Then there were three..

Chickens.

Three chickens!

We live in the middle of the city, and for some reason, ever since we purchased our sweet bungalow, I have wanted chickens. Obviously, I didn’t think that it would ever happen since we do live in the city. I would just throw it out there every so often to remind my husband how nice it would be to have fresh eggs every day, have some chickens for our kids to help raise, and just have chickens in general. Well, that day has come, and I now have three chickens living in my backyard in the middle of Houston. Here is how this all came about:

I turned 30 this month, and I was surprised with chickens.. unfortunately, they were tiny plastic chickens. The coop had not arrived on time, so this was the “we are getting chickens” substitute. The girls were beyond excited, and I was very confused.

Our coop, from Urban Coop Company, arrived a few days later and we were ready to get it set up.  We gathered a few friends, a few beers, and went to work. It took about 3 hours to put together our coop. It’s pretty amazing.. two stories, an egg box, and a feeder so if we have to leave the chickens for a few days, they will be self-sufficient. Don’t worry; we also recruited the neighbors to help in exchange for eggs (whenever they finally come).

I did a little research on where to get chickens in Houston, and we set out for a chicken farm down in San Leon. Our criteria for chickens: they need to be pretty quiet (NO ROOSTERS), semi-friendly, and be good egg producers.  The lady who ran the farm directed us to a few types of chickens. Finley’s only requirement was that she gets to pick a chicken named Ferdinand. For this, she wanted a black/gray chicken and we found our Blue Australorp. These are supposedly friendly, pet-like, and lay brown eggs. Piper then got to choose her chicken, which is affectionately named Greta. She is a Buff Brahma and should lay blue/green eggs. Lastly, we have Weezy, named after Ouiser from Steel Magnolias, who is an Ameraucana.

We are now 5 days into having chickens, and they are all still alive and they seem to be thriving. Conan, our dog, seems very concerned about the chickens and doesn’t quite know what to do with them, but I hope he lets them be. The chickens are only 6 weeks old, so we won’t have eggs for a few months, but I’ll keep you posted on how things go! Wish us luck.