I Finally Got My Chickens!!! :D

I drove down with my boyfriend all the way to Orting to pick up my new babies!!! :)

The guy at the farm was really really nice and I chose a Buff Orpington (5 weeks old) and a Black Australorp(4 weeks old). They're still pretty young but they're big enough that they'll be perfectly fine outside. Perfect! I wanted 3 chickens though but I couldn't decide on the last one so I let my boyfriend choose. He picked out a Barred Plymouth Rock (8 weeks old). She's a tad bigger than the other two but that means she'll lay eggs sooner too! YAY.

We've been naming all our pets after the aviation alphabet (Our lizard is Zulu, my rabbit was Charlie, and we used to have a betta named Alpha). So our newcomers are named Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot. Here they are:


left: Echo(Plymouth rock) with Foxtrot(Orpington)
right: My baby Delta(Australorp)

My boyfriend has been AWESOME this week and actually built their pen for me! He used mostly 2x4's with a few 2x2's. Most of the wood was lying around in our garage so we only spent about $5 for a little extra wood and $40 for the hardware mesh. I was gonna cheap out and buy the chicken wire which was $27 and you get twice as much of it, but my boyfriend insisted hardware mesh would be sturdier, keep more pests out and overall look nicer.

I'm glad he chose it though cuz after he finished it, it really does look sturdy and nice :) We bought exterior paint from the clearance rack at Lowe's so we got half a can for $1, which was more than enough. We probably have enough paint leftover to paint their coop when we make it.

top left: the temporary cage they stayed in for 2 days

top right: before; the far back wall of our backyard

bottom left: after; we still need to clean up the area around it

bottom right: I think my babies are enjoying the new space

For $46 we built a 3'x7'x3' pen. It ended up being a bit too tall that I couldn't climb in (we're going to put hinged doors on the top) so we decided to bury it down a little. It's perfect now!

I added in a perch made from a wooden rod that was lying around and 2 of the stakes I pulled out from the side of the street haha. The hens are still kinda clumsy on it but it's adorable to watch them try to balance and walk on them.

I wanted to post up pictures sooner but I have literally been GLUED to them since I got them :D I can't wait til they start laying eggs! I need to get started on their chicken coop now!