As I write this post, our chickens are thirteen weeks old. It’s wild how fast they’ve grown. The average age they’re considered fully grown is around eighteen weeks–so we’re well over half way there. This also means that we’re getting closer to when our hens will start laying eggs. We think our flock ended up having one rooster. Our hatchery “guaranteed” hens, but on the occasion you do end up with a rooster, she will take it back before eighteen weeks. However, I think we decided we’re going to keep him. He keeps the ladies in line. We called her Cheddar before we realized she was a he, so his new name is HENry. I’ll include some pictures of our flock at the bottom with their names.
My husband did a miraculous job building our chicken coop. Honestly, it feels wrong calling this thing a coop because it’s a mansion. A cemented perimeter foundation measuring at 8×16 that’s beautifully structured with spacious sleeping quarters measuring at 6×8 that include an automatic door opener (affiliate link) at dawn and dusk, along with a luxurious tin roof over the whole building to bear all weather conditions. I’m amazed, and so are the chickens. Considering they were living in a guinea pig cage for the first nine and half weeks of their life. It didn’t matter when they were baby chicks, but things were getting a bit cramped once we hit week 7 (hopefully they repressed those memories at the end). As I write this, the chickens are out free ranging in our backyard to grub on some grass and bugs. There used to be some weeds and grass growing in the chicken run area, but they’ve demolished it all. I watched a YouTube video from the President of Chickenlandia (that’s not made-up!), and she suggests mixing up the area where your chickens spend their time, if you have the space to do it. Thankfully, we do, so letting them free-range here and there will be good for their health and egg production.
Speaking of their health, I’m hopping on the organic chicken feed train once this most recent generic bag we purchased from Tractor Supply runs out. I would like them on a no corn, no soy feed, so we can get the best quality eggs. I hardly knew anything about chickens before purchasing them back in January. Read We’ve Been Busy to find out more info when we first got them. Also, might I add, that I’ve been accomplishing quite a bit from my 2024 Vision Board–what a joy to see things come to fruition. All glory to God! I’ll have to write more about that in another post soon.
Anyways, back to chicken chat. These girls and HENry have also brought joy to our home. Watching them enjoy their lavish living quarters and free-ranging in the backyard has been quite the entertainment for the whole family. Eva, my almost two year old, loves going down each day to see them. She runs alongside them, inspecting what they’re up to. I have to keep reminding her we don’t eat the chicken food and not to touch their poop. I think sometimes she wants to be like Inspector Gadget with how close she gets to their droppings.
On that topic, one push back I’ve heard from chicken owners is how much they poop–which is true. We’re doing the deep litter method in their coop, but once or twice a week I’ll usually go and rake around the pine shavings to keep things from getting too settled at first before adding the next layers. And for the run, the droppings are inevitable in there, but since the square footage of our coop amounts to 128sq. ft it hasn’t seemed to attract too many flies with all the aeration it gets. I’ll keep you guys posted though. I plan to write a blog after one year with the chickens giving an honest account of how it’s been. I’m sure I’ll have a post on when our hens lay their first eggs as well.
Leave any comments below if you’re a fellow chicken keeper. Would love to hear about your flock and things you do! Enjoy the pictures that I’ve added, and as always, be blessed!
Top left photo: HENry (our Buff Orpington rooster with the bright red combs and wattles), and then moving clock-wise, next up is Honey, then Brownie, Noodles, Cocoa, and Oreo.
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