Chickens

I have kind of been toying with the idea of getting some chickens since spring time. Talking with Pete he wasn't so sure about the idea, but had said if we did get chickens he didn't want anything to do with them. Well, the boys spent the night at Gramma's house this past weekend, she called to tell me the boys were asking if they could take home some of Gramma's chickens. Guess what I said? Yes, we now have 5 cute, well I guess they are kind of cute, chickens!

Pete was such a sweetheart, even after saying he wanted nothing to do with them he built an awesome chicken coop. More than I could have done, although I would have tried! He is such a sport!! I spent one morning on the computer looking at different coops and decided I wanted one that we could move around the yard...a chicken tractor, and this is what he built. He was even so kind that once it was built I decided we needed a door down below and he put it in without to much grumbling.

In this picture you can see that the one side opens up so that when they start laying eggs we can easily collect them. I still need to put in their nesting boxes and their roosting bar, but you get the idea.

Steven even helped put the chicken ladder on. He was so excited to be able to use the air gun. There is a rope on a pulley system that will close up the ladder at night, which I think is pretty clever.

It hooks up to the lawn mower for transporting around the yard. You can see in this picture that we ran out of roofing, so it isn't totally complete yet. Back to Lowes we go. Here you can also see how the top part closes up to keep them safe at night.

Right now we have the tractor under the apple tree, they should be quite happy there for awhile. The dogs are quite fasinated by them too!
I thought I would share this cool picture Austin took of his chicken "Mellow Yellow" Isn't it neat?