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| An ad from Hobby Farms magazine. Yep, Mr. W has a subscription. |
If you read here regularly, you already know that we're planning to get some chickens, and that we (and by we, I mostly mean Mr. Wonderful) have been building a chicken/coop greenhouse to hold them in our side yard. Mr. W has been researching chicken rearing for at least a year, and this weekend we took a humongous step toward having them: we ordered four. They should arrive at the end of April.
As soon as Mr. W clicked "submit" on the website, I felt nervous. Like we were pregnant with quadruplets. I even had a dream that night that we had a baby girl. Strangely, we had hired a surrogate to carry her, but then even more strangely, I was breastfeeding her. I know—I should probably call my old shrink. Clearly I need to work through some weird ass Freudian stuff... Anywhoo...
So now Mr. W has to try to get me up to speed on how to take care of our little feathered friends. He was reading in bed over the weekend, and shared these gems with me from one of his chicken books:
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Apparently the girls will be living indoors with us for about 5 weeks while they grow big enough to survive out in their coop. Of course I asked if they could sleep on our pillows and wake us up each morning with sweet little peeping sounds. Mr. W doesn't seem to think it would work quite like that...
It's a good thing we have so much time before they arrive because the coop still looks like this:
When it's finished, it should look like this:
The actual chicken run will be smaller, but the rest of the sketch is pretty accurate. Greenhouse on the south side, chicken coop on the east side, storage on the west side, and a roof garden on top.
In addition to counting down the days until the girls arrive, I'm counting the days until Mr. W is here fulltime. We only have about 3-ish more weeks to go. I cannot wait. I did the math recently and although we're coming up on our 3-year anniversary, we've lived apart for HALF of that time. We have a lot of newlywed shenanigans to catch up on. Let's just say the chickens won't be the only ones doing a lot of pecking around here...
The eggs are going to be so pretty in a basket on your counter in the kitchen. Very very fun... and a little bit scary with the beaks.
ReplyDeleteOoohh I see that picture on my blog in the future!
DeleteSoooo crazy that you're gonna be a chicken mama, but I'm very excited for your next adventure. Let's just hope Mr. W doesn't ditch you right away for a long term project - both of y'all need to bond with those chicks!
ReplyDeleteIf all goes according to plan, there won't be any long-term projects for a long time. Maybe forever. I need him here to be on chicken duty full-time!!
DeleteI have the best chicken story ever and its not even mine. Can I tell it here? It's like a blog in a blog. Damn, I better not. I'll save it for when you tell me about the sounds your... oh yeah, that's supposed to be on the down low.
ReplyDeleteI think you should tell it here. Or maybe I should have a guest post. Unless it involves anything sad or sick happening to the chicken. Then you just keep that one in your deep fryer...
DeleteI kinda want that story now....
DeleteDo you know Morgan from The Little Henhouse? She writes a blog and she probably knows a thing or two about raising chickens. Wasn't sure if you followed her too.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm so relieved those black splotches on the roof are future plants and not some horrible black moss that will kill your chickens.
Apparently I need to go read The Little Henhouse. Although if I don't - and I maintain my ignorance - Mr. W will have to do all the work... Hmm....
DeleteI am so jealous you are getting chickens. I cannot wait to hear all about your chicken adventures. Maybe someday we will have chickens.
ReplyDeleteI hope the chicken adventures are good ones and not horror stories! I hear they make great pets - so once your little one is older, maybe should get a few.
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ReplyDeleteI don't even know where to start with this one. First of all, I'm still laughing at the term "chicken rearing." Second, not sure which is more disturbing: the fact there really is a publication called Hobby Farms, or the fact Mr. W has a subscription to it. I think if it were me (well, if it were me chickens wouldn't be an issue, but I digress), I'd forget about the instructions on holding them forward or backwards. When it comes to chickens, these are the only real instructions you need: Roast Chicken made simple
ReplyDeletesorry but the girl holding a chicken forward resembles you Melissa
ReplyDelete