The chickens are here!!

What an exciting weekend we had. We were able to clear the area the coop is going in, and to coordinate with some terrific friends who hooked us up with their Grandma who was looking to get rid of her old, (very old) coop for free. It was terrific. I love the coop so much, it is so cute and fits in here so nicely. It has a tin roof and is very simple. We will paint it and spruce it up for the girls. I already have plans.


So the hatchery we were going to order from (who have great birds) has a minimum order of 25. We only want half of that and even when trying to combine with other people, we couldnt get enough. So we decided to shop around here locally and see what we could come up with. My first priority was that they be nice. Of course I want good layers, but as it is our first experience and the kids are so young, I wanted them to be friendly and tame. So here is what we have. 3 barred rocks

(Gavin's favorite because they look like baby penguins) he named them Renji, Penguino, and Kevin. 2 Buff Orpingtons (Daisy and buttercup), 3 Rhode Island Reds (Ruby, Scarlet and ?), 2 Americana (Martha and ?), 2 Black Australorps (Frida and ?).

GM loves them so much, the other two think they are great, and want to love them and hold them, but GM is really taking great care of them. He seems to be tuned into the responsibility of it and is truly enjoying it. He is keeping track of their temperature and coming up with great ideas for how to keep it at the 92 degrees. We got up to check them a coupletimes in the night and their temperature was holding within about 5 degrees of the target, so that was pretty good. Im a little worried about a few cold nights we have coming up. We have them in a brooder box we made in our garage, but still if the temperatures get too low it will get quite cold in there. We may have to move them into our furnace room for a night or two if the box isnt holding the right temp. We'll see.


Today we are going to clean up the house, and head out to Science class at the museum. After that it is back home to care for our baby birds, and clean out the inside of the coop. Maybe we can even start some painting, we'll have to see how it goes.