Log Home Mom: Welcome to Log Home Mom and Dad’s Chicken Inn

We have been wanting to start our chicken collection for a few years now. I have done a ton of research, bought my Girl’s book, The Chicken Chick, and many others. Looked over designs. Pinned many items.

Then it happened, March 19^th we walked into our Local Tractor Supply store and there they were, my future flock. Out we walked with 8 chicks. 6 were pullets and two were mixed.

We even slept in the same room as them the first two nights. And wouldn’t you know it, our power went out the first night. A fluke really. So Log Home Dad went and turn the generator on so they had the heat lamp.

We kept them in the downstairs family room. We had a nice little pen with shaving, a brooder, water and feed. Which was fine for about 3 weeks. We even took them camping with us at 5 weeks, they stayed in the bunk room in a playpen. Cue the 3 week mark or so and the smell started coming and the dust, SO much dust. The coop wasn’t coming fast enough and they were getting bigger and bigger every day. One day I came down and two had jumped on top of their enclosure. We knew we were running out of time!

The one thing I didn’t plan was getting them that night, which means, we had no coop. But we had plenty of time, right? LHD started working on it pretty quickly. But it was a pain staking process. Although he enjoyed it tremendously. It had been some time since he created something himself like this. He used no plans, Just an idea in his head after all his research. And of course I was a nervous wreck thinking about putting my babies in a house all by themselves. I wanted every little hole filled, covered and welded shut. We have snakes, raccoons, a fox and coyotes, not to mention all of the Hawks, Falcons, Owls and Eagles hoovering about. I must have drove LHD crazy. After he was done building the coop, it took a day and half just to paint it, and I went back and forth on the colors. I love what we went with. A Barn Red and Milk Can off white. At this point, we just need a roof and run, which is coming soon. I am so proud of His creation, the only thing we wish would have been different, is making it larger. So advice is GO bigger every time!

I knew from the beginning, they would all be named after Downton Abbey Characters. And since we did not know if the +2 we got were hens or roosters, I named them all female names with a back up plan. Meet my Downton Chicks:

Now that they are almost 10 weeks, After hoping against hope we didn’t have roosters, indeed Mrs. Patmore is Mr. Carlson and Daisy is Mosley. Besides the appearance, you should see them puff up their chests and then that oh so pitiful cockadoodledoo that we hear from time to time.

We decided to go with a construction sand for coop bedding. I have to tell you, it is a breeze to scoop poop. Just like you would from a litter box. We also went with a board under the roost, I can then scrap it once or twice a day. Hardly any smell. And happy, clean chickens.

We are starting to introduce limited treats.

They got frozen tomatoes which they devoured!

And boy if a bug is at the door when I open it, it will meet it’s demise in a blink of an eye.

It really is a joy getting to know them and seeing how fast they grow. They look forward to me coming to the coop and I look forward to seeing them. I am excited to see where this new chapter in our little homestead takes us. And can’t wait to reap the rewards of eggs.