and this was the perfect chicken to complete our luck. We chased it, jumped, tackled, everything. It was the trickiest and most clever chicken of them all. So much that in one of Orlando's attempted to grab her, he fell on the ground and landed on an egg. All the chickens around flew over and started attacking him so they could eat the egg.
In the end we managed to tame the beauty and took her home.
When back at the homestead, Orlando and I began setting up the hay and wood shavings on the coop floor to create a comfortable nest and finish their home. In the meantime we kept the chickens in the goat pen. (P.S. WE ARE STILL GOATLESS) Sylvia pointed out the one of the chickens had a string wrapped and tied around its leg so I went in, grabbed it done, and cut the string off. When everything was ready for them to move into their new home, Orlando and I carefully began moving each one over in their comfy and very well pampered coop.The chickens have arrived and are set for our big adventure!
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