We whitewashed the chicken coop two weeks ago. It’s now ready for decoration and colors. That is the part I’m excited about—making the coop kind of like a gingerbread-house—but I’m facing a lack of free time this month. Work projects are keeping me hopping! (Yay!)

Anyway, the boys were great sports about painting and the four of us got this job done in about an hour and a half. Asher was extremely enthusiastic … and drippy. Lucas was a competent, steady worker. Daddy was patient the whole time, even when the hinges were accidentally painted white.

We were all fairly well splattered when we were done.

This is how it looks now. The girls don’t seem to mind that their coop isn’t completely decorated yet. They’re more concerned with trying to peck open our vermiculture bin. Those beaks did a lot of damage to our styrofoam worm farm! Our worms are now banished to the garage, where the hens can’t get at them.

After a great deal of hot, exhausting, sweaty work—done mostly by my intrepid and valiant husband in 100-degree weather—we now have a working coop and chicken run and chickens to put in them! We spent today putting on some finishing touches, like installing the roost, filling in holes with dirt, etc. Ian built the person-size door to the chicken run today, even though we got the chickens last night and fenced them in. Putting all that chicken wire on was a big job and we worked right up until the deadline at 4 p.m., when had to go get the hens …

… which was a funny sort of adventure in that they had to be caught and put in a big cardboard box. They were hiding from the heat under a deck when we arrived and we had to coax them out. Fortunately their confident, courageous (former) owner caught them for us and then we put our box of hens into the back of the car. Chickens in a box. Weird. I’ve had chickens in grocery bags before, but never in a box!

The boys were and are pretty excited! Lucas wants to be very near them. He held one of them today for a few moments. The hens were a bit skittish yesterday evening, but they seem to be settling in.

We have four chicken breeds: clockwise from lower left, we have a Black Sussex, a Rhode Island Red, two Leghorns, and an Araucana at the bottom right. Good gracious, it’s hard to get good chicken pictures! They’re always moving!

We have some disagreement over their names, however. It seems we Wilsons are an opinionated bunch. Let me show you how:

Probably, we’ll end up using Lucas’s names most of the time. Although, I’m pretty sure the girls don’t care, so maybe we can each maintain our own pet names for them.

See how my Ian has suffered this week. He’s a prince among chicken-coup builders! Oh, and extremely tough, super macho, and manly.

Here’s Henrietta/Posh/Sunrise/Chicken 1.

Mid-morning today we got two eggs, laid in the same little hollow in the leaf litter. This afternoon, we got three more eggs, including a green-shelled one from Henrietta/Posh/Sunrise/Chicken 1, our Araucana.

I think we’re going to have a bit of trouble at first telling the two white birds apart. We’ve noticed that one has a little scar on top of her comb and they have different combs (in their shape and in the direction the fall). But I’m pretty sure Lucas has switched their names on me a couple of times already. One of them, Sporty, of course, was the hardest to catch and get into the box for transport yesterday.

The chicken run we (Ian) built (I helped with the wire!) is an area far bigger than our five hens need, but we think we want to get more birds. Also, I’m not sure how hard they are going to be on our garden and landscaping when we let them out to range, and if they start doing major damage, I may want to keep them confined in their big-enough run most of the time. Some friends let their chickens out every evening for “happy hour.”

The hens are fascinating so far, and I LOVE the sounds they make. We’ve been feeding them kitchen scraps today and they’ve devoured everything we’ve given them. We’ve also sacrificed some of our worms from our worm farm to feed our hens. We want our girls to be well nourished and also to associate their new home with yummy food.

What an adventure we’ve embarked upon! Crazy-weird and exciting. We’re chicken farmers!

Inspired by SouleMama {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

You knew there was going to be at least one more chicken coop post, right? Good.

Ian has been working hard on this thing and we’re nearly there. He had to build two double laying boxes, one for each side of the coop. Without the top on, they look like this.

We are told that hens like to share laying boxes, so you don’t need one per hen. With four boxes, we will be able to expand our flock, should we find we LIKE having chickens.

Here’s the chicken coop with everything on it but the lock on the front doors and the decorations. We are thinking about putting in windows on the front doors for ventilation and light. Adding windows means adding decorative trim and that means I’ll have more surfaces I can paint. I’m thinking that no matter what, the chickens will be a feature of our backyard from now on, so their coop might as well be cute and creative, right? How many colors is too many colors to paint a chicken coop?

The laying boxes on either side have hinged tops for easy egg gathering. The coop is behind our garage building and up against the west fence, where the neighbors have really tall privet shrubs that shade my yard. The chickens will have shade during the hottest part of every day. At the moment, Ian and Lucas are outside installing the ramp the hens will use to enter the coop.

The hens we are adopting have to be out of their current abode on Saturday, 7/17. The finishing touches on the coop might not be done until after that.

I still can’t believe we’re going to be chicken owners. Wacky.