So I relinquished. I called around and found a store that still had baby chicks. We didn't have any idea what we were getting into, however, and must have seemed like complete idiots to the employees. We left the store with 6 chicks, a little feeder, a water dish, a little bag of feed, and some electrolytes. On the way home we brainstormed and decided to keep them in a Rubbermaid tote with a desk lamp over them for warm. They had to stay in the basement because the cats would get to them if we put them in the garage. Seemed easy enough.
I, however, am terrified of birds. I'm not sure, why, but I am. It was quite the accomplishment for me to handle each one. Casey showed quite a bit of interest. I thought that letting her sniff them and lick them was a good idea. Yeah, not so much. We put baby gates up so she couldn't go downstairs and closed her in our room at night so she wouldn't whine at the top of the steps. Things were going ok.
It took us a couple of days before we decided to name them after the Disney princesses: Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine, Pocahontas, etc. That was a bad idea. The very next day while Daniel and I were sleeping, Casey snuck downstairs and got into them. Our downstairs looked like a war zone when she was finished. I was appalled! Scott was at work so I frantically called him. I could tell by the tone in his voice that he was very disappointed. I knew that I needed to still have six chicks in the basement by the time he got home. So I quickly called the store where we purchased the birds and found out they still had some, I put Daniel in the carrier and off we raced to Rigby to get more birds.
The employees recognized me, unfortunately, and I had to explain why exactly I was back 3 days later to get more chickens. Of course, they didn't have the same kind we bought the first time, but I made due. I raced home in time to clean up the first birds before Scott got home. Although he told me not to worry about it, I know he was quite glad to see that he still had birds. Here are the new chicks.
The birds grew and started making more and more bird droppings, the basement started smelling and I started getting grumpy. Scott started researching how to build a chicken coup! He researched, priced and then took Daniel shopping and got all of the supplies he needed. Over the next few days, a chicken coup was born!
We took the advice from my family and Scott painted the ceiling blue so wasps and other nasty insects wouldn't build nests. He insulated it and everything! It is quite nice. I had to go out and help a few times, but he did 98% of it all by himself. The day the chicks got moved out of the house, I celebrated by spraying Fabreeze downstairs!Now the chicken have a nice coup and enjoy perching on their roost. Next year, I want to paint the roof black and the walls red. I think that would be super cute.
