Introducing the Brooks Brood

Where to begin....We live in a neighborhood with a handful of families that have chickens. I have known this since we moved here a year ago. Our neighbors right across the street from us are very generous. They have 4 chickens, and they have frequently shared their great eggs with us. Well, one day, I asked to see their set up. I wanted to see where their chickens slept/ate etc. My neighbor friend happily showed me her chickens and their coop and run. But, I think what amazed me was when she started talking about how easy and cheap chickens are to maintain. She talked about how their food comes in bulk and is super cheap. She talked about how they love to eat weeds and table scraps, and how even their poop can be composted into amazing fertilizer for your garden. They can be fun and entertaining to watch, and to top it all off they will provide you with a great breakfast! I went home thinking I would just nonchalantly share this wonderful information with Charlie. I was in no way prepared to push him or make a hard sell on this. I think I wasn't prepared to do this because I was pretty sure there was no way he'd want to get chickens. Much much to my surprise, I had hardly begun talking about it before he said, "We can get them and I even want to build the coop!" What?! Clearly this was from God. It was meant to be! Ha.

The building stage commenced. I am Mrs. Cheapskate, so we used almost entirely reclaimed wood. We had neighbors donate some wood. My parents donated wood. Basically all we paid for were the screws, the hinges, and the wire. The wire was the most expensive by far. We used hardware cloth instead of chicken wire as we were advised that it is much stronger and safer. Charlie did a great job on the coop and run, but he could not have done it without his Dad. He was a huge help. In fact, it was 3 generation Brooks men effort. My little man Coleman put in some serious hours! Let me tell you that boy was out their with his black and decker tool set sawing, hammering, and doing lots and lots of measuring!

The big day arrived! We went to Farmer Norris's farm and picked out our chickens. We wanted 4, but because ours were still very young, we were advised to get 6. They aren't the hardiest things apparently. We are preparing the kids that there is a chance that one or two won't make it (but I will say, so far so good). We purchased (for $9 a piece), 3 golden comets, 2 barred plymouth rocks, and 1 rhode island red. Callie named two of them Cluckie and Little C. Coleman named his two Batman and Chocolate Chip. Charlie named his Julio Jones, and mine is named Mrs. Peabody.

So far, we are all having a lot of fun with the chickens. They have been easy thus far. Today ours are 2 months, so we still have a ways to go before they start laying around the 6 month mark. This last picture is a view of our backyard from our deck. I think what sealed the deal with chickens in my mind, was realizing we have the perfect back yard for it. Our yard is long and narrow. The coop is in the far back corner, quite a distance from the house. That back corner is so woodsy and buggy we never play back there. So the chickens are basically confined to a space that we never used anyway. That is nice because I love our backyard. We live outside and did not want chickens taking over our yard. We were also blessed to just find a lot of the paint we used in our garage. It turned out to be a great color for camouflaging the whole thing. And, Charlie's dad happened to have leftover green roof tin from a previous project. I am thankful because I feel like the coop doesn't just stand out. So, if anyone wants to come visit, just wait 4 more months and then maybe we'll have fresh eggs to share!