Introducing the Chickens!

One of my huge homesteading goals for this year was to get laying chickens. So far, this is one of the best things I have ever done! The chickens have been fairly easy even though we had a rocky start together, but all in all I can't wait to try meat chickens in a year. We had a rough start when they came home. We thought we had their crate warm enough, but evidently not. We lost three due to failure to thrive and four to being too cold. We rigged a heat lamp into the crate and had very happy chicks. We had 16 to start with, we lost 7, and I bought 5 more bring the total to 14 hens. They outgrew their crate about two weeks after they came home. Rob and I (mostly Rob) got the old dog room ready for the chicks after we moved the dog to the garage. I moved the chicks in there and they loved the extra room. We kept them cooped up with the heat lamp for another two weeks until we built the outdoor area. We used a 10' x 10' dog kennel that was given to me and