Who knew my feathered friends could bring so much happiness? Honestly, I had no idea how much I would love my ladies.

My chicken coop was my first Mother’s Day gift from Dan and E. Built-in spring 2016, with the help of Dan and my parents, we turned a shabby old shed into a cozy coop with a little run.

On a beautiful day in June, Mom, Dad, Chickadee and I ventured out to the local sale barn to buy my birds. I’d never been to the sale barn before, really had no reason to go, so I was super excited to check it out. When we arrived there were two vendors selling birds. Dad and I spent some time looking at all the ladies and after much consideration, I decided on 3 red Sexlink pullets and 3 Barred Rock hens.

We didn’t stay as long as I would have liked, but I was super excited to get the girl’s home… and E needed a nap.

The ladies seemed pretty happy with their new digs! Once they pecked around a bit inside they headed out for the run. We watched as they explored, then all 6 chickens dropped and started rolling in the dirt. It was the craziest thing as if they’d not seen dirt before! This quite possibly could have been the case since we didn’t know anything about where the chickens came from or the environment they had previously lived in (my bad). All I knew was they seemed happy now.

We stayed outside pretty much the rest of the afternoon just watching them explore and cluck around. Truth be told, I spent the rest of the summer and much of the fall sitting out there, with the gals, just hanging out. It’s oddly relaxing!

We got our first egg that night, it was like the icing on the cake! The Barred Rock gals laid right away and it was another 3 months before the little Sexlinks joined the fun.

It’s been quite the learning experience, to say the least. I don’t think I’ve googled or researched anything as much as I have raised chickens. And I’ve had some pretty random things happen so far… but that’s a post for another day.