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Spring is bound to be on it's way to Idaho too. The mud is proof of this and I can't wait! I spent a large portion of time reading about raising chickens. It has taken me nearly 2 years to convince my husband that it would be great to have laying hens on our place. Unfortunately he took the chicken house down a few years ago (it ruined his view he said). So in keeping with my plan to have chickens, I drew him a new plan, bigger and better than what we had before. I read him excerpts from http://backyardchickens.com/ and took him on "tours" of some of the very nice chicken coops I know of around here. He was finally sold after standing in the coop of the egg lady's house for 45 minutes and not smelling an odor or being attacked by rogue hens. I read every book at our local library and most posts on the site I mentioned above. If anyone is interested in raising backyard chickens, that site has an absolute wealth of information available. It can be highly addictive and easy to spend countless hours reading (I call this research) what others have done that worked or didn't. My OCD personality needs a very neat and orderly chicken house so I am very glad to be building a new one rather than renovating an old one. My plans are drawn up, my chick order planned and now the weather needs to cooperate and I will be on my way!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Backyard Chickens Here We Come!
Spring is bound to be on it's way to Idaho too. The mud is proof of this and I can't wait! I spent a large portion of time reading about raising chickens. It has taken me nearly 2 years to convince my husband that it would be great to have laying hens on our place. Unfortunately he took the chicken house down a few years ago (it ruined his view he said). So in keeping with my plan to have chickens, I drew him a new plan, bigger and better than what we had before. I read him excerpts from http://backyardchickens.com/ and took him on "tours" of some of the very nice chicken coops I know of around here. He was finally sold after standing in the coop of the egg lady's house for 45 minutes and not smelling an odor or being attacked by rogue hens. I read every book at our local library and most posts on the site I mentioned above. If anyone is interested in raising backyard chickens, that site has an absolute wealth of information available. It can be highly addictive and easy to spend countless hours reading (I call this research) what others have done that worked or didn't. My OCD personality needs a very neat and orderly chicken house so I am very glad to be building a new one rather than renovating an old one. My plans are drawn up, my chick order planned and now the weather needs to cooperate and I will be on my way!
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Good Morning, This sounds wonderful! My blog friend, Pam, at http://goergiafarmwoman.blogspot.com writes frequently about her chickens. You might enjoy visiting with her and tell her I sent you. She lives on 100 acres! I will look forward to following your journey with your chickens now. Have a wonderful afternoon.
ReplyDeleteI would love to have chickens. I live in town, so they're not allowed. They create a great addition for composting. Not to mention the fresh eggs.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am SO jealous! I would love to have chickens but our county absolutely and positively forbids them. Drat that! The chick is so cute, and I hope she will be a good layer. What kind of chicken is she?
ReplyDeleteI have just become a follower of your blog -- I will have to live the farm life vicariously through you!
Hi Heather-- My husband, kids and I lived on ten acres for many years. We had chickens and loved them. (Ducks too.) They're interesting to watch and there is definitely a pecking order. Hopefully you won't have two roosters. :-) You can't always tell when you get your chick order. Well, maybe they've changed the process and you can know now. Our biggest heartbreak was having some kind of critter, raccoon I'm guessing but it could have been a cougar or fox, grab a chicken to satisfy their hunger. The chickens always went inside to roost at night but every now and then something would get them. Sad. Good luck to you and kudos to your husband for coming around. What's a goat farm without chickens? :-)
ReplyDeleteHeather, Glad you convinced him! I'm sure he'll end up liking them. When I lived in the NC mountains were had about 10 hens and a rooster (Buffs)eventually the rooster became quite the pet even riding on the back of the Newfoundland dog next door.
ReplyDeleteThat's it. Can I come live with you? You get all the animals I want but hubby won't allow. In all fairness, we already have 2 dogs, 2 cats and a little guy so don't won't to push the spouse over the edge of our city lot. Still, I won't an article on city chickens and two would be plenty for us and not alot of work. Oh well, I'll live through you! Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteThat's supposed to be "wrote" an article... Yep, a writer am I. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI would love to have chickens too. Apparently we aren't allowed to have animals that aren't pets in our neighborhood. Do you think I could convince them that chickens are our pets? Not only would we have wonderful eggs, but we'd also have manure for our compost pile.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather, the yurt in one of the Idaho City yurts - Rocky Ridge. There are about 5 of them scattered above Idaho City.
ReplyDeleteNice blog!
How great. I've tried to convince my husband, but I really don't think we have the space. The town I live in allows 4 or 5 chickens, but most people have more than that.
ReplyDeleteWell this sounds like a lot of fun (some work too...of course), but seems like a nice way of getting closer to nature. Unfortunately we live in a development in the suburbs of DC and couldn't get away with goats or chickens. It just wouldn't work, but as a child we had chickens and ducks...in fact, little Donald was one of my pets as a child! (One day he disappeared and later I learned that we'd had him for dinner). True Story. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteYour life sounds so interesting Heather, so I'll be happy to see what's going on around your place as time goes by!
You are going to love having chickens! You should check out hencam.com and mypetchicken.com, both good websites for info. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteHeather,
ReplyDeleteI haven't quite convinced my fiance that we need to have a few chickens around. I'm still working on him, though! :)
I grew up in Spokane, WA and we lived in Post Falls, ID (near Coeur d' Alene) for a few years. I get homesick for that area from time to time.
I will enjoy coming back to visit and seeing how things progress!
What a super good thing to have your own laying hens! Wonderful! Looking forward to seeing the progress of the new henhouse. I love fresh eggs and have thought of having some hens here. We travel a bit too much though. I have even visited that website looking at their cool henhouses. A feature in and of itself in the garden.
ReplyDeleteHave fun!!! They really cute little things when they are babies.....
ReplyDeleteWe had chickens several years ago.I have been tempted to try them again, but for good eggs they should be free ranging....and chickens can destroy a garden in no time flat. I found that out... :-(
ReplyDeleteHi Heather, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog, it's nice to find yours. I've had a look at http://backyardchickens.com/ and will spend some time (research)there as well.
ReplyDeleteI like your banner photo, it almost looks like here in a really good season.
I'll be looking forward to reading more about your developing small farm.
Hi Heather! I would love to have chickens! Our neighbors have them and we had to take care of them at the end of December while they were away in Florida. They are so fascinating. I want some of our own, but my husband says no. So we'll just enjoy our neighbors' chickens, who sometimes come down and pay us a visit. Good luck with yours!
ReplyDeleteI read your comment on another's blog about wanting to make a "flower bed." I think it's a great idea! They did that at the Cleveland Flower Show in 2005 when the general theme of the show was garden rooms.
Goodluck to you! I have a feeling you will have such a great time raising these amazing birds. Hoping to see more posts on what happened. Take Care!
ReplyDeleteSo what type of chickens have you decided on? I convinced hubby to give this a try this year. We can have three hens in town. (Actually, he's been wanting chickens for a year or more.)
ReplyDelete