If anyone tells you that the hardest part about getting ready for chickens is building the coop, they are absolutely right. What most people leave out is all the extra stuff you need to get the coop up and running. Thankfully, we frequent craigslist so we have been able to get the majority of it very cheaply. We just paid $75 for large waterers, hanging feeders, four heat lamps with housing, tons of egg baskets, and floor to ceiling egg cartons! There is even a sign that came with everything advertising farm fresh eggs for sale :). I had to make two trips, and I still don't have it all, talk about a major score in the stuff department.

The chickens are doing fine so far, and it looks like we may have one or two males in our supposed all female order. I'm find with this, they will most likely end up on our diner table, but we may end up keeping one if we decide we want more chicks at some point.

There is still work to be done on the coop. I need to put up some more cross supports where the plywood joins together, it will be too drafty otherwise. I also need to add the main roosting bar and all of the battens on the outside to finish it off and cover up the plywood seems on the outside. We are also going to start pricing out the materials for building the chicken run. Right now we need 26 2x4s, 6 4x4s, and 450 sqft. of wire mesh. Here we go again.

Chris

---------------------
Sent from my iPhone