The Poultry Project

Look who's here! Our feathery little friends have arrived! We are entering the world of Backyard Chickens as part of our home schooling. The best part is, I am learning too! I love anything cute and fuzzy, these little darlings definitely qualify. No critters with scales at our house, no way!

We ordered our little chicks through our local farm supply store called Farm and Fleet. We were fortunate not to have to pay extra for shipping for our live animals. With the bulk store orders, our costs were slightly less than if we ordered them from the hatchery ourselves. The store required a minimum order of 5 birds, which was fine since our township only allows 6 per household.

The breed we choose is the Delaware chicken. Delaware chickens are an old fashioned breed, they are beautiful white birds with black and white feathers on their wings, neck and tail. They are supposed to be supreme egg layers, even without a rooster. We shall see!

It cracks me up how they fall asleep on their feet. They close their eyes and sway back and forth as if they are going to tip over. They are babies after all, and babies nap frequently! It reminds me of our son James who fell asleep sitting at the dinner table when he was a baby. He went face down in his plate of spaghetti. Lights out!

For night time sleeping, we have discovered they like to huddle together and lay down in the bottom of their box with their eyes closed. I came in late last night to check on them, to my horror all of them were laying down in the bottom of the box. Naturally, I assumed we had killed them by frying them with a too hot light bulb so I screamed. The poor little darlings opened their eyes and ran around the cage in circles, shaking with fright. Needless to say, I now tip toe into my laundry room so I won't scare them all to death before they even make it outdoors. Apparently, they have very good hearing. Who knew?

For the time being, our birds are indoors until they get more of their mature feathers and can fend for them selves outside.  From what I have read, it can take up to 4 weeks.

This little one is curious about my camera. Too funny! You should hear them chirp, they really do sound like they are talking to you!

We have them temporarily in a plastic box with a heat lamp on them registering 98-100 degrees. The first day they needed warm water with one table spoon of sugar per quart to get them to drink. With a bit of encouragement dunking their beaks into the water, they are able to drink. The food is scattered on the floor of the box so it's easy for them to find.

By the second day, the birds are able to eat and drink on their own. The bottom of their box is lined with paper towels and is cleaned daily until they get a bit older, then we can switch to a different bedding.

So far, it's been a fairly inexpensive project, the birds came from Cackle Hatchery in Missouri. The birds cost us less than $20.00. You can get them mail order, but with postage your costs may be slightly higher. The feeding equipment and food ran about $30.00. The main expense was the wood for our coop or tractor, which was around $200.00.

We are currently working on building our chicken tractor. I will post more on this later, but I can tell you we got our coop plans on Ebay. They are from Catawaba Coops which is the home school family that designed our mobile chicken tractor. They have a great website with lots of information on how to get approval for your Backyard chickens from the city where you live, as well as how to deal with disapproving neighbors, how to care for your birds and even how to raise bees. It's great to be able to support another home schooling family in their home based business!

Interestingly enough, we did not have to purchase a permit from the city to have the chickens because our coop is mobile. Permits are only required for permanent structures in our area. How easy is that?

If you are on not following me yet on Pintrest, I have a Pintrest page on Backyard Chickens. There are lots of chicken owners out there, and my oh my are they creative! Tons of tips and great ideas for keeping chickens. Check out my board  here.

This is a real adventure for us, we have never had chickens before, but even my high school boys find it fun. I know they will love eating the fresh eggs we will have! I am also looking forward to learning how beneficial the birds are to our organic garden. More to come!

I am sharing on Trivium Tuesdays over at Living and Learning at Home today.

Chirp!

Designer Mom