In February we made the plunge and purchased our first backyard chickens. I found a farmer in Mollala and bought three buff orpingtons – Rosemary, Sage and Thyme. Cost for chicks – $10. A week previous to that I had purchased the items to make up their brooder (large clear plastic bin, heat light, feeder, waterer and pine) – $30. I made the mistake of buying some of these items at pet food stores where the cost is marked up a lot – if you decide to go this route go to your local feed store. The prices there are amazing. You will not find better quality for a better price.

Anyhow, while they were in the brooder I started building the chicken tractor. I first searched for cheap plans and found this one for $15 on Ebay. I had tried to go the route of checking out books from the library but none of the ones I could find had step by step instructions. It took me a month to build and it cost $150. I purchased everything from Lowes. I did try to go the route of hitting up the local rebuilding center and re-habitat store to find used material and I could not find anything I needed, and to tell you the truth, I was frustrated by how difficult it was to find anything.

Right now their current cost of upkeep is: organic chicken food (50lbs for $22), grit ($1.00 [10 cents a scoop]) and pine $10 for 30lbs.

Raising backyard chickens has been a wonderful experience. J & I love nothing more than to sit outside and watch and cluck at the chickens. However there were a couple of things that I was not expecting.

1) Chickens can be kinda gross – like they love to roost and crap in their food and water. This used to drive me nuts when they were in their brooder. They love to make a mess. They also a particular smell that made me so much happier when they were outside.

2) When placing chickens in their tractor for the first time they will have no idea what the heck that ladder is that goes into their coop. They will think it is an alien life form and avoid it at all costs. You must be the momma and delicately walk them up and down it so they understand its purpose. (I had to block the underneath shade area for a month so they would understand to go into their coop at night)

3) You need to spend a lot of time with them to tame them. I had read that the breed I picked was extra cuddly and, hrmm, they are not. They are not mean. They just still regard me as someone who will eat them, although now that I feed them worms they have this gleam in their eyes whenever I get near their tractor.

Here is a great site that I reference quite a bit – Backyard Chickens.