A few weeks ago I started the evening chores like every other night. I grabbed the wire egg basket from the front porch and headed to the chicken coop. I collected eggs from our Buff Orpington pen, our Leghorn pen and our Araucana and Olive Egger pen. When I went into the French Black Copper […]

Rolling through the chicken feed aisle at our local farm-supply store can feel a little overwhelming. The “chicken diet” options have come a long way since I first brought home 6 broiler chickens when I was 14 and a bag of cracked corn.   Our local feed store not only carries several brands of chicken […]

I originally bought this small manufactured cool to be our Silkie pen. But after seeing how handy it is with our teenage chickens I may decide to buy another one for next year’s teens. What is a grow out pen? A holding place for chickens after they’ve left the brooder but before they’re old enough […]

Over the years, in my experience keeping chickens, we’ve done both free ranging and keeping them in a confined coop. My preferred method is to let them free range, but right now I have our flock separated in pens by breed for breeding purposes.   What is free ranging?   Free ranging can have a […]

I raised Blue Laced Red Wyandottes for about 10 years and they are still one of my favorite chickens.   I would still have them, but precious coop space being what it is…I’m trying to concentrate on APA recognized breeds and unfortunately the Blue Laced Red color is not APA recognized.   I was prompted […]

Our chicken coop is over 20 years old. My dad built it for me when I was 13 after I lost my first flock of chickens to a predator attack. After I married my husband Zach, we moved out of my parent’s house and took the coop with us. It was quite an endeavor disassembling […]

I first heard of this idea in a YouTube video from the channel Off Grid with Doug and Stacey. In their video, 3 Ways to Use Kombucha Besides Drinking It!, they share that they feed extra kombucha and scobys to their dogs, cats and chickens. I decided that I was going to give this a […]

It’s chick season! I have to say that the feed stores are really stepping up their game when it comes to breed varieties. I have to believe that this is in response to the growing interest in chicken keeping.   If you already have an existing flock but are interested in adding a few more […]

I just came in from our coops with a basket of eggs. These eggs will not be eaten. Instead, they will be going into my incubator. I mark the breed and the date with a pencil and set them in a labeled egg carton until I have enough to fill the incubator. This is one […]

So you’ve decided on a breed that you just can’t live without and you’ve found a breeder. Sometimes poultry breeds can be so rare that you may only have one choice when it comes to buying stock, so depending on how badly you want that breed, you may have to just accept the buyer’s terms. […]