Moving Day!

Moving Day for chickens, that is! Our Farmer Girl has been asking for chickens since we moved here so we decided this was the year for them. We joined 4H so she could learn more about them and how to care for them. First step, how many and what kind? The Chef and Farmer Girl attended the first meeting and ordered 25!!!! I am not sure that would have been my first choice :) We had asked several friends who have had chickens what kind they like and based some of our decision on that also. We ordered 5 each of 5 different kinds: Buff Orpingtons, Americauna (The Scribbler is holding one), Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rock and Black Austrolorps. After some difficulty with the ordering, we received our first batch. She had to order from two different hatcheries and couldn't coincide the delivery dates due to some incubator problems in mid March. Our Buffs and Americaunas arrived March 16th-nine of them, one of the 10 was DOA. :( They were so very cute and tiny; so fun to hold and take care of. We had to make sure they were warm, but not too warm. That first night, I felt like I had a baby again! I was up numerous times to check on them, adjusting the lights and making sure they had water. If they were all huddled together that indicated they were too cold, so we had to lower the light. If they scattered to the far edges, then they were too hot. If they were evenly spaced, they were just right. We had to immediately dip their beaks in water when they arrived and had to check them for "pasting" (not so fun, it means to check their bottoms for excrement and removing if necessary). They grew amazingly fast, requiring a new and bigger space within 10 days. We knew they needed more space when one flew out and stood peeping outside the wall. Fortunately, since we check on them often, it had not gotten too cold and did well when placed back under the heat. Our next and bigger batch arrived 4 days after that. They too grew fast and because there were more of them, they moved into an identical pen next to the others sooner than the last (we couldn't mix them yet as there was still such a discrepancy in size). They lived in these two pens next to one another for over a month, eating and growing. Soon, very soon, I was ready for them to move into their own space, especially as they began making more noise and smelling! Oh, did I mention they were living in our garage? That's where we currently sleep in our camper so you can understand my desire :) Weeks before a friend told me, "He (meaning The Chef) will build you a cute coop, I am sure." I asked The Chef if our coop would be cute and he said, "CUTE WILL COST YOU". Well, it certainly did-in time and in money!, but it is very cute. It took him over 3 full days to finish as well as odd hours here and there. His gift (in addition to the dishes) was to finish it and move them out on Mother's Day. I didn't realize how few pictures I got of the actual building process though, but here are some to enjoy.
The very last picture, although blurry and red due to the red light, shows them all on their roosting space and shows you how big they have gotten! See our lovely Barred Rock rooster (we weren't supposed to have any roosters and we think we have 4!!!!) The Barred Rock is the black and white one on the right, middle in both pictures. The Chef says don't get too attached and don't call them anything but Supper and Dinner! Right now, I am just happy they are out of the garage and all is back to normal there.