Why Did the Chicken Travel 20 Miles?

To live at our house!

Introducing the two newest members of the household, Merry (right) and Storm (left)

 I recently had the opportunity to care for a friends chickens and I liked it so much that the fowl flame of want struck me and I decided that we were getting our own chickens.  I called my Dad and asked him to help me design a coop but he did way more than just design it, he built it also!  My Dad is the most wonderful man on this planet for more reasons than this.

I mostly watched my Dad as the coop was being built because I hadn't the slightest clue how to go about building things, but I was able to help with some drilling and assembly.  After everything was finished and my parents went home I realized that we had made a mistake in the plan, there wasn't enough space in the house area for the nest box and the roost.  I felt that after watching (and sort of helping) the planning, cutting, and assembly of the project I could attempt, on my own, a small addition. So I planned, cut, and assemble the extended nest box (the part sticking out).  It's not as good as my Dad's work but for my first attempt at building I think I did a pretty good job.  I even made the roof of the nest box hinge up so collecting eggs would be easier.  Since I'm already bragging here I might as well add that though some of my cuts are a little crooked or ever so slightly off, not once did I have to scrap a piece and start over. (yeah me!).

Here's an inside view, nest box on the left, roost on the right, and looking across the house into the run.

All we needed now was the saw dust, feeder, waterer, food, and chickens.  To my surprise the farm supply store had chicks again so we purchased two Ameraucana pullets (that's the female chick).  There is a 5% chance that the pullets are actually cockerels but for $1.30 I thought it was worth the chance.

Merry, named by Elise, because "this is the MERRIEST day ever!  I'm naming one Merry!!", is vertical in the picture below and Storm, named by Cameron, is horizontal.  Cameron at first named Storm, Cyclops, because he is really into X-Men lately but when Elise said "Cyclops is a boy name and these are girls" he reluctantly changed it to Storm, then to Jean Grey, then to Lou, then back to Storm.  I wanted to name them Chancho (a name we sometimes call Jaime) and Mookie (a name Jaime sometimes calls Cameron) but the kids didn't like that.

Elise is probably the most excited out of every one, so excited that she volunteered to scoop the poop, seriously.  She said "Mom, can I scoop the poop? Oh and can I collect the eggs too?"  Sure!  I'm not going to stop anyone who wants to clean up poop.

It will take somewhere between 15-20 weeks before we can expect them to start laying and in the mean time it's fun to watch them grow.