Thinking wistfully of spring. And dealing with the problems of winter, including frostbite and rodents in your coop. Frostbite in rodents is not discussed.
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What My Chickens Gave Me For Christmas
My chickens do give me gifts. And those gifts last the entire year.
In the Coop & Around the World - December 2, 2018
Here are a few gift ideas for your chicken people. And your chickens!
In the Coop & Around the World - November 25, 2018
Why isn’t Moe the Salmon Faverolle molting? Plus winterizing the coop. And a few words about California’s recently passed Prop 12 and how it will make life better for hens everywhere!
In the Coop & Around the World - November 18, 2018
In this post: The Silkies lay their first eggs. A turkey video for Thanksgiving, but its so scary maybe it should be for Halloween. A heartwarming story about chickens in Paradise, CA. And millions and millions of ducks!
Six Silkie Chicks Grow Up
One bright morning in May, I traveled to Forest Lake, Minnesota where I adopted six baby chicks. By October, those babies were gone. In their place were six fine young cockerels and pullets. This post is about what happened in between.
Marek’s Disease – Six Things You Should Know
If Marek’s Disease strikes your flock there’s very little you can do except suffer as your sick chickens suffer, and end their suffering when it becomes severe. There is no cure. Thus, your best strategy is to prevent Marek’s from harming your flock in the first place.
A Children's Book: Gwen the Rescue Hen
Leslie Crawford has ably imagined and narrated this story of Gwen’s great adventure, and Sonja Stangl’s illustrations have perfectly captured the whimsy inherent in all things chicken. Together they show children, and adults that “happily ever after” is a real thing—and making it happen can be as simple as letting chickens live like chickens.
Getting Your Ducks in a Row for Raising Baby Chicks: Eight Questions and Answers
When you adopt baby chicks, you’re taking small, helpless, peeping balls of fluff under your wing. It’s a big responsibility, and if you’ve never done it before, you should make sure you understand the list of basics before you undertake this big venture. If you have done it before, it’s good to pull out that list and review it just to make sure you have all your ducks in a row . Raising baby chicks is not hard, after all, but there are a few things you have to consider and a few things you need to do right.
A Carton of Eggs: Part 5—Vital Farms Organic Pasture-Raised Eggs
This is part five of a series about the information printed on egg cartons. When you buy eggs with “cage-free” stamped on the carton, you probably think you’re doing the right thing. Cage-free eggs are a huge improvement from eggs that come from hens living in tiny, cramped battery cage torture chambers. But as Vital Farms points out, hens laying cage free eggs probably live in one square foot of space in a cramped barn and never get to go outside. Vital Farms advertises its eggs as “pasture raised” and guarantees that each hen gets 108 square feet of outdoor space.
When Your Hen Dies
After our pet chicken dies, then what? We are often loath to talk about it, because too many people just don’t get it. While nearly everybody understands the importance of our cats and dogs in our lives, to most folks, chickens are “just chickens.”
A Short History of Organic Eggs
You’re in the egg aisle at the supermarket and want to get eggs from hens that are treated humanely. So, you grab the eggs with the green and white USDA Organic label and put them in your cart. Organic must be good, right? But what does it even mean in terms of how the hens are treated? Perhaps not very much.
Coop - A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting by Michael Perry - A Review
Author, humorist, and radio-show host Michael Perry tells us the story of his first year in an old house on a Wisconsin acreage with his new wife and daughter. It is a tale of lurching forward with pigs and chickens and gardening and hay-making and wood splitting and don’t forget building a chicken coop, and of course a home birth—all while maintaining a full-time career. And other impracticalities. Nonfiction. Really.
Are Chickens Dinosaurs?
Was Tyrannosaurus rex really just a big chicken? Are chickens are the closest living relative to Tyrannosaurus rex? Are chickens directly descended from T. rex? Are chickens dinosaurs? All your questions answered right here!
Betty the Transgender Chicken – What Happened Next
You may know the story of Betty the transgender chicken - the hen that underwent spontaneous sex reversal and became a rooster - and you may be wondering what happened to Betty after that story ended. This is the next story.
The Life and Times of Betty the Transgender Chicken - Spontaneous Sex Reversal in Chickens
What makes a hen a hen and a rooster a rooster? And what makes a hen a rooster?