Coop Chick-F.I.L.A.
Back in April, when we were quarantined at home, we received a surprise package at our door. The package contained a chicken starter kit and we were definitely confused. We soon found out our sister sent the package and we would soon be receiving 10 baby chicks in the mail a week later. We quickly started doing our research and finding out what it took to become chicken owners. It was perfect timing since we were all at home and had some extra time to devote to raising some new members of our family.
The day was fast approaching for their delivery, and we were all ready to go. The chicks had to live inside the house with a heater for 6 weeks before they were mature enough to transition outside. We had a container for them to live in and a heater all set up. Ben picked them up from the post office on April 20th and it’s been a fun ride ever since!
When they first arrived at home, everyone was curious, especially our dog, Jack. We watched the container day in and day out to check on them to make sure they were thriving. They started growing very quickly and soon outgrew their small container. We moved them into a larger pen that could comfortably fit all 10 now that they were starting to grow their wings and fly around a little. They soon started flying to the top of their pen and some would even fly out on occasion when we opened the top to feed them. We soon began to realize it was getting close to the 6 week mark and they were almost ready to go outside full time. Not to mention, they were causing quite a stink around the house and their little chirps were starting to add up and become pretty loud.
When we bought our house 3 years ago, there was a nice chicken coop in the backyard and we always considered the idea of getting chickens one day. It was in very good condition so we didn’t have much work to do to get it ready for the chickens other than cleaning it out. We researched and determined we needed some extra protection around the coop to protect them from predators. Over the duration of the 6 weeks they were inside, we built a fenced enclosure to cover the chicken coop and secured it in place.
Once the birds were ready to go outside we knew we only had room for about 6 chickens inside the coop comfortably. When they first arrived, we knew they sent one rooster in the bunch that we received, but they never told us which chicken was actually the rooster. We knew from the beginning that we didn’t want a rooster, since we didn’t want any of the eggs fertilized and we didn’t want any additional chickens. We made the decision to give away the rooster (or what we thought was the rooster) and 3 other chicks, to leave us with a total of 6. We wanted to keep at least one of each different breed that we received.
At that time, we named the chickens based on their personalities and colors and decided on our coop name, Coop Chick-F.I.L.A. Over the next few weeks, we noticed there was one chicken making a lot of noise that almost sounded like a rooster. We came to the conclusion that we had not actually given away the rooster, and the fan favorite, CC, was in fact a rooster. The noise kept growing week after week, and started getting earlier and earlier in the morning. We made the hard decision to find another home for CC and now we currently have 5 chickens, all hens.
Around the 6 month mark, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of some eggs. Ben checked the chicken coop every single day in anticipation, and finally we got our first eggs! Currently, we are getting about 2 eggs per day, so we don’t think they have all started producing eggs just yet. They will eventually lay one egg per day usually.
They have proven to be very low maintenance. The coop gets cleaned out every month, and the food and water is filled up on a weekly basis. We have really enjoyed these new additions to our family and we are happy we finally got that push to utilize the chicken coop in the backyard. Stay tuned for more progress and more eggs as they keep growing!
