The Hoolie’s (aka our Chickens)

We are coming up on the 1 year anniversary of getting chickens. Last year, I decided I needed them in my life, so I began to do some research, not only about how to raise them, but how to properly house them, and the rules/regulations within our City and County. By Valentine’s Day, I felt ready and I went and picked out the four breeds I had decided on from my research. We have a Buff Orpington (Honey), Rhode Island Red (Meg), Barred Rock (Skully), and a Black Star (Quinn). Quinn was not on my list originally, but I definitely don’t regret my spontaneous choice.

They were collectively called the “Hooligans” while living in their brooder in the sunroom. It seemed impossible for them not to make a mess and they were always getting into trouble somehow. To this day, I call them the Hoolie’s and they come running.

Rather than use a box and a heat lamp, I really wanted to find a better system and so through research I settled on a homemade brooder made from a plastic tub and hardware cloth and utilized a heating pad as my heat source. It worked amazingly, although they only made it about two weeks in there before I felt it was time for them to upgrade to a bigger space. We utilized our dog’s crate for the remainder of their indoor life, and while it worked well, it was…. so, so messy. If I raise chicks again, I may consider some other brooder options for the later weeks. You can find all the information about my brooder system here.

We didn’t think that building the coop would be that labor-intensive and picked up the Hoolie’s before we had even begun to think about the coop. Oops. By the time we started working on it, Covid happened and we were lucky enough to both be stuck at home for 6 weeks. I am 100% certain that had we not had all that time, we would have had chickens living in the sunroom way longer than planned. The coop was derived primarily from a free plan design I found online. I then made some modifications to the overall dimensions, as well as the location and layout of some of the features. Many things came into play: the orientation of the coop to the house and also the direction it was facing were two big ones. You can check out our coop build and get more details here.

The Hoolie’s went out to the coop in April, at the 8-week mark. Unfortunately, that same weekend we had a cold snap and my Mom-brain spent the weekend panicked about whether they would come through unscathed. Because the temps dipped down into the teens, I installed a heat system. I knew their feathers were fully developed, but I feared the temp change (70+ degrees down to 13) was too drastic for them to handle. Winterizing the coop is a story for another time though. If there is anything I’ve learned this first year, it is how tough and resilient chickens are!

To my surprise, having chickens has been such a blessing to us. Sure, they are poop machines and messy little girls, but my husband and I wouldn’t change having them for the world. They love to talk to us, follow us around the yard, and get in our laps. In some respects, they are also the easiest animals we have because they are so self-sufficient. They each have the most unique personalities, and were named as babies based on that. They have stayed true to their names too, for the more part. The only exception is Honey, because she isn’t quite that sweet little baby she once was. Lol.

Where we live, we are allowed to have up to 6 hens (no roo’s allowed). I have enjoyed it so much, it is hard not to go get two chicks this spring!

There will be lots more to come on the Hoolie’s, for anyone interested in how we went about raising them, what we feed them, the coop and brooder designs, and more.