Manic Monday! Chickens!

So, on Saturday, my family and I went to this farm animal buy/sell/trade show at a big farm up the road from us. We ended up with a small flock of chickens. Did we have a coop, you ask? Why, no, we didn't. That is until my husband, father-in-law, and I worked together to build one before it started to rain. (OK, my husband really did most of the work!) It still doesn't have a proper door or roof (rat cage for a door and a sheet of plywood for a roof!), but we hope to fix that soon. And we will also build a proper chicken run. I would love to free range these birds, but our neighbors who have chickens have lost some to coyotes, hawks, foxes, raccoons, and owls. I'd say we have a few known predators in the area. We have been sleeping with the windows open at night, and I have to say I've heard 3 of those I listed making their presence known at night.

My husband really is the sweetest man. He knows how much I've wanted chickens. We now have a rooster and 4 hens. I'm not sure we really need the rooster, but the people we bought from convinced us that we do. Isn't he pretty? And he actually does seem to treat the girls well. Like today, for example, when I cleaned out their coop, I let them free range for a while. I was pretty nervous that they wouldn't go back in, especially when they all seemed to have nested under a tree. But, when the sun started to go down, he called the girls in... and I nailed the screen shut again.

We hope to have lots of eggs... and some nice pets. And tonight, I'm sleeping with the window closed.