The Scoop on the Coop - Part One

It's Done!!!
Well I still have a little painting to do...wouldn't be our kind of project if it wasn't unfinished! This coop minus the roof has been in our garage since January! And for the last couple weeks...it had the chickens in it! Read more on baby chick care and our chicken chronicles here. So if you remember from before...we built our coop ourselves almost by ourselves with the help of Matt's dad. Since we only have 3 chicks we didn't need a huge coop..our city only lets us have 4 anyway...so I came up with a design based off hours on Internet research. The best part about this coop was the fact it was mostly free...that's right a free chicken coop! Matt's dad had a barn full of reclaimed wood! Even the roof material was a leftover from a previous family project.

I plan on posting "part two" with plans and a simple tutorial if you want to make your own chicken coop!
The overall construction is pretty simple! My favorite part was a last minute modification of a drawer....poop drawer. After cleaning this baby out and trying to sweep chicken poop from tight corners...I made a quick sketch and sent hubs to the hardware store ... no reclaimed wood for that part :(  Now I can just pull it out and dump it...no heavy cleaning required!

 

 

 

 

 

 

"ahhhh..... we're outside!"

 

 

 

 

 

poop drawer!

Stay tuned! I hope to have the construction and tutorial posted tomorrow!

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MelissaThecre8tiveoutlet.blogspot.comthecre8tiveoutlet@hotmail.com

The Chicken Chronicles and some questions answered...

Well the chicks have made it a full week in our house of craziness! It's amazing how "less" fragile they seem after only seven days. The first couple days seem more "critical" or maybe it was just me!

To sum up our first week I am going to try to answer some of the most common questions asked....

Why do you want chickens?
Free eggs of course! It's actually more than that. I began research a lot on expanding our vegetable garden and many of the books and sources were about self sufficient living covering topics from gardens to livestock, etc. I had kind of been following the trend of these "urban" self sufficient - creating self sufficient lifestyles while still living in city's and suburban areas, so I'd say were just trying something new!
Another reason - and probably the biggest, is trying to teach our boys that there is more to life than video games and supercenters. We want them to learn some fundamentals in real life - not just computer simulated and reality tv. We even designed the Chicken Coop with a door to the nest box that the kids can access themselves.

How do you build a brooder?
Simple! Ours is just a cardboard box. We hooked up a heat lamp with a 250watt bulb, lined the box with newspapers, bought a waterer and feeder and that was about it! The whole setup was under $10.

How do you raise baby chicks? What do they eat?

Pretty easy...they need to be kept warm for the first few weeks! That is what the heat lamp is for. Start at 95 degree the first week and step it down every week by 5 degrees. Once they are 4-5 weeks old they can be moved outside to the coop with no heat source.

The chicks eat a "starter feed" we got ours at our local feed store, we bought 10lbs for less than $5 - we easily still have 9.9lbs left!

How to you build/buy a coop?

We built ours...more like Matt's dad built most of it! We took a trip to Matt's hometown where his dad has a barn loaded with reclaimed wood. I drew up plans based on a very popular design "The Garden Ark Tractor".  The most important thing to is to make sure you have enough square footage per chicken. We only have 3 and can only have 4 in our city, so we choose a smaller one. We also wanted one with a built in run, so if we couldn't let them out to free range one day they still could themselves!

I'll post pictures of our coop once we get it outside (it's in the garage right now).

garden ark- source: thegardencoop.com

What do your neighbors think?

We live in a suburban area in a large subdivision. Our yard is maybe .25 of an acre. Our yard is fenced and we plan to locate the coop where it is not visible to the neighbors yards. However they seem on board with our idea!

Do chickens smell?

So far ours don't. I clean out the brooder once a day. I just line it with newspaper and pull it up each day. They only smell I have noticed is the smell of their food...kind of grainy/wheaty smelling? So I'd say no.

So to Raisin, Catwoman, and Chicky! you've made it through you first week in our crazy household! You even show great patience when Brody pets/pokes you and Kohen stalks you every five minutes!

Look how far you've come!.....Don't worry I'm speaking at about a 50% level of sarcasm...but I do like the guys...I mean girls.

The Chicken Chronicles DAY 5

The pictures on the left side are from day one - the right side day 5

The chicks have doubled in size it's really amazing how fast they grow...of course I am also chasing them around with a camera everyday so I probably notice it the most. They are losing some fuzz and replacing it with feathers. I think if you watched long enough you may actually see them grow. They didn't have a single feather on them day one! I'll probably have to start covering the top of their brooder with net/window screen Raisin has been "taking flight".

