Do the chickens have large talons?

First of all, chickens. are. awesome. I LOVE having chickens.  They are such unique creatures. They all have their own personalities- more on that later- and they will eat anything! I love setting out scraps and seeing what they devour. It's fun for the kids, but honestly, I think I am the one who loves having chickens the best. They are so fun to watch. This is a great little hobby that is someday going to provide us with eggs that end up costing us about $14/dozen.  Imagine the savings!!

So, onto the savings cost. I did have a feeling this was all going to cost more than I expected, but $697 so far is a little more than I thought I would be reporting. This includes all materials for the coop, the chickens themselves, heat lamps and food. There should be some margin for error since the only reporting I have is from Quicken. I didn't see every receipt and I KNOW that some of them have yard/lawn purchases rolled in since Andy went to Home Depot. So even if we round down- and I think we should, we're looking at $600 to get started with a hobby chicken farm. Our friends all purchased their coops ready made and no one paid more than $400-$500 for theirs, so we're almost on target. But we'll never recoup (get it?) those funds no matter how many eggs we get. So know that going in- I think the coop cost is probably an investment that doesn't necessarily come back to you.

Speaking of coops- here is the coop Andy built. It's a very good coop with just a few 'we've never had chickens flaws'. My amazing husband did not even use a plan for this, he just spent hours looking at plans and modified what he saw and came up with this. I think it's a great coop, safe from predators (Lord willing!) with some nice features like added insulation and a window. The flaw- and maybe this is with all coops- is that I can't stand up in the run. I like to go in there, but I have to bend down which means I'm not spending a lot of time in there. And when you have chickens, if you don't have an automatic door closer, you are in the coop at least twice a day and that doesn't count when you want to go in and manhandle the birds. So, the height of the run is a pain. But this is a moveable coop and that is great because apparently chickens destroy the grass if you leave them forever in the same place. All in all, I think Andy did great except I think with better planning we could have done it cheaper.

Onto the chicken girls.

One by one, here they are in all their glory.

June Carter is our White Crested Polish. She looks freaking hilarious and I love her for it. She's not overly interested in us, but she loves her best friend Lisa Marie. They are always together. The other day I couldn't find them and just as I started to freak out I realized they were sleeping in the feeder. It's a tall galvanized thing that usually has a lid, but they saw an opportunity for a little private time and moved right in.
Lisa Marie is less friendly than June, but she's a pretty nice girl. She got the heat when she moved in, so I think she just knows she's at the bottom of the totem pole and that's that.
Taylor Swift, the Welsummer you can only see in the background is a total bitch. She is always the last one I can catch because she's so busy being a bitch, flying around like an eagle and crap. I love her, but I love her the least of all the chickens.
Loretta is my second favorite chicken. She's pretty friendly and very curious. She loves Avett when he's hanging onto the outside of the coop and she always goes up to him.
Dolly, though, Dolly is my girl. She's for sure the lead chicken, she put June and Lisa Marie right in their places taking special care of making sure LMP knew who was boss.  Dolly is the first one to come to me when I go in the coop. She is curious and kind. I love Dolly. She doesn't mind being held, either.

I'm glad we got a variety of breeds and I'd do that again. I'm interested to see who produces the most eggs, but when we have our dream property and my 30 chickens are free ranging, I'll for sure have more Barred Rocks and Easter Eggers.

So if you want to get some chickens- it'll cost you a little bit, but it's worth it!