Our Newest Garden

This year we are adding chickens to our little farm. We have had chickens in the past-- both here and in Connecticut and we love having fresh brown eggs. We do not have a chicken coop here on this farm so Josh is building a new one with my supervision. On Saturday afternoon we poured the floor for the part that will have a floor. The coop will be 8 X 14 with 8 X 4 being a storage area and place for new babies to be under the lights until they feather out. We have ordered the chickens and they will be here next week. We are getting 6 Rhode Island Reds, 6 speckled sussex, 7 buff orphingtons, , 6 light brahmas, and 6 barred rocks. All but the RIRs are coming from a hatchery and the RIRs are coming from a local source. I had wanted Giant Black Jerseys but they will not be available until mid July and that would make them alot younger than the others. So I will wait until next time for them. We have always had Rhode Island Reds in the past but I thought that a variety of hens that lay brown eggs would be interesting and pretty. Any roosters will end up in the freezer-- although we paid for all hens and they guranteed that 90% would be hens. It is difficult to sex a chicken when it is 1 day old. Next year I think we are going to build another coop and raise chickens for the freezer. As well as some more laying hens. Liza was not totally thirilled about having chickens again but she now has a few people at work who want to buy their eggs from us so she is happier about the hens. This will also give us a good source of eggs for our collies who absolutely adore boiled eggs.