If you're reading this and wondering just how crazy I really am...start at the beginning....the chicken chronicles.

The Chicken Chronicles DAY TWO

If you're just tuning in you might want to check out this intro to the chicken chronicles...you know so you don't think I'm totally crazy...

DAY TWO

Raisin

Well...let's actually rewind back to last night (day one) at about 8pm. So I put the kids to bed and the house was finally quiet...for about 30 seconds. The loudest chirping EVER soon began. I went over to the brooder (which is on the landing between the steps leading to the basement and the garage) - yes I know...their IN my house I am planning to move them to the garage but I was afraid for the first night...anyway so I walk over to look at the chicks to see what the problem is and it stops. I start to go back to the living room and it starts again....yeah it went like this for a while. I realize it is "Raisin", the temp is fine (95 degrees) she seems like she is fine physically so I sit down and google "chirping chick".

Well apparently Raisin is looking for her mom....cute? A little... but I already have 3 somewhat needy kids. So a little more research concludes I need to put some sort of stuffed animal in the box so she "thinks" it is her mom. Well I have 3 boys...We don't really "do" stuffed animals....except those few sentimental ones. I rummage for a while in the basement and find a mickey mouse. I put it in the box, they still chirp...but end up sleeping through the night. Beats holding her all night which some online info suggested....NOT GONNA HAPPEN HERE!!!!!

So other than that Chicky had "paste butt" which is all too similar to changing a diaper...I guess you could say no big deal I do enough of that around here but it's still gross. Oh well. But leaving could actually lead to a serious problem so it had to be done.



Kohen and Brody checking their baby chicks


So I'd say day two was also a success!

The Chicken Chronicles DAY ONE

Welcome to the Chicken Chronicles. If you have been following me then you know we are taking on a new venture in our home....Urban Chickens or Backyard chickens. Crazy? ...Maybe
It all started when we became a one income family and began cutting cost. This eventually led me to realize how much more self sufficient we could be and how it could help our family learn and grow at the same time.
Read more about this in Self Suffiencent in the Suburbs and Urban chickens.

"Urban Chickens" or "Backyard Chickens" are becoming more popular. Most city and county have even adjusted ordinances according...did you know in St. Louis County you can have 4 chickens no permits required!

So why would anyone want chickens? Easy....free eggs! Others reasons include...the experience our children will gain, the responsibility they will be taught, and the perfect pets that don't require walking, cleaning up after, and litter boxes.

So join us as we document our newest venture... learn with us!

DAY ONE:

Day one went pretty good. Read more on the arrival here in Special Delivery.

Let's start from the beginning...

I ordered 3 baby chicks from mypetchicken.com They were set to arrive Febuaury 21-23rd. They were 2.50 per chick plus $10-15 shipping.

I had a "brooder" ready for them. Ours is a cardboard box lined with newspapers. Luckily we had a lamp that would work well for our heat source. I got it a while back at a garage sale for $1. It can handle 600watt, but our light is only 250. Suggested by mypetchicken.com we are using a 250 watt bulb - white heat light. I bought this at Fenton Feed for $4.50. I also purchase a feeder, waterer, and feed (at fenton feed) and spent a total of $14 (including the light bulb) not bad if I must say so myself especially because we built the chicken coop for free!

So they arrived in a peeping box...

Here they are crowded on their heat pad in the shipping box.

We put them in the "brooder" and they went straight to the water and food - which is good because I have heard of some people having to dip their beaks in water.

Not going to lie...I was a little squeamish about picking them up right away. I didn't have a lot of pets growing up and the hamster I had bit...a lot. After seeing Kohen pick them up with no problems or hesitations...and his is 5 I figured I'd be okay.

We spent most of the day and night just watching them...They are really cute and all have their own little personalities! Oh...the names are Chicky, Cat woman, and Raisin....I know....but I didn't pick the names!

A Special Delivery

I pre-ordered these guys in mid-December. I tried to keep the excitement level with the kids pretty low until this week but Kohen has been going crazy! After two days of asking about them non-stop I began to stalk the post office. This is the way things were suppose to go....My Pet Chicken was going to ship our 3 day old chicks on Tuesday. They said they might arrive Wed. or Thursday, but for sure by Friday. They would go to the post office and the post office would then call us (our number would be on the box).
This is how it went in our house Tues-Thursday morning...Are they here yet? Are they here yet? Are they here yet x 5000000000000 = one annoyed mom. So I called and called and called the post office and found out they were there, we hopped in the car a in about 5 minutes time we had baby chicks!

