Our new family members

It's been in the making for a while...I've wanted chickens...yes, me, city girl wanted chickens. Mainly because I'm cheap and also liked the idea of some entertainment around here, as if 3 wild kiddos isn't enough! In my opinion chickens are on of the few pets that earn their keep.

When Nate came home one day saying that he'd had a conversation with another doctor who said we could have some of his chickens I jumped on it. We wanted to do everything very inexpensively because that's where we're at in life and because our HOA says "no Chickens" so we have to be willing to get rid of them at any time therefore we didn't want to sink a bunch of money into their coop.

Ahhh...their coop. I pinterested and googled some ideas and came up with the idea of turning the kids plastic little tykes house into a coop. Brilliant!! It was free to us and almost free to remodel for chickens. We bought chicken wire and boarded up the windows. We also put a perch for them to roost. We also bought feed and a water feeder. We spent less than $50.

We've had so much fun. We've trimmed their wings to keep them from flying out of the yard---yes, they've escaped a few times. They lay about an egg a day per hen. The kids love finding the eggs. Their names are Keeter and Agnes and they're very kid friendly. They eat the bugs in the yard and fertilize the grass. They definitely earn their keep!

Agnes laying an egg...

Owen locking up the house for the night..

The chicken coop next to the compost pile...who am I?

Keeter--not the smartest place to hang out.

Owen teaching them tricks.