We live in a small suburb of Cleveland, OH where houses are on top of each other. We currently have a 2 1/2 year old daughter (born at 25 weeks..her journey can be viewed:
HERE), 2 dogs and 2 cats but I felt like we were missing something. A while back I
mentioned to my husband,Tim, that I wanted chickens. Fast forward a few months and Tim had
a plumbing job at his sister’s brother in law’s house. They live in Cleveland
and have a few chickens. They gave Tim some eggs to try. He said they were delicious
and much better than any store bought eggs. And that, my friends, was the day we agreed to get
chickens.
Tim started building the chicken coop this week. We decided
to go to the nursery and look at chicken supplies. We went to Grace
Brothers Nursery in North Royalton but they only had 8 week old and older
chickens. If we were going to do this, we wanted to get them young to socialize
them. They mentioned that their other store in Cleveland had younger chicks
there. We drove there, walked in and saw a huge tub filled with a bunch of two
week old chickens and fell in love. They were so cute and all your heard was “peep
peep”. Avery was pointing at them and seemed very interested.
Look at how cute they are!
We weren’t planning on buying chickens that day but ended up
with 3 of them. It is ok that Tim isn’t done with the coop yet because these
chickens have to be kept under a heat lamp for a few more weeks. They will be
spending the next month, in a plastic tote with a heat lamp, in our upstairs
spare bedroom. Avery is very interested and tries to reach in the tote to touch
the chicks. When I ask her if she wants to pet one, she shakes her head no.
When I pick one up and hold it by her, she walks in the opposite direction. I
think she will come around when she feels like it. The biggest fan of the
chickens is our dog, Scarlett. She is so interested and sits with her feet up
on the tote, peering over the edge to catch a glimpse.
They had three different types of chickens there so we got
one of each kind. He said each of them are friendly and hardy breeds which will
be good for the winter/summer.
Black Jersey- This chick is currently black and grey but
when fully grown will have black, almost iridescent green feathers. We named
this one Raven.
Buckeye- This chick is currently brown but will turn mahogany color with black
tail feathers when it gets older. Her name is Daisy.
White Plymouth Rock- This chick is currently yellow but will
turn completely white when fully grown. Kaitlin and Eddie named her Fluffy.
It takes about 16 weeks before a chick can lay an egg so
they will hopefully start laying before Thanksgiving. All of the varieties that
we got produce brown eggs.
If he didn’t have it before, Tim now has motivation to
finish the coop quickly. Tim is a saint. He really is. I am being super picky with
this coop (even though I haven’t even hammered in one nail) and he is being
very patient with me. We are looking online to get some hints (such as making
the nesting boxes removable for easy cleaning and putting down a poop strip
where they will roost).
I decided to write a blog to document our journey. Maybe it will encourage others to raise chickens, even if you are like us and don't have a big yard.
We are super excited about this new adventure!
We are going to give these gals a good home.
Avery is excited about the chickens
She tries to grab but but doesn't want to touch them (if that makes any sense)
Tim holding Daisy for Avery to see
Raven
Daisy
Fluffy
Everyone trying to see
Scarlett is the most excited about them
