We started our chicken journey April 29th 2023 when we acquired an old coop from a neighbor.
We were planning to get some pullets around July after we had done our research (per our usual) but then May 22nd happened.
My neighbor (the same one that gave us the coop) knocked on our door and ask if we had gotten any chickens yet, of course I told him no and he said that he had bought 50 chickens off of a friend earlier that day and wanted us to come over and pick out a few. Since we hadn’t done our research we couldn’t tell a hen from a rooster, so you can imagine what happened. We picked out 4 young chickens mainly by there color and size. I picked a Lavender Orpington and a Barred Rock, my wife picked out a red colored one (we assumed Rhode Island Red) and my oldest daughter picked a white Leghorn.
After bringing them home and doing a fast repair job on the old coop, we moved them into there new home and began to spoil them.
On Memorial Day the same neighbor knocked on our door again and ask if we could take 15 chicks because he didn’t have anywhere to keep them. I told him we would and we went from 4 chickens to 19 in a split second. Unfortunately we lost one of the chicks (it was in poor health when we got it). We instantly began trying to rehome the chicks and we’re able to find good homes for 12 of them. At this time we chose to keep 2 of them taking our flock from 4 to 6 (chicken math is real!).
The two we kept was a mixed bantam and a mixed Americana. After gaining two new members we decided it was time to build a larger coop. We didn’t then nor do we now have the funds to buy a large nice coop like Carolina Coops or even a Tractor Supply coop but I do have enough know how to build one myself and mainly out of “found” materials. That’s when we started drawing out plans.
Here we are, 6 chickens and ready to build a new coop then we discover what our lack of chicken knowledge had cost us. Not just 1 but 4 of our chickens were… Roosters. To clarify we wanted chickens for eggs and roosters don’t lay eggs. So once again we start the rehoming process. Thankfully we found a local farm that bought them and was going to breed them. After they picked up the Roos we went and purchased 3 laying hens on July 4th from a local chicken keeper.
We purchased a Golden Comet (Lucy) and two Americanas (Eliza and Elise).
We also started our coop on the 4th. Thanks to my dad and father in law we were able to get a lot accomplished.
We got our first egg on July 5 from our Golden Comet, Lucy who has been a favorite of ours. And a couple of days later we got our first Americana egg. I have worked on the coop every spare minute I had and working full time in my field isn’t easy. I was up at the crack of dawn and out till dark working on the coop. But today August 1st I can proudly announce that The Cheek Coop is finally finished!
As I stated earlier it was built with mostly found materials. We did purchase screws, hardware and wire. We used 1/2” hardware cloth and it is as predator proof as it can be (the wire was not up in the last photo). We used linoleum for the floor of the coop it’s self and are using the deep litter method in the coop. The enclosed run is 12’x8’ and the coop is 8’x5’ with 2-5’ roost bars (2x4).
This has been a labor of love and it turned out better than we could ever imagine. The total we have in this coop is…$300.
So tonight August 1st our girls and boy went to roost in The Cheek Coop for the first of many nights to come. This is just a small glimpse of our journey and it has only just begun.
We were planning to get some pullets around July after we had done our research (per our usual) but then May 22nd happened.
My neighbor (the same one that gave us the coop) knocked on our door and ask if we had gotten any chickens yet, of course I told him no and he said that he had bought 50 chickens off of a friend earlier that day and wanted us to come over and pick out a few. Since we hadn’t done our research we couldn’t tell a hen from a rooster, so you can imagine what happened. We picked out 4 young chickens mainly by there color and size. I picked a Lavender Orpington and a Barred Rock, my wife picked out a red colored one (we assumed Rhode Island Red) and my oldest daughter picked a white Leghorn.
After bringing them home and doing a fast repair job on the old coop, we moved them into there new home and began to spoil them.
On Memorial Day the same neighbor knocked on our door again and ask if we could take 15 chicks because he didn’t have anywhere to keep them. I told him we would and we went from 4 chickens to 19 in a split second. Unfortunately we lost one of the chicks (it was in poor health when we got it). We instantly began trying to rehome the chicks and we’re able to find good homes for 12 of them. At this time we chose to keep 2 of them taking our flock from 4 to 6 (chicken math is real!).
The two we kept was a mixed bantam and a mixed Americana. After gaining two new members we decided it was time to build a larger coop. We didn’t then nor do we now have the funds to buy a large nice coop like Carolina Coops or even a Tractor Supply coop but I do have enough know how to build one myself and mainly out of “found” materials. That’s when we started drawing out plans.
Here we are, 6 chickens and ready to build a new coop then we discover what our lack of chicken knowledge had cost us. Not just 1 but 4 of our chickens were… Roosters. To clarify we wanted chickens for eggs and roosters don’t lay eggs. So once again we start the rehoming process. Thankfully we found a local farm that bought them and was going to breed them. After they picked up the Roos we went and purchased 3 laying hens on July 4th from a local chicken keeper.
We purchased a Golden Comet (Lucy) and two Americanas (Eliza and Elise).
We also started our coop on the 4th. Thanks to my dad and father in law we were able to get a lot accomplished.
We got our first egg on July 5 from our Golden Comet, Lucy who has been a favorite of ours. And a couple of days later we got our first Americana egg. I have worked on the coop every spare minute I had and working full time in my field isn’t easy. I was up at the crack of dawn and out till dark working on the coop. But today August 1st I can proudly announce that The Cheek Coop is finally finished!
This has been a labor of love and it turned out better than we could ever imagine. The total we have in this coop is…$300.
So tonight August 1st our girls and boy went to roost in The Cheek Coop for the first of many nights to come. This is just a small glimpse of our journey and it has only just begun.
