Our Chicks: 1

A few weeks ago we picked up 24 baby chickens as the first official livestock on the property. Levi and Mom are the ones organizing the whole chicken operation, Dad and I just help with little things like building the coop, other muscle work, we will be collecting eggs now and then, and other things like that. We plan to sell the eggs to some local folks, and eventually make a nice profit from them.

After several days of happily running around in the trough we noticed a problem with one of the smallest birds. Mom had some ideas about what the problems was and tried a few things to help. The conclusion was that the bird needed to be put down just in case she had a contagious virus or something. A local feed store had just gotten a load of chicks so we drove out and bought a couple replacement chicks, which are slightly younger than the rest of the chickens.

All 25 are now doing wonderfully and are showing good signs of continuing that way.

Dad and I have been working on the coop lately, using logs off the property. One of our main philosophies is to use what's available, trying to keep all the costs down. We noticed a shed falling over on the side of the road, and asked for the metal roofing off of it. The owners agreed and gave the metal (which is not cheap) and some of the usable lumber to us.

If you've never had fresh eggs...like really fresh...you have no idea what you're missing!