Most of the critters that we have were never really planned.

Our chickens are another example of this.

Friends of ours had 7 chickens. They had sold their house and boarded their chickens temporarily with her father who kept pigeons.

By the time they found another place to live the father had just about had it with the chickens.
They were eating the pigeons very expensive food and disturbing them from nesting.
He said they had to go.

Our friends were not able to take them to their new address and asked if we would have them.
We had to say no as we had no housing for them.

About a week later they asked again.
The father had given them until the end of the day to move them or see them in his freezer!

Knowing the only reason we were not taking them was because we had no place to keep them, our friends offered to build a chicken coop for us if we would take the chickens.

All of those original hens are gone now but we have continued to buy or hatch more each year.

I have 24 eggs in the incubator right now that are due to hatch in about 2 weeks.