Despite the family illness we did manage to get many things accomplished this weekend around the house, including one thing we've been prepping for months - the chickens!
Wilson built the coop out of almost exclusively materials we demo'd from our TV room renovation (plus some latches and hinges from spares in the basement. We did have to buy the chicken wire for the run, and the slats for the frame, and a big piece of pink foam insulation for the inside, but all told I think we spent less than $50 on the coop. I'll admit I got a bit carried away at Tractor Supply on Saturday and spent over $100 on the feeder, waterer, food and bedding (and a kids puzzle book with a chicken theme that somehow ended up in the cart).
We bought our chickens at Poultry Hollow Hatchery, which is about 45 minutes from Nashville in a really pretty part of middle Tennessee. The farm itself was super disorganized and understaffed, but the people were actually really nice and the chickens were well taken care of and the selection was pretty good. We didn't mind messing around the farm for a while until someone could help us get our silly small order filled (they had all kinds of livestock: a donkey, an alpaca, peacocks and crazy birds galore). We opted for three different birds: an Ameraucana (the light brown one), a Rhode Island Red (the dark brownish reddish one), and a Barred Rock (the black and white spotted one). They're all supposed to be good urban layers and relatively friendly. Ours are between 9-10 weeks old and should theoretically start laying around 20-22 weeks, assuming they are actually ladies (I'm not yet convinced).
Sam is pretty into the chickens, though we're all still a bit nervous about holding them - we haven't clipped their wings yet so they're a potential flight risk. Also, they are DUMB. Like, really dumb. I'll have lots of examples of that shortly, I'm sure.
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