Finally after a lot planning, reading, designing, building and rebuilding (well a girl can change her mind can't she?) we have a wonderful chicken house, run and 4 hens.
It always amazes me just how fortunate my life is with many things just 'working out' and getting chickens was one of these times. A friend gave us all the materials for constructing the coop, some straw as well as grit and the first phone call I made about buying chickens resulted in us getting 4 free hens. Yes, you read correctly that was FREE!!! Now some of you reading this may think 'hmmm, free must equal knackered' and to be honest there was some doubt in our minds. However going with my friend's words of wisdom that 'a free chicken is a good chicken' we collected our little brood.
The kids had already picked names (Bony and Kapohutukawa), as had we under duress (Twistie and Daphne), and were desperate to get their chickens home and checked in. We had read as much as possible on the net and from the one book available at the library (seems everyone is getting hens at the same time) about care and food only to be left more confused that before. Back to plan A which is a diet of weeds, leftovers, grit and wheat (sprouted for maximum nutrition). This is still under scrutiny however and will undoubtedly be revised and revisited at regular intervals. After a flurry of feathers we popped them in the coop, filled the water and retreated to watch from the step.
They slowly emerged from the coop, drank and all seemed to settle in well. So far so good. Having been told that they would be off the lay while adjusting to the move we didn't expect any eggs and were quite happy to watch them scratching around. Our newly acquired friends had other ideas however and gifted us 3 eggs on their first day here! Another 3 the next 4 days and then 4 eggs on their 6th day here. Officially they have well and truly paid for their keep and are now under no pressure to produce. That is, until we run out of eggs.
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