So WAY back in March…Josh and I had a talk with the boys and we decided as a family that we would get some chickens. We were all pretty excited about this new adventure and couldn’t wait to get started! At the beginning of April we headed over to to figure out what we would need and how many chickens we wanted. They had a very helpful employee who told us everything we would need to know about taking care of our chickens. Also, lucky for us we had Housewife Gena available to answer any questions we might have!
The boys were excited to help pick out the chickens and were even more excited when the IFA staff told us the chicks needed to be held lots and lots so they would be used to the kids. 🙂 After about an hour there we came home with…
Six adorable chicks! Because we are a family of five we decided to get two chickens that are said to lay daily and four chickens that lay 3-4 times a week. We figured that would be plenty of eggs for us!
A couple weeks later, IFA did an Easter Egg Hunt. Now being a farm supply store, they don’t give away just candy in their eggs, they also give away…you guessed it CHICKENS! (And bunnies and ducks and turkeys) Housewife Jenn’s kids ended up with four leghorn chicks! Another family in our ward decided they didn’t need any extra chickens and gave Jenn’s family another two chicks! Since we were already building a coop for our chicks, we offered to let Jenn’s family’s chicks live with ours.
So here are the little chicks! Happy under their heat lamp and eating away! 🙂
While our chicks were perfectly happy in the garage, in their tote…it quickly got too small for 12 chicks. As soon as they were ready, we transferred them to the backyard to a makeshift coop. I did not take a picture of the makeshift coop because…well it was pretty sad. It served it’s purpose and the chickens loved it but it was not anything you’d want to show off! With that in mind, Josh began the process of building a coop for our chickens. We saw a coop at IFA that we thought looked great! However, it was $600.00. As much as we liked our chickens…we didn’t $600.00 like them!
So Josh took a few measurements and we sketched out what we wanted for our chickens, using the IFA coop as inspiration. We took a trip to Lowe’s to price out our materials. We were lucky enough that we had left over wood, Jenn’s family had left over wood and a family a few houses down from us reroofed their house and donated their left over roofing supplies to us! It was our goal to use as many materials as we already had and keep the cost as low as possible!
Let me say now…Josh and I have never “built” anything. Really. This was quite an adventure for us (mostly Josh since he did almost all of the work) and I’m so happy with how it all turned out!
He started with the base for the coop itself. We wanted to make sure that there was enough clearance for the chickens to use under the coop as part of the chicken run.
He used four 3″ screws in each post to make sure it was nice and sturdy.
Wall framing almost done!
Look what happens when you start building a coop…your chickens start laying eggs! 🙂 (So far Jenn’s chickens are the only ones laying. Lucky for us, our chickens are DUAL chickens so if they don’t get to laying…they going to get to frying!)
The framing completed from two angles.
Up go the walls!
Putting in the hinged door for collecting eggs.
Getting the eggs out will be a breeze! 🙂
A few angles of the walls all up and the plywood for the roof up. As you can see, our coop has skylights…that’s how we roll.
First coat of paint and the tar paper on the roof. You may wonder why we chose this color for the coop. Well to be completely honest, we picked colors we wanted to paint our house and figured the coop would be the perfect guinea pig to see if we like the colors! 🙂 The coop is Valspar’s Royal Gray. (I know, it looks blue to me too!)
For the door we chose Valspar’s Kettle Black. It has blue undertones so it goes really well with the Royal Gray.
The roof complete with the windows in. I’ve seen lots of super cute coops with real glass windows. It was less expensive ($1.29 a pane) to just use plexiglass. And it worked perfectly!
The coop with the final coat of paint, windows/hardware on and trim put up.
The door on the coop. We chose to put a large door on the side to make it easier to clean out for us. And I have to say that it makes it look way cuter! 🙂
The Roosting bar inside the coop.
Trim all painted and mesh put around the bottom of the coop.
The nesting boxes. The only thing I didn’t get a picture of was the peel and stick tiles that we put on the bottom of the coop. They were only $0.02 a tile! I think we ended up using about 14 tiles.
The finished product with the happy chickens inside!
Another angle. After the coop itself was completed. Josh used 2 x 2’s and 2 x 3’s to build the frame for the yard and another, outdoor roosting bar. We also added in the ramp for the chickens to get into the coop. I’m super proud of Josh for all of his hard work and I’m really excited for how amazing it turned out!! Our total cost for the entire coop…every last nail, hinge, can of paint, everything was about $290.00. And the best part is the chicken coop and run are significantly bigger than the one at IFA. 🙂 So HUGE round of applause for Josh and the coop!
UPDATE: Hello dear readers!!! This has been a long time coming, but this post is going to get a HUGE revamp! With having babies and life getting in the way, I’ve neglected this post and getting out the information that I should. I am going to be working on updating this post with as much information on the building and materials as I can. We didn’t keep super great track of all the materials we used, but I will do the best I can to give you as much info as possible! Thank you all again for loving this project!
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We have many Rare Chicken Breeds for sale in Meredosia Illinois,
including Sussex Chickens, Welsummer Chickens, Turken Chickens and more.
Be sure to check out the Bargain Specials, as you can combine different
egg layers in smaller amounts and buy as an assortment. Meredosia
Illinois also has poultry equipment for sale, game chickens for sale in
Meredosia Illinois, bantams for sale, ducks for sale, geese for sale,
turkeys for sale, guinea for sale, peafowl for sale, pheasant for sale,
chukar partridge for sale, bobwhite for sale, many different breeds of
baby chicks for sale in Meredosia IL.
