Moving can be tough, especially when animals are involved. If you’re relocating to a new property and taking your flock with you it’s important to keep their health and safety in mind—both during traveling and when it’s time to introduce your flock to their new coop. One of the options when moving your ladies […]
Last weekend, my husband and I finally finished cleaning out the old shed for what we’re dubbing a “Barn Razing.” It’s been a year in the making, so the event of destroying the old structure deserved a quality name. Among things that needed to be thrown away: a nearly empty bag of old straw bedding […]
Gardening with chickens can be a lot of fun. They’re often underfoot (and under shovel) doing some of the grunt work, like removing weedy sprouts and wriggling ground pests. The problem is that chickens don’t know when to stop helping. Growing food in small spaces is challenging enough on its own, but add a […]
The charm of a small yard with a flock of hens is indisputable, but raising chickens in the city can present some aesthetic challenges. If your coop is stationary, you probably have a uniform plot of brown underneath the run. If you have a mobile coop, maybe you have some circles worn into the […]
My chickens love the explosion of insect life in the spring—and so do I, but it wasn’t always that way. In my life before chickens, my Kentucky backyard was unusable for several months of the year, simply because of blood-sucking insects. Because my chickens devour a majority of the bugs that bug me most, […]
Mites can make your chickens uncomfortable and ill, and they can even lead to death. Learn four ways to treat your birds with natural products.
Chickens are good at finding places to dust bathe. They will snuggle up between the roots of old trees, lie down in the garden, and fluff their feathers in decomposing mulch. Dust bathing absorbs oil from their skin, and wood ash coats the skin to become a barrier protecting from mite infestations. As a preventive […]
Tired of struggling to unpeel a hard-boiled egg at Easter? We’ve got a technique that will leave your shells easy to peel and your yolks a beautiful yellow.
Chickens talk, squawk, sing, play, run, hide—they’re as entertaining as any domestic pet you’ll ever meet.
Every year I look forward to my local newspaper’s holiday haiku contest. Its many ‘winners’ see their poems published in the Christmas edition of the Courier-Journal. In 2014, a sign nailed to a mailbox post stating “Fresh Eggs” inspired me to submit this: ”Fresh Eggs!” shingles read. Yoking to activism, Metro Cluckers flock. When we […]
