And then there were chickens...

When we moved Mid-April it was right at the front of the Corona pandemic. I had just gotten laid off two weeks prior.

Not only was the new house TWICE the size of the old house (thank god!), but it had a HUGE yard. We didn’t pay close attention to the STATE of the yard when we were looking at the house, but after we moved in we discovered holes everywhere, and the fact that MOST of our ‘yard’ was in fact… sand.

Now let me just take a moment for a side rant.

I HATE SAND. It gets EVERYWHERE. Clean up is a PAIN. My kids cant seem to avoid it. if there was ONE pile of sand in a square mile, they would find it and roll in it. I avoid the beach for just this reason. Have you ever tried walking across sand with an 18 month old in tow, plus all the CRAP that comes with an 18 month old, an 11yo and a 9yo? It is a PAIN. And that’s just getting TO the beach – never mind the cleanup! I could personally refill the Sahara with the amounts of sand that are left in my car after a beach trip. The only good sand is in a volleyball court… or a chicken coop…

Now back to the topic at hand. We moved, had a huge yard full of sand and I decided I wanted Chickens again. (I had some with my ex husband and loved them. him? not so much.) So I did what any reasonable wife and mother would do. I got the girls on my side and after about a month of dropping hints and finally straight up begging, Josh agreed to a small flock.

So naturally we got 12 chicks to start off. Annnnnd then I may or may not have gone to a flock swap and gotten 7 more…. just in case! (they were $20 for 7! I couldn’t pass that up.).

Then we added two ducks.

We set them up in an old dog crate in the garage (one of the BIG ones) with a heat lamp. We put a cardboard border around the sides to keep the pine shavings IN. and ran some small sticks through the edges for perches. So far they are adjusting well. We have the temp in the crate at about 98* (a nod to my teenage love of Nick Lashay?? ... no.) and as it warms up outside we will move the heat lamp further away (we have it suspended on a rope for just this purpose) until we remove it altogether.

Here are some early pics (mostly of the baby playing but they are SO cute!)