About 15 years ago we built a small chicken coop in the backyard, and our first three hens, Hamburgs, were delivered to Cleveland soon after, all the way from my parents’ New Jersey farm. They were followed by a couple of Golden Buffs from a nearby farm in Middlefield, Ohio. 

We enjoyed our hens, their antics, and their eggs, and I told many stories in this blog about them in posts identified with the title “Scoop at the Coop.” After a few years, we expanded the coop to include an area with an overhang plus two long pens. With room for a few more hens, we (and friends) enjoyed an endless supply of gorgeous eggs. Then came the day that will live in infamy. Raccoons and maybe a fox found their way into the coop, and we lost our flock in one fell swoop. Afterward the intruders apparently panicked, and they did a shocking amount of damage to one of the wooden doors in their attempts to exit the coop. The coop sat empty for a long time. Years. 

We thought about fixing it, but it was more than we were ready to tackle. So it continued to sit empty. And then, in the late spring of this year, we learned about the availability of twin brothers, carpenters both, who were interested in coming to see the coop and figuring out how to make it safe again. I came home one day to see their almost identical grey Ford trucks parked in parallel in my driveway, and did a double take before realizing who those trucks must belong to! 

Now we have welcomed 10 one-day-old chicks into their newly refurbished coop. The breeds we picked are considered hardy, good for surviving Northeast Ohio winters, and generous layers. Tomorrow they will be one month old, and they have already grown A LOT! They are eating almost double the amount of chick feed compared with what they ate when they first arrived. 

Little by little I have been expanding their living space. On Friday, I opened one of the pens for them to explore. As of today, they’ve graduated from the tiny chick watering and feeding cans to medium-sized ones. While they still have a fair bit of fluff, you can also see distinctive feathers poking through in the patterns that will identify them once they reach maturity.

They already have recognizably different personalities. A couple are more inquisitive than the rest, always first to the new nibble or space or water bucket. Another has learned to fly, and she likes to perch on the ladder that leans against the back wall, especially when I am crouched nearby. They all love when I sing to them, and when they were very small they took it as a sign to cuddle up together and fall asleep. They still cuddle up when I sing, but they don’t fall asleep quite as readily. 

Here are a couple of answers to questions we commonly receive: They are not being raised for meat, and you don’t need a rooster to get eggs. You only need a rooster if you want fertilized eggs, which we do not. In contrast to our mostly quiet hens, roosters are very noisy and don’t make for friendly, neighborly relations. 

Right now they are called chicks. They will be pullets this coming spring, at which time we will most likely be awaiting their first eggs. I’m really looking forward to sharing the eggs with our grandchildren, and to watching our grandchildren bring gifts from their kitchen to share with the hens.