INGREDIENTS 1 recipe Basic Gingerbread Dough, chilled 1 recipe Classic Thick Royal Icing Black or brown food coloring gel 4 white Lifesavers candies Red food coloring gel 1 red candy dot or round candy-coated chocolate, such as M&M’s 4 graham crackers 5 silver sprinkles 6 Tbsp white fondant, homemade (page 7) or store-bought Orange food […]

Egg are Seasonal   If you’re new to raising chickens you might not realize that chickens do not naturally lay an egg every day, year-round. In the late summer/early fall you might notice that your hens stop laying altogether. You might also notice that your coop is littered with feathers. This is the seasonal molt […]

Photographs generously provided with permission from Greenfire Farms. Visit their website for more information on acquiring this breed.   When I first heard the breed name “Deathlayer” I thought it sounded like something out of a Star Wars movie. I also had to do some research to see if this was, in fact, an actual breed. […]

Possible Winter activities When winter arrives and the safety of the lush green trees is gone, our chickens lose their outside time. See when the leaves are down the risk of hawk and falcon attacks are so great we choose to keep them in the safety of the barn. Though they can move about the […]

We all know that winter can be a particularly challenging time for chickens. What with the snow, howling cold winds and hungry predators, winter can be a pretty rotten time. Whilst you can’t change the weather, there are several things you can do to make your chickens’ lives easier. Step One: Keep Their Coop Warm […]

In this post, I am going to tell you how I stumbled into  Purina’s Feed Greatness Challenge through rigorous campaigning by a seven-year-old.  Sometimes the smallest voices make the most sense.   Our three remaining hens are laying at a rate of about an egg per day.  I haven’t figured out yet if I have […]

The Crevecoeur and the Polish are similar looking crested breeds. Both are very old breeds from France. The Crevecoeur is the oldest known French breed coming out of Normandy and the Polish or Poland has been depicted in paintings dated back to the 15th century.   I’ve raised both Crevecoeur and Polish chickens and they […]

We recently received a copy of Literary Chickens, by Beth Moon and wanted to share a few excerpts with our chicken community. This table read includes several iconic quotes paired with Beth’s beautifully photographed chickens. These striking portraits illustrate a sophistication in poultry that often goes unnoticed. Dr. Jane Goodall gave the book her endorsement and […]