Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?

If one wanted to cause more stress in one's life...how would one go about doing that?  Get chickens, of course!
I have been thinking about getting a few chickens for our backyard for a couple of years now and when Colin got home--he was all about getting chickens.  Now we just had to convince the rest of the family.  

We bought a book on chickens and Colin and I read it, then presented our plan to the family.  I would like to say that it was our skilled arguments that convinced everyone but it was the sentence:  "Everyone gets to pick out his own chicken" that actually got the family on board.


ENTER SIX CHICKS!

 Four different breeds and six aptly named chickens later...

• 2 Golden Sex Links (Paul's is Goldie Hawn and Mitch's is Ino)
• 2 Ameraucanas (Seth's is Michon and mine is Biddie Davis)
• 1 Rhode Island Red (Colin's is River)
• 1 Barred Plymouth Rock (Hudson's is Xavier)

We made a little brooder box in the laundry room and became instantly attached!




UH....THEY'RE GETTING BIGGER...NOW WHAT?

Time to build a coop!  I found a website that I absolutely love!  
http://www.backyardchickens.com/
I studied a lot of plans on this site and landed on one I really liked.  After showing it to Paul, Colin and Seth, they seemed to think it was a fairly simple enough plan.  And we were really going to get started but...the septic tank broke and we lost two weeks while Paul and the boys worked on that project.  

Meanwhile, the chickens were growing like weeds.  They seem pretty human friendly.  
When the weather got warmer, we would take them out in the front yard to peck and scratch around.  They seemed to really like that.  

My nephew Royal enjoys the chickens

So does his brother, Atticus.

HOW'S THAT COOP COMING?

Nag, nag nag.  That's what I've done this past week to my poor hen-pecked husband (did you catch that clever word play?)  When is the coop going to be built?  The chickens have almost outgrown the brooder box.  Well, the nagging has paid off.

Foundation going in....

And this is where we are to date.  Hopefully the actually coop and nesting boxes will be framed in tomorrow...weather permitting.