Piece by piece it’s all coming together.
Today we received a delivery from Mills Fleet Farm containing three wood nesting boxes for the hens. Technically, we only need one or two for three birds, but I’m hopeful the chickeneers in Ferndale will unite to eventually lobby to increase the number allowed in our flock. Plus, I’m sure the girls won’t mind having some variety to their laying routines.
We also bought a baby chick feeder, to go along with a chick waterer that we bought last weekend. Aside from building the brooding box — where they will stay until they are strong enough to live outside — we are largely prepared for the chicks.
After I ordered the chicks a couple days ago, I received a confirmation note from Meyer Hatchery indicating that I could pick them up from Tuesday to Friday of the week we selected. I was somewhat disappointed because I originally chose a date that included a Monday pickup date. I did this on purpose so both Matt and I could take a day off work to travel to Ohio for the pickup.
So the next morning, I called Meyer Hatchery, and explained the situation. I asked if it was still possible for us to come on Monday. The gentleman pulled up my account, then quickly told me that of course we could! The chicks will hatch that morning, so we will have literal day-old (if that!) chicks. I confessed that I am a first-time chicken owner, and he told me I would love it. And that I would want more. “Just wait until you have your first omelette, or bake your first cake using your own chicken eggs,” he said, excited. “You’ll wonder why you ever bought store eggs.”
We talked for about 10 minutes. It was truly the most amazing customer service experience of my life. This guy loved his job and believed in the product. It made me feel so much better about our decision to switch hatcheries.
This weekend, our friend Eric is driving in from the west side of the state to help us finish the coop. We have a realistic, doable list of projects to tackle.
Game on. I’m ready to get this done.
Chicken Scratch Fever 
More progress ! Good for you. Question: it looks to me like you built your nesting boxes on the coop already – why the additional boxes now in your last post ?
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I built a general box but there are no dividers inside for individual nests. That’s why we bought the little wood boxes.
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“but I’m hopeful the chickeneers in Ferndale will unite to eventually lobby to increase the number allowed in our flock.”
I’d be down for that!
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Awesome! I’ve often thought it would be nice to have six chickens, so we could easily rotate our birds into retirement and allow new babies to come in. 🙂 Let’s talk!!
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6 is definitely a more ideal number in my opinion too. How long do you think we wait before we request something like that from the city? I read on Laura’s Ferndale Chickens blog that she couldn’t wait until she had a few more years under her belt so that she could then ask for up to 6 chickens.
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I say once you and I have chickens in our yard, we approach Laura about joining forces. We should definitely meet and map out our options! 🙂
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I call myself blessed here in Albuquerque – we can have a max. of 15 chickens and one of those is allowed to be a Rooster. We’re going with 7 but no Rooster – here in Downtown I could just imagine noise complaints.
Good luck to you on changing your laws !
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I think I would probably need a good year (or two?) under my belt of experience, coop maintenance, and happy neighbors. I’m such a newbie right now.
I don’t think the neighbors will be an issue though, because they were happy to see the coop, and wondered if I would be selling eggs. I told them I’d be happy to GIVE them some eggs when we have extras. I do have 6 people in my family though, so with 3 hens, we’ll probably do a pretty good job eating the eggs up.
Maybe we can get together when it warms up, and we get our chicks established, and out into our coops?
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I would love that!
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How exciting! Keep us posted, I know there are good stories to follow. 🙂
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Thank you! 🙂
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