Tag: momlife

DIY: Our Chicken Coop!

~ quirkymoms486 ~ 1 Comment

Howdy, y’all! I reckon I’m ‘bout to show you my chicken farm!

Hahah, just kidding! I’m having too much fun with my chickens, sometimes I wish I had my own farm.

Fun fact: when I was growing up, my grandpa and great grandpa had a Hereford Farm. I actually showed steers at the 4-H Fair growing up! That was an experience on it’s own. It’s definitely something I wish my kids would be able to participate in if they wanted too.

Anyways, my chickens are now officially HOME! They enjoy their little house so much. It’s not 100% complete, as we are still deciding what we’d like to cover the coop in, and we have to paint it, but other then those cosmetic details it’s DONE!

Have I said on here that my husband is a genius, yet?! I kept showing him all these elaborate, chicken palaces, that were quite expensive, and he just would smile and nod. He knew that no matter what prefab coop I bought, in the end I wouldn’t truly be happy. He asked me what I’d want out of a coop, and he made it happen.

The first thing I wanted was a run that I could walk into to interact with my girls! He made it 8’ tall in the front, and 6’ tall in the back, so no matter where I go, I won’t be bumping my head!

I also wanted a door on the coop, so I would have easy access to the eggs when it’s time for them to start laying. Also, it will make cleaning A LOT easier!

Last thing that was a must was the slanted roof! It is eventually going to have a gutter system that will collect rain water for the birds! It’ll really help so I don’t have to drag the hose over every time I need to give them more water!

The process was actually quite simple. We started out buying just 20 2×4’s, four sheets of plywood, four metal roof panels, and chicken wire. All and all this cost around $250, and honestly is WAY better and more sturdy then any of the prefab models I saw online.

We started out with the bottom frame. We wanted as little waste as possible. The 2×4’s we got were 8’ long, so that’s what the bottom is, 8×8. Then we just worked our way up. With the slanted roof we cut down the back posts to 6’! Don’t worry, those 2’ we cut off, were definitely used!

After we had it all framed out, we started working on the actual “barn” part of the coop/run. Cody thought it was a good idea to raise it up, allowing the girls to have a spot under the coop to lay and get out of the sun! We used the two 2’ pieces we cut off and made a nice base for the coop, and then we enclosed it. This is where the nesting boxes will be. A nice quiet place to lay eggs!

Then we added the chicken wire! ALL THE CHICKEN WIRE! I think this was the worst part! It was just tricky making sure it was all straight. The staple gun broke mid way through, so I had to make ANOTHER Lowe’s trip!

The final step was predator proofing the coop! We couldn’t waste all our hard work on our ladies, to have them eaten by a critter. Now, we don’t live in a rural area, but we aren’t in the middle of a city either. We have raccoons and opossums for sure and they will kill the chickens if they get to them, so to combat that, we dug a “trench” a foot wide, and just a few inches deep, and we buried chicken wire. That way critters can’t try and dig under the fence!

We have to add a few finishing touches, and we definitely have to paint, but all in all, I think it turned out great! It was a lot of work, but I love it! That is truly all that matters, right?!

I love doing DIY’s, and you will probably read a lot about my little home projects! Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next Thursday! (:

Meet My Quarantine Chicks!

~ quirkymoms486 ~ 24 Comments

We were bored in the house, and in the house bored. So we decided to get CHICKENS!!!

I went, alone, to Tractor Supply to get dog food, and I walked out with four chicks! I think Cody just about died when I called him. Oops!

We got two Silver Laced Wyandotte’s, Lacey and Ella (or Kylo Hen as we like to call her), and two Ameracauna chicks, Lucy and Emily. Both breeds are known for being calm, and good overall family farm birds. Unfortunately, one of our Ameracauna’s, Emily, didn’t make it.

Here is one of our babies, Lacey, when they first came home! So tiny and fluffy!

Becoming a chicken owner is definitely something you should think about BEFORE you get them. We really had so much to learn, but over time, and after losing one, we definitely learned a lot!

These babies grow SO FAST!

With in a few weeks they had doubled in size. From a little fluff ball that would fit in the palm of my hand, to an almost full sized bird who wanted to roost on my arm, we knew we needed to get working on our chicken coop! Here is Lacey at 3 weeks old:

She started getting her feathers which meant we could start to lower the temp in the brooder. The brooder is the little bin that they stay in until they are fully feathered.

Not long after they started getting their big bird feathers, did they begin to want to fly. Yes, I said fly. I didn’t realize they could get as much air as they did. We didn’t initially keep a lid on the brooder, because when they’re not feathered, they don’t even attempt to “fly”. Right around 5 weeks is when they were ready to get out and explore!

I went back to work after having these babies for a few weeks, but my flock was about to get bigger! We added three Silkie chicks! They’re names are Piper, Penny and Fancy. Fancy is actually a showgirl Silky, so her neck and her bum is naked.

I could go on and on about their cute little faces, but I would never stop writing.

On my next post, I’m going to show you our next step in “chicken farming”, the coop!

I’ll share more about my other birds in the next post, because my flock just keeps growing!

Here’s one more picture for the road! (;