Enough Eggs?

 For our wedding anniversary, my Husband built me a chicken coop a few weeks ago. Talk about a happy wife!(: Some women love diamonds, some love flowers or chocolates(Of course I love these things too from time to time)...to make me happy it's simple, anything that will continue to provide something for me. Weather it be a potted plant, or an animal, I will love it.

 As kids, growing up we always had chickens...I can't remember ever not have chickens. I LOVED collecting eggs every day. The way the chickens always gathered up to eat when they would see me coming with the food bucket always made me smile. Just knowing that every day I could step outside and grab a couple eggs from the chickens I raised gave me a sense of pride even as a kid. It makes me so happy to know my little Lilly Mae will get to do the same!

 So, with my coop built and a fence up for them to roam, it's time to find my hens.
Some of our favorite laying hens are Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Americanas and Buff Orphingtons. These hens are made for laying, and are great at what they do! We have Rhode Island reds, Barred Rocks and Buff Orphingtons so far. I'm looking forward to getting a few Americanas. I love the blue eggs they lay.

Our coop is 5'x5'x6.5'. Because our hens will be in the yard during the day finding bugs and worms and such, they don't need much space in the coop. The coop is just for them to roost at night and lay their eggs. We put 5 nesting boxes in ours and its plenty enough for our hens.

From 5 chickens, we get about 4 eggs a day. They usually lay an egg a day each. Sometimes a few of them will skip a day depending on the heat of the day.

 Before we had our hens,  I would buy a dozen or 18 eggs each week and use them sparingly. I didn't want to run out of eggs and then need them for something and have to go all the way to the supermarket to buy more. There has been more than one occasion where I had all of my ingredients for cake or cookies measured out to find that I had run out of eggs! That's not a problem now. (:

 I figure we spent on average about $14 a month on eggs (that's for regular sized store bought. Not organic or farm raised. "Organic" eggs are more expensive). We pay $12 a month to feed our hens and have more than enough eggs. The best part about it? We know EVERYTHING that goes into our eggs. I'm glad to be able to check that off of my grocery list each month!