Chickens

We finally did it, we are now owners of 7 egg laying hens, well soon to be egg laying.  Brent made the coop in our barn from stuff we already had.  He also found plans online to make homemade feeders and an automatic waterer.  This made making our chicken coop VERY inexpensive, about $25 is all.

On Saturday we took a scenic drive to Bellville, Texas to a back-yard chicken farmer to pick out our chickens.  She gave us a tour of her coops and we even were able to hold 2-day old chicks.  Everyone got to pick out their own chicken, the only criteria was they had to be a pullet (young hen) and they had to be an average or better egg layer.

Here is the hen I picked out.  Her name is Kung Pao and she is 16-weeks old which means she will be laying light brown eggs in 2 - 4 weeks.  She is the oldest of all of the hens we picked out.

This is Kirstine's hen, Orange.  She has a unique shaped head, it kind of resembles a falcon shape.  When she is scared or angry she can puff the feathers on top of her head to make them stand straight up.

This is Brent's hen.  She is the youngest hen at 9-weeks.  He named her Phried.

This is Larissa's hen.  She named her Chip.  Chip will lay green eggs. 

This is Seth's hen, Oselick.  Oselick will lay blue eggs.

This is Hannah's hen, Google.  Google is the same breed as Chip so we have two green egg layers.

Last but not least is Seven.  We only planned on getting 6 hens but I loved the color and markings of this hen so she came home with us as well.  She will give us brown eggs and is the oldest breed of chicken in the U.S.

Seth holding Oselick in the coop.

Our chickens will be mostly free-range chickens.  This cuts down on the amount of feed we have to give them and just makes for happier chickens.  It also means less bugs running around my yard!  Right now we are getting them used to their coop though so we have only been letting them out for a couple hours a day.  The problem is it has been so windy and they are so small and light that the wind blows them around.

We figure we will be getting around 30 eggs a week at the peak of their laying.  If anyone wants farm fresh eggs let us know.