by Hank Will — Photographed by Suzanne Griepentrog At the end of the original Community Chickens Project in 2009, headed up by the editors of Grit and Mother Earth News magazines, Grit editor, Hank Will invited several project contributors to his Osage County Kansas farm to teach them how to humanely clean and package the […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author   I don’t know who originally coined the phrase “Necessity is the Mother of Invention.”  While I’m unsure of its origin or inspiration, I am willing to make a bold statement about its application.  I believe firmly that Necessity must have been a chicken keeper. I pride myself on […]

by Gwen Roland — Photographed by Preston Roland   Raise your own broilers, and avoid battery cage-raised, flavorless supermarket chicken. Though I have kept chickens for years, I never expected to eat any of the animals I raised. After they provided many delicious eggs, I would retire my layers to the barnyard. But Barbara Kingsolver’s […]

by Cheryl Long — Illustrated by Nate Skow Chickens are fun and easy to care for – and the steady supply of fresh eggs is an added bonus. I set out to learn how to make a chicken coop that would be secure, low-cost, easy to build, light enough to relocate easily and scaled to fit […]

 Rebecca Nickols Photos by author   Here’s a great way to repurpose, reuse and recycle your empty chicken feed sacks. It’s not a new idea: I’ve seen several online sites with instructions on how to make grocery totes out of all sorts of creative materials. I read them all … then took what I liked […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author So, you’ve decided to enter the world of chicken keeping. Congratulations and welcome to the club. We don’t have jackets. Instead, we have chicken coops in every size, type and color. I think that you’ll agree that a coop is a much more useful. Let’s face it, chickens don’t […]

By Kimberly Furry Photos by author The quintessential reason that I blog is to chronicle our journey as a family with backyard chickens. A close second is being able to inspire others. Teaching is a noble profession and one I highly revere. Each month, from November to April, I lead a program with my fellow […]

by Suzanne Roark Photos by author Processing day actually starts the day we bring home our day-old meat chicks from the feed store. Being Cornish Cross or Jumbo Cornish Cross means we only have a scant eight weeks to prepare. The very first thing we do after the little chicks are under the heat lamp […]

by Suzanne Roark Photos by author When we first began raising chickens it was strictly eggs we were interested in. Somehow after a few years of raising the egg-laying kind, we started to think about raising the meat kind. I searched the internet for answers on how to raise them. I knew vaguely that the […]

After the chicks had moved outside into their coop/run, I realized that it was time to purchase a larger feeder and waterer. We looked at automatic or treadle feeders online and came up with this option. It’s rain and rodent proof, holds about 6 pounds of feed and it’s basically an awesome contraption.