For the first 4-5 weeks they will live in a "brooder" A large cardboard box with a heat lamp. They need to be in a 95 degree atmosphere for the first week, then 90 degree...and so on. Then they will take up residence in the backyard in the newly built coop (plans and pics to follow).

The kids are so excited....The chicks name's are Chicky, Cat woman, and Raisin. Guess who's is which?
 I will post an update on these guys tomorrow!
Read more about our reasons of doing this here in Urban Chickens

The chickens are coming, the chickens are coming!

Yes the chickens are coming....by mail. They leave Tuesday and should arrive by Thursday. We spent most of our weekend preparing for them. If you're wondering what the heck I am talking about read more here.

The kids are really excited! I'm looking forward to watching them learn and experience this craziness we are about to take on!

Cluck Cluck...
Melissa
thecre8tiveoutlet.blogspot.com

Nap Time...

Shhhhhhh..........

Like most moms nap time is my most productive time of the day! Kohen goes to afternoon preschool from 12:30-3:30 and the babies sleep for a majority of that time. About 1/3 of that time goes to cleaning up the house and laundry, 1/3 making dinner (yes, I prep/make dinner in the afternoon and warm/cook it at 5:30) and the last 1/3 (about 30min.) I try to do something for myself. Sometimes it's writing a blog post, sometimes it's just perusing the Internet and other blogs, reading a book, occasionally I'll watch a little HGTV, but my favorite is starting some sort of craft or project. Unfortunately I haven't had the time lately for any crafts or projects :( Which is a bummer (yes I just used the word "bummer") because I feel like that is a really relaxing and joyful outlet from the daily grind of being a stay-at-home-mom.
Today I did just that...I quick and super easy project. I'll share more tomorrow!

P.S
The chicken coop is here! Matt's dad did an awesome job helping us...ok really he basicly built it himself! we were able to use 100% reclaimed material! I've been waiting for the sun to come out so i can take some good pictures to share! Oh if you're wondering what the heck I am talking about read this.

Melissa
http://www.thecre8tiveoutlet.blogspot.com/

Self Sufficient in the Suburbs?

I've had a few questions asked about my newest adventure...backyard chickens (aka urban chickens) so I'm going to try to explain why we are doing this and things like this.

Really this all started for me because I want to try to become more self sufficient at home. I'm not talking about moving out to the middle of nowhere on 100 acres and trying to go off grid, just trying to save a little money.

Back when my husband and I were started to plan on having a second child it only made sense financially for me to stay home. Being that I was still some what "entry level" in my career field the cost of childcare (plus gas, etc) was eating up 75% of my pay check it wasn't really worth the time away from my kiddos. Around this time we also bought our first house. Though we were pretty modest about what we should buy and really put location and school district over square footage things were TIGHT.

I don't remember how I came across it (it may have been my husband) I read the book "Miserly Moms" by Jonni McCoy. It really gives good advise on living on one income in a two income world!

I basically followed to book to a tee, and managed to start saving a lot of money. One of the most effective things was in the food category. We don't buy any pre-made food. Okay I buy a few snacks per month for the kids (ex. goldfish or crackers) but everything else we make ourselves. As time went on I began to appreciate knowing the ingredients going into everything I was feeding my family...and that things were quite "organic" with no preservatives or artificial flavors.

Taking things a step further what else can I supply myself with at home.... Gardens and Chicken Coops. We've had small veggie gardens in the past but this year I am taking on the challenge of a bigger and more productive garden. I am starting my own seedlings inside, and hoping as the season goes on to can and freeze enough to have through winter (I'll share more on this later along with my layout, schedules, and plans).
I posted about Urban chickens here - the beginning of our adventure. We chose breeds that are "excellent" egg layers and should yield about a dozen eggs a week (Matt's uncle has the same breeds and receives one egg per hen a day!) But just as important I want the kids to really have an understanding of the process and be able to help! We even designed our Coop to have a trap door that the kids can reach straight into the nesting box to gather eggs!

So we'll just have to see how this years pans out for us! Funny that trying to be "green" and more self-sufficient is really just like re-verting back to life for our grandparents and generations before!
So follow along if you'd like if anything I'm sure it will be entertaining!

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!