Chick Chain

In April, Isaac and Sarah joined the 4-H Chick Chain. We received 25 day old baby chicks and will raise them til they are 20 weeks. Then they will take six of the chickens and show them at the Fair. The other 19 chickens are ours to keep. Lots of fresh eggs!! 

Since we would be having chickens that meant we had to build a chicken coop and run.

After lots of searching the Internet we decided to use one of the stalls in our barn for the coop and attach the run onto the side of the barn.

With some scrap lumber Bryan and the boys began working on the project. These are pictures of them working on the run. 

Who needs a ladder when you have dad? The boys were a huge help and able to learn while helping.

Here they are hanging the door to the run.

The finished door has a latch at the top and one at the bottom.

Here is a picture of the finished run. It is a pretty good size but with 25 chickens it needed to be.

Here is the stall in the barn that we will use for the coop.

The inside of the coop with the wiring up. This is also a picture of the brooder that they were in for a while after we moved them to the barn. When we first got the baby chicks we had a smaller brooder and kept it in the basement. Got pretty stinky so at about 6 weeks they got moved to the barn in this bigger brooder. Now they are big enough to be in the coop and run. Isaac lets them out during the day so they can free range. It has been really good for the kids to learn and become more responsible.