Help needed....

Unlike our garden project which we basically tackled with no real knowledge of horticulture, the chicken project needed some research because we are dealing with live animals. It is our responsibility to give these birds a happy, healthy place to live.
On the Internet I learned that we would need 2 different places to raise the chickens. The first 5 weeks we keep the chicks inside a warm place with a heat lamp and plenty of food and water. They grow really fast and need a lot of attention. The more interaction with people they have during this period, the more docile they will be later. I will keep the chicks in my warehouse in a large cardboard box with pine shavings on the bottom. After 5 weeks they are almost full grown and can move to their permanent house, the chicken coop. Here again was the Internet the solution. I looked at about 50 different designs and models and decided to build my own coop with the best features I had found. But I am not a carpenter... so I called my friend Damien to see if he could help. In the mean time , I also realized that I would need some help with feeding the chickens . So I talked to some of my friends and they promised me that they would be there if I needed them.Well this should do it ... I will make the brooder box , Damien will help me build the coop, I have some friends to help with the feeding .... I think I am prepared except for .... naming the chicks !!! Because I am going to be very busy during the next couple of weeks I am going to ask a couple of special friends of mine if they each could name a chicken. So Avery, Cole, Dylan, Daniel, Jake , Shea and Zak, please send me your favorite chicken name and you will have a chicken friend that you can come visit and play with. Don't forget, all our chickens are going to be girls .... no boy names..

How it all began...

Last year we had the idea to start a little vegetable garden in a vacant lot next to my office building. We build 12 raised beds, filled them with soil , planted some seeds and waited for vegetables and flowers to appear. Although we were new at gardening some plants did very well ( we had a 9 ft tall sun flower) others did not so good. After talking the some seasoned gardeners, we found out we needed to fertilize our plants during the growing season (which we totally neglected).The best way to keep your plants happy and the vegetable big, is to fertilize the old fashioned , organic way using chicken manure.
And that is were we hatched our second idea, let's build a chicken coop , keep some chickens, enjoy the fresh eggs and produce our own fertilizer.
We have learned quite a bit about gardening last year, this year we are going to try to master the art of keeping chickens.