While my gardening is coming along, slowly but surely, my brain decided it didn’t have enough to worry about. Between my husband, children, dogs, work, and life in general, I stay busy. Apparently, I don’t stay busy enough, though.
Somewhere in my brain, as we were busy getting ready to send our oldest off to Ireland on her senior trip, I thought, “You know what would be a fun project? Chickens.” Three hours of research later, we were off to the farm supply store to buy chicks. To be honest, I’d been researching off and on for the last couple years and, up until now, had decided I didn’t want something else to have to take care of.
This is what they call a millennial midlife crisis (early ‘80’s baby – so don’t give me too much grief). I crave a simple life. I keep my circle small. This year has been all about getting back to good health, both mentally and physically, and getting stuff done. This year includes gardening and learning to preserve what I grow, do more home baking and cooking, and living better. This year includes chickens.
Do you think I’m going to raise these chickens to eat? Of course not! They’ve become pets already. I got six hens *fingers crossed*. They have names. They have personalities. They have a purpose. Not only will we enjoy fresh eggs in a few months, but we’ll also have the added benefit of fertilizer for the garden, and I plan on building a mobile pen for next spring to move around the yard for weed and bug control, aeration, and fertilization of said yard.
While the initial investment into this party my brain was having was relatively low, I failed to calculate the cost of the full investment. Not the feed, that’s not super expensive. No, what I failed to include in my calculations was the cost of building the coop and the chicken run. Why would I do that?
My poor husband has been laughing at me, yes at me, in the sweetest way for the last four weeks as he watches me nurture these noisy little creatures. I talk to them, and they talk back. They gripe at me for not feeding them enough bugs. I gripe back. It’s our thing. He did, however, offer to help with the coop and run build, since he’s super handy that way, and because he likes seeing me happy.
On to the plans. I’ve designed three different styles of coops so far. My drawings and chicken scratch writing *pun intended* get more elaborate with each plan, because eventually I will buy more chickens. He knows this and fully supports it. What started off as a 4-foot by 8-foot design has morphed into a McChicken Mansion. Thankfully we have a fair amount of the supplies needed for the outdoor run, but the coop supplies we will have to buy. I thought about buying one of those generic ones you can get at any farm supply store, but the low quality and the cost were a bit much when I can build better for cheaper. Building starts this weekend and I’m certain that I will have a future article with chicken coop plans for your entertainment.
