I’m taking the weekend off from my usual moving-madness to catch up – catch up on sleep, catch up on chores, and catch up on my online commitments. I even took a nap this afternoon – can you believe it? It was well-deserved, I assure you. I have only a week and a half until … Continue reading
If you have chickens or are just getting started, here are ten tips for keeping your flock healthy in 2013. 1. Provide plenty of fresh water with ACV. Whether you choose to provide an open waterer or water nipples or cups, make sure that your flock has plenty of water year round. Keep waterers unfrozen … Continue reading
I have 21 chickens at the moment. Two are cockerels who are staying, 5 are cockerels looking for homes, and the remaining 14 are hens and pullets. Yet, I am only getting about 2 eggs a day. Where are my eggs?!? Molting: Right now, most of my older hens are molting and few of the … Continue reading
Chickens drink 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups (.3-.5 liters) of water each day. I usually provide two waterers: one hanging waterer with a chicken nipple in the coop and one basin in the run. While the chickens seem to enjoy drinking out of the basin, the water is much more easily contaminated or spilled. … Continue reading
For many of us, the days are getting shorter and nights longer. This is a signal to living things that summer is over and winter is approaching. For chickens, the shortened days trigger the molt. They lose their feathers and regrow their plumage to keep them warm in winter. In part because feathers are made … Continue reading
This summer, I started playing with fermented feed after reading a thread about it on the BYC forum. I wrote a post about my first attempt and the one research article I had read about the benefits, the Enberg1 study, and another post about my second attempt with an improved system. After a great question … Continue reading
Shade and water. When it’s hot, the most important things to provide for the birds are shade and water. Thankfully, there is always a part of my runs which are in shade. There are a few hours during high summer afternoons where the trees cast no shadows in the runs, but the coops do so … Continue reading
It’s been a challenging week with so many groups of chickens to care for. My mixed, year-old flock of egg layers have been plugging along faithfully. Most have just finished up a small spring molt and are looking much shinier, although to my continued chagrin, still beardless. Egg production is a bit down with Rosie … Continue reading
I must say that these GNH chicks are some of the most beautiful little chicks I have had. Even at three weeks old, which is very often already replete with early adolescent awkwardness, they are pretty, solemn little things. Their fluff is still a pale blonde on their heads, chests, and backs, but their wings … Continue reading
My Basque Hens were three weeks old last weekend when I made the decision to move them outside to the 4×4 coop. Usually, I wait until chicks are fully-feathered at about 5 weeks old before moving them outside. This year, a few factors played into my decision: It has been unseasonably warm this year! By … Continue reading
