The four pullets are finally 20 weeks old, and they’re the same size as the hens. Even though winter is just a few days away, the girls will start laying eggs soon. I’m officially on egg watch. They’ll start when they’re ready, though. I don’t see the need to coax them to lay with dummy […]
Cleaning the chicken coop is one of my least favorite chores. The distain I feel encompasses all of life’s chores, not just chicken ones. I think we can all agree that chicken poop is pretty gross. Ideally, we should visit the coop every day with intention beyond gathering eggs—to remove the dirtiest bedding and replace […]
Winter can be tough on all of us, but with a little TLC, your flock will do just fine.
Our Polish hen Sookie has some embarrassing roosting behaviors, and our neighbors don’t really get why we have chickens. Things are improving, however.
Is there a certain type of plant that attracts mites/lice. Which plants should I steer away from growing to deter inviting them to the coop? –D&R Poultry Fortunately for us garden-loving chicken keepers, plant parasites and chicken parasites are two completely different beasts. Plants attract the organisms that feed on the plants, while scaly leg […]
When I started raising chickens, the supportive chicken community that we have today was just beginning to crop up online. The Internet was crawling with novices just like me whose aspirations in sustainability led them to a seemingly sudden chicken obsession. We had more questions than answers. Wannabe chicken keepers looked to legit country farmers […]
Modern chickens have been bred to ovulate like gangbusters. On average, an egg is produced every 26 hours when a hen is in her prime. When day-old chicks arrive, not much bigger than eggs, it’s hard to imagine that they’ll ever produce more food than you can eat, but they do! The amount my hens […]
City peeps raise chickens for many reasons that can vary from one backyard coop to the next. If you’re thinking about taking on a flock of your own, give serious consideration to the benefits it will bring you and your homestead. Here are the reasons I think chicken keeping is so great. 1. A Taste […]
When the overnight temperatures began plunging into the 40s this past week, I decided to eliminate the temporary housing the pullets have been living in. Just after dusk, when everyone was having trouble seeing, I scooped up the young girls and popped them into the coop with hens. Forcing territory into a community space was […]
Opening the coop to find a carpet of feathers that wasn’t there the day before can be shocking, whether you’re a beginning or experienced chicken keeper.
