Well we weren't eating the chickens, just talking about them. There's already a space in T & B's back yard for the coop, so now the task is to start collecting materials. Tina's objective is to build the coop completely from reclaimed and salvaged materials, so Erin and I may be heading to a construction site today or tomorrow to see if the stack of building materials they have laying there is up for grabs.
Unfortunately, I am thinking we may be too late for buying chicks. Apparently it takes six months for them to be ready to lay eggs, and we only have three months until spring. I would think we could either get juveniles now or fully grown adults later - still need to do more research on this.
We agreed on six chickens so the four of us always have enough eggs (although I have visions of being buried in a pile of eggs from that many hens) and Tina already had a great plan for the coop. We talked about letting the chickens free-range in the backyard (instead of in a chicken tractor) but the biggest concern for that issue is the fact that Central Oregon is a raptor mecca. Plus T & B have lots of big trees in their backyard - perfect perching spots for hawks and falcons.
The spot where they want to put the garden is huge, which is exciting, and they also have a few fruit trees and a berry patch. I forced upon them the two books I mentioned in the previous post since they'd never heard of them, so I'm excited for all the possibilities. Tina jokingly called me "obsessive" for having our seedling table and corn seeds already to go (except for figuring out which kind and how much of a fertilizer to use/buy) - but she'll be happy when I have transplants with which to fill her garden...
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