The First Egg Drop | My Backyard Chicken.

The First Egg!

The weekend of March 8th, one of the chickens laid its first egg —beyond ecstatic! The joy I had was unbelievable. Why?  Honestly, I did my research on the chickens prior to purchasing, but after I purchased them, I thought what am I getting myself into! I shared a post on Threads about one of my chicken laying their first eggs and received more attention than I thought—haha! I created this blog to answer some of the questions & comments and bolded key points.

Holding the first egg laid by one of my chickens.

How It Started!

February 2025, I randomly purchased 2 hens from a local feed & garden shop — Wabash Feed & Garden in Houston. I’ve been working towards living a sustainable lifestyle, starting with a garden in my small backyard. The idea initially brewed from randomly seeing chicken run videos of chickens running back and forth via a simple chicken wire tunnel and I have the perfect location to build that in my mind as I thought.  Fast forward, after doing some research & speaking with my mom I decided to take a quick trip to the feed store to just window shop on what breeds of chicken they have available. Well less than 30 mins later, I purchased two Rhode Island Red chickens. A rooster is not needed to produce eggs.

The Experience & Cost So Far

I did not have a full thought-out plan, but as always, I improvised, and it worked. The cost of the chickens, their coop buildout, and feeding maybe cost me less than $150 at the most. So far having chickens have been easier than I thought but note I’ve only had them for about a month thus far haha. It takes maybe less than 10 mins to care for them daily.

Upcycled Coop

The large dog crate that was up cycled!

Given that good chicken coops can be expensive, and because I purchased the chickens on an impulsively, I wanted to avoid spending money on a new coop. I even made a sketch measurement to present to a carpenter to build out a coop, but that was a costly option as well considering labor and material. With the chickens still in the box they came in from the feed store, I need to think on my feet quickly, where they would basically live long term. I basically put the horse before the carriage in this situation—haha. I decided to place them in a dog crate for a few days. I was a bit stressed about their safety and space. I randomly remembered I had extremely large crate.

 Designing the Coop

The engineer and DIY side of my brain tapped into play, and I decided to upcycle the large dog crate. Based upon my research each chicken requires 2-4 sq. ft of coop space; the dog crate was approximately 9 sq. ft. which worked out perfectly. The only con about the dog crate was that it was not predator proof, even though I live in the city, animal predators exist (i.e possums and raccoons) especially at night. I purchased chicken wire and used small zip ties I had left over from another project to attach the chicken wire to the coop ensuring I left space to be able to access the inside of the coop.

Using zip ties to attached the chicken wire to the crate.

Side note: I haven’t stayed up past 11 pm in a while, but with the urgency of this situation, I stayed up late—past 12 pm late, which is late for me haha.

With the smaller dog crate, I had to manually feed the chickens daily, which makes sense, but I was thinking if I am away for a few days is there a way that I could not have to worry about having someone feed them. After more research, I found out I could build an affordable “automated” gravity feeder with PVC pipes. Building the automated feeder was easy and straightforward and maybe cost less than $15. To keep the feeder stabilized in the crate, I initially used some of the wire that came with the chicken wire, but untwisting it from the walls of the new revamped dog crate coop, so I opted for Velcro.

Next Steps

The next minor project related to the upcycled dog crate coop is to add a water feeding system to the current construct. In addition, to improving the hatch box.

Thanks for all the positive feedback and congratulations haha! If you have any questions, drop them below. Note: I am FAR from an expert, and I am still learning every day it’s only been a month!

Last update: March 10, 2025