How to Create an All-Weather Dust Bath Dust baths are important for maintaining a healthy, happy flock. But what do you do when the ground is frozen or covered in snow? Make an all-weather dust bath for your chickens! We live in a part of the Western US that experiences cold winters but rarely gets […]

Did you know that chickens have 4 types of feathers? These include webbed feathers, down feathers, bristles and filoplumes. Each type of feather has a different function.

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm The feather is what sets birds apart from every other living species. Birds use feathers to fly and escape danger. Though chickens aren’t the best of flyers they still share in this unique attribute that is specific to birds. Feathers have been on my mind lately as the […]

by Wendy EN Thomas of Lessons Learned from the Flock Jan Brett was at the Northeastern Poultry Congress this weekend. She was showing her birds and in her spare time, she gave an art lesson and signed copies of her new book “Cinders.” I caught up with her at her stand (she was selling some […]

by Meredith Chilson The hen yard is still full of feathers.  There are long, sleek feathers and piles of fluffy feathers.  In my last post, I talked a bit about how to ease your chickens through a molt – the annual replacement of worn and faded feathers that occurs in all birds.  I have plenty […]

by Shannon Cole of Country Girl In The Village Spring season is upon us and many people are looking to add birds to their coops or start from scratch and are beginning to search out which chicken breeds they may be interested in. When I first started to look into building a flock and coop of my own, beyond the […]

by Shannon Cole of Country Girl In The Village Spring season is upon us and many people are looking to add birds to their coops or start from scratch and are beginning to search out which chicken breeds they may be interested in. When I first started to look into building a flock and coop of my own, beyond the […]

By Jennifer Sartell A friend of mine recently asked me why her beautiful white Cochin bantam was turning yellow. She admitted that the spring freezing and thawing has done a muddy number on her coop and run, but that it seemed like the problem was something other than a “dirty” issue. Evidently, she read my […]

by Meredith Chilson  I’m a bird watcher.  Chicken watcher in particular, but I also watch wild birds at our feeders, in the yard, and on my walks with the dog.  On the very cold mornings we had last week, little birds on tree branches and big chickens on coop roosts had similar shapes.  They were […]

 by Meredith Chilson The holidays are looming, and I’ve pulled down the crates and tubs of decorations and ornaments from the high shelf in the garage.  As I sort through the boxes, I realize that many of them are handmade—some of glitter, glue and toothpicks made by tiny hands, others of ceramic, glass or wood.  […]