Thumbing through a baby chickens for sale in Meredosia Illinois
catalog is a yearly traditions in many houses. My kids and I eagerly await
the Murray McMurray Hatchery catalog. We love looking at all the cool and
different chicken breeds available. Catalogs are free so head on over to
their site and request one if you are interested.
Typically hatcheries online offer both standard breeds
and bantams. Bantams are fun hardy little chickens, they lay tiny eggs
that kids especially love collecting. Bantams typically weigh less than 2
pounds when full grown. Just like ordering anything online there are pros
and cons to ordering baby chicks online. Pros of buying baby chicks in
Meredosia Illinois * Big Selection - If you are wanting a large
variety of different chicken breeds and egg colors, you will find the best
selection at an online hatchery. * Both Bantams and full sized chickens
available * You get to choose what sex you want. If you want a mixture of
both male and female then choosing a "straight run" will save you money
and you will get a mixture of male and female chicks. You can also choose
all males or all females too. * Weekly specials. Hatcheries have sales on
chicks, you are likely to get a good deal if you are flexible with the
breeds you are wanting. Cons of buying baby chicks in Meredosia
Illinois * Order early to get the best selection. Certain breeds sell
out fast, sometimes as early as 6 months in advance of shipping! If you
are wanting a certain breed it's best to order your chicks in the fall
before their orders sell out.
Quantity - you must order a certain number of chicks. Typically hatcheries
will require you buy a minimum of 25 chicks at a time. The number is
necessary for the chicks survival during shipping. All 25 chicks are put
in one small box without heat. They are crowded in the box and produce
enough body heat to arrive in good shape. * The wait - If you choose to
buy chicks from a feed store you will have them the same day but if you
choose to go with a hatchery you have to wait until they are ready to ship
and then wait for the chicks to arrive. Ordering baby chicks online in
Meredosia Illinois is easy and has always been a very pleasant
experience of me. It can be a little frustrating waiting for the chicks
but it's so worth the wait. When the post office calls and you hear all
those little "cheeps" or "chirps" in the background you'll know the wait
was worth it! How to Care for your new baby chickens in Meredosia,
Illinois Baby chicks are very
charming and also
challenging to resist,
yet it's finest to prepare for their
arrival before you get them. Prepare initially
by compiling not just the
appropriate materials, yet
likewise the proper
knowledge to look after
them. Raising baby chicks is relatively
simple, you just have to offer them with the following: A tidy and warm and comfortable
environment Lots of food as well
as water Attention as well as
love Environment Your environment can be an easy box, fish tank,
cat carrier, or guinea
porker cage. Line it with old towels as well as
blankets (without loose
strings!) to begin, and also after a
couple of weeks use straw over newspaper.
Keep in mind: Avoid using only
paper or various other slipper
surface areas-- or your chicks legs can expand
misshapen. You likewise require
something to serve up food and
water in, such as a chicken feeder as well as water
dish from the feed shop, or a pickle jar
lid for food and a pet dog bird water dispenser from an animal shop. Likewise, as the chicks age you could present a perch
right into the environment to get them
educated on perching. Heat To
keep your chicks heat you have to
offer them with a heat resource.
This could be as basic as a 100 watt
light bulb in a reflective clamp design lamp from a
hardware shop, or an infrared reptile warmth
bulb additionally work effectively (my
suggestion). Chicks require this
heat 24/7 till their downy fluff is
changed with plumes (which can occupy to 2 months). The freshly
hatched need a temperature
in between 90 as well as 100 levels,
as well as every week this can
be lowered by
roughly 5 degrees approximately. The warmth resource should get on merely one side of the cage
to permit chicks a range of
temperature levels. The chicks are your best
thermometer- if they are concealing in the
other edge of your warmth
lamp, you need to
lower the temperature. If
they are surrounding each other under the
heat (not simply snuggling),
you should add some warmth.
Home cleaning
Cleanliness is essential and it keeps your chicks healthy and
balanced. Make sure to transform
the bed linen
typically and also
consistently supply clean
food as well as water Food and water.
Chicks expand really quick
which calls for plenty of clean
food as well as water. Provide
sufficient in any way times and inspect
usually to prevent dehydrated and also
starving chicks. Chick food is various compared
to grown-up chicken food, and it comes
in both medicated and
also non-medicated ranges. Feed chick food for the
very first two months, after that
change to a raiser food (~ 17 %
protein) for an additional 2 months,
then to a somewhat
lower healthy protein feed or a level feed
(if you have levels). Dirt Some chicks want
to obtain a head start on taking
filth baths, while others won't take
up that activity till they are
older. If you have the area in your chick
enclosure, present a tray of sand or
filth for them to shower in.
Attention as well as love There are a couple of benefits to hanging
out with your chicks. To start
with, they will certainly more than likely bond with you and also
not run away as grownups. Second, if you
analyze your chicks daily and
view their actions, you can
capture disease or other problems previously. Keep an
eye out for hissing, limping, or
various other undesirable
indications. Be sure to
likewise consider
their poop, as looseness of the bowels can lead
to matted plumes and also stopped up cloaca.
Last but not least, it is very
important to keep an eye out for social concerns, such as the
littlest chick getting badgered. Empty nest disorder So your
chicks are currently completely feathered
as well as its time for them to leave the
safety of your residence
and also move outside into a
coop. Have a look at our
part on chicken cages to learn more
regarding coops and
appropriate cage environments.