Articles about the basics of raising chickens.
Rhode Island Reds come from Adamsville, Rhode Island as a result of crossing Red Malay Game, Leghorn and Asiatic stock during the 1840s. Today they are one of the most popular chicken breeds in the US due to their attractive light yellow skin for meat and their highly productive brown egg laying. In fact,...
Spring time is here and you know what that means – fluffy, adorable chicks will soon be on the way! While this is undoubtedly an exciting time, it’s also a lot of work, as baby chicks need to remain indoors for the first 5 to 8 weeks until they’ve developed all their feathers. To...
What is so serious about a hen being egg bound? If left entreat the hen can die within 48 hours. Usual symptoms of a hen that is eggbound are:
Silkies are the world’s oldest chicken breed, with roots back in 7th Century China where they were used to cure kidney ailments, aging and other ills. “They have hair like a cat, are black, and lay the best of eggs,” wrote Marco Polo wrote of the Silkie in the 13th Century. In 1874, the...
If you’re like me, you constantly battle with your chickens as you try to get them to sleep in the coop. Mine constantly get out of the pen and sleep in the bushes next to the coop. So every night I have to go out and put them to bed.
Organic chickens are not only the “in” thing that fetches a higher price on the market. It’s also a more humane way to raise your chickens and provides a number of benefits to the consumer, including: Organic chicken breasts are lower in calories and higher in protein More B vitamins, selenium and niacin No...
It’s a farmer’s worst nightmare: the hens have stopped laying eggs during the winter months! Your first thoughts may be: Are they sick or dying? Has the cold rendered them infertile? Am I doing something wrong? Most likely, external stressors have affected hormone levels and got your top layers feeling down in the dumps.
Looking outside at those huddled up balls of feathers, it’s hard to imagine your chickens can stay warm in these frigid temperatures. Their beady black eyes are just slits in the face of the freezing gales of wind and they may pull one tough, weathered foot up into their breast for added warmth. But...
Compromise is often a bad thing but in the case of dual-purpose chickens it is a sensible and practical idea for the home flock. There is nothing more satisfying than watching a flock of robust hens roaming about the farm chasing butterflies in late summer or sucking up earthworms after a rain. They are...
There is nothing that compares to the variety of chickens available through mail-order. There are bantams and full-sized; light and heavy breeds; egg layers, meat birds, or dual-purpose; white, brown, chocolate, tinted and green egg layers; ornamentals and production breeds; the newly developed and the heritage favorites.
