1.10.2012

Urban Chickens....

....More like Suburban chickens in our case. Backyard flocks, backyard chickens...what? Yes it's kind of a trend right now. Families taking on chickens for fresh eggs with out the farm. I have been researching this for a while now and was pretty convinced we could do this. Of course my main obstacle was my husband. I though it may take a while to convince him on this one (I have had some crazy irrational ideas in the past!) but he was pretty easy to get on board! He comes from a rural, farm, small town part of the country so he knew quite a bit about the process.

So here is what we did....well I did until it came to actually building things
-Intensive research on chickens....pros, cons, the amount of work involved, basic maintenance, etc. I spent   hours on the Internet and checked out several books from the library.
- decided on 3 hens (females) St. Louis Co. allows 4 chickens without needing permits
  Three birds, Three different breeds for three little boys! I wanted the chickens to all look very different so they could tell them apart!
-spent a ridiculous amount of time determining what "breeds" of chickens we wanted.
-spent even more time researching chicken coops, free chicken coop plans, and size requirements.
   Took a trip to Matt's hometown where he and his dad built our personally designed...Chicken Coop! - the best part the only cost to us were some hinges and locks...we used all reclaimed materials found in my in-laws barn! Pictures to come!

So the coop is soon on it's way via my father in-law, my chicks have been ordered (from mypetchicken.com) and will arrive the last week of February ... I'll keep you updated along the way!

Day old chicks - like what we'll see in our mail box soon!

Breed #1 Rhode Island Red

Breed #2 Plymouth Rock

Breed #3 Delaware


The Garden Ark Chicken Coop - which we based our own plans off.


P.S - No we DO NOT plan on eating our chickens! We think this will be a great way to get the kids involved and imagine they will become more like pets....that pay their own way!

2 comments:

  1. love it...i really want to do this too...but my biggest obstacle is not my husband but my dad! even though I own my own home he still doesn't think I could do it. I know it's silly. I have done lots of research on it and I know I could do it. But now with twins on the way I think my chicken dreams will have to be put on the back-burner along with so much else right now! :D Hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and can't wait to hear more about your chicken adventures!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kathie,
    I'll keep you posted along the way! Good Luck with TWINS! My sister-in-law had twins in May!
    -Melissa

    ReplyDelete