seems a very good way to start our foray into chicken keeping! We have ordered day-old chicks to be delivered at the beginning of April. Specifically, we will be getting Salmon Faverolles, which are a dual purpose bird (good for eggs and meat) and reported to be very docile. Being docile is good for my eldest who wants chickens to sit on her lap, and for my youngest, who loves the idea of chickens, but is still a bit afraid of them. But being docile also means that they are on the bottom of the pecking order (yes, the phrase originated with chickens because it is a real thing!) in a mixed flock, so we will only have Salmon Faverolles.

My husband is in the process of building us a coop. A hen mansion. A chicken Fort Knox. A little over a year ago he accepted a new job offer and we moved to north Texas. We had a long list of house wants, but top of the list was the ability to have chickens, fast internet, and a good school system. Harder to find than we anticipated! But find one we did, and set about our plans. My Dad gave us a trail cam and we started recording the local wild life: rabbits, armadillos, deer, skunk, opossums, raccoons, fox, coyote, and bobcat all live in our area. If we were to have chickens, they would have to be well protected! As much as the little coop houses available at TSC are cute, they won’t protect a flock from a bobcat. My husband is also 6’5″ and the sheds sold at the local hardware supply stores don’t have doors tall enough. So building the coop became the plan. He has built sheds before, so is embracing the challenge. Here is a photo of the coop in progress.

As you can see, we still need siding and a roof. We have some time before the chicks are here, so here’s to hoping the weather is nicer than today (with wind chill it is 19 degrees F, super cold for us Texans!) No outside work today. Brrr.

So thank you for joining us and reading along with our adventure! Life is crazy, so I make no promises, but it has been fun to get this blog started. Here is to more posts! Prost!