Raising Chickens

We have close friends that have chickens and it is always fun to go over and see the baby chicks and watch all their funny behaviors. I have been waiting on farm fresh eggs from them for a while now but her husband has decided to breed and sell, so no eggs to sell to me. This put another thought in our heads. I posted earlier about all the problems with gardening in our yard. Started contemplating other ways we could work toward a more self sustaining life. Chickens have always intrigued me. I thought it was going to take a lot of talking for my husband to agree, but low and behold, today he announced that he wanted to rework the backyard to accommodate chickens. Due to wildlife and neighborhood dogs (remember bunny) they can not be free range. We will have to build a run, hutch, nesting boxes, etc. The whole works. Hubby seems to feel like he has most of the materials already available here at the house and will need to buy very little. I am thinking we will probably start some on this project this weekend. The first item we need to tackle is tearing down a low deck that was used for two years around an above ground pool that is starting to rot and burn it. Then we have lots of ground cover pebbles to move and patio pavers to reposition to make a path up to and around the chicken area. At this point I am just looking at hens for egg production. But if Grace has any say in the matter she wants to eventually have a rooster and babies. We will see how it all goes. I will be sure to include pictures along the way, etc.