Do’s and Don’t for buying chicks from feed stores, from blogger Kaylee Vaughn. Check out Part 1 Buying from Local Breeders and Part 2 Buying from Professional Hatcheries as well.    You’ve decided to purchase your first chicks! Or, maybe, you are adding some new chicks to your existing flock! Either way, it’s an exciting […]

Do’s and Don’t for buying chicks from professional hatcheries from blogger Kaylee Vaughn. Check out Part 1 Buying from Local Breeders and Part 3 Buying from Feed Stores as well.    You’ve decided to purchase your first chicks! Or, maybe, you are adding some new chicks to your existing flock! Either way, it’s an exciting […]

Veteran chicken keeper Carrie Miller has some recommendations for 2020 chicken items, based on her experiences. Every year new and improved chicken items come out on the market to help make chicken keeping easier. While some items get better and better each year other items were great from the start and need little to no […]

Demystifying (but not de-mistyfing) chick incubators. -Advertisement- Believe it or not, incubation isn’t just an invention of the modern era. Historical records show that incubation of eggs was practiced in Ancient Egypt. Mud brick buildings, divided into chambers that were basically large ovens, were heated by burning straw, dung or charcoal. Temperature and ventilation were […]

Ascites in backyard chickens isn’t super common, but it’s possible you will come across this condition if you keep chickens. Ascites isn’t really an illness itself. Rather, it’s a symptom that something is wrong with your chicken. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, ascites is when fluid builds up in the peritoneal cavities of a […]

In the winter months, as the weather turns colder, chicken keepers are forced to keep their birds shut indoors to protect them from adverse weather conditions. Confinement indoors can create conditions, triggering respiratory illness in poultry.   The respiratory systems of chickens are very sensitive to dust and ammonia, too much of either can bring […]

Impacted crop surgery on your chicken sounds scary, but it’s not impossible to perform this surgery. It’s inevitable if you have chickens that you are going to encounter crop issues at some time. The crop, located on the hen’s right side just beneath the skin, is a balloon-like pouch where everything they eat or drink […]

  Free-ranging is all the rage. You see it advertised in the grocery store for both meat and eggs and it something people who buy my eggs ask me about a lot. No one wants their food coming from a chicken who has been locked up all of their life, but free-ranging your flock comes […]

Do’s and Don’t for buying chicks from local breeders from blogger Kaylee Vaughn. Check out Part 2 Buying from Professional Hatcheries and Part 3 Buying from Feed Stores as well.    You’ve decided to purchase your first chicks! Or, maybe, you are adding some new chicks to your existing flock! Either way, it’s an exciting […]

When winter comes around, both new and experienced homesteaders wonder how they can keep their livestock and fowl warm. This issue is primarily a concern for those who have smaller animals, like chickens. There are several ways to protect these animals from the cold, but many owners ask if they should provide a direct heat […]