Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Week One: June 1, 2009



WEEK ONE:




This is a blog about the Le Coop du Jour.. or The Chicken Coop this Dad got coerced into installing. While I could tell you I built this... I didn't have to, Thank God. My neighbor had this coop in his backyard for 5 years and after determining a boat would be more fun, they gave this to us. For soon to be chicken parents, this is a 4x8 coop with a roosting platform and the egg box on the right ( you can see it just to the left of the coop ). Before I dive into the details and travails of chickening... a little background is in order. Ahhh forget it, no one wants to read about other peoples lives...at least not any more. This is going to be more about the day-to-day raising of chickens. From all accounts, it is suppose to be fun, rewarding and poopy, but the jury is still out.
So, the coop began with my daughter's class incubating 24 eggs. As the story goes - "Dad, can I bring a chick home" argh.... "OK honey"...... DOH!!!! What have I done?


Well, after moving the coop down the street on a furniture dolly and a Razor scooter, we have chickens.

The Coop is now inhabited by;

1 - Rhode Island Red named Millie

3 - Arcuanas "Easter Egg" layers named Kapalua (hatched and probably 2 weeks older than the others), Loa and Hoot

2 - Buff Orpingtons named Scat and Sunny.

The chicks were purchased at Alamo Hay and Grain in Alamo, California. By the way, what a cool place - kind of a time capsule of a farm store.
The coop has a base of brick, with DE and hay.

In the coop we have a waterer, feeder, 250W heat lamp which goes on at night and shuts off around sunrise.

Pictured above is "Hoot" an Arcuana and very friendly.

More to come... in the meantime, http://www.backyardchickens.com/ is a great site to get any and all information on raising chickens.


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