The Royal Palm is a lightweight turkey with stunning white plumage trimmed in black. Turkeys with a similar color pattern have been raised in Europe since the 1700s, known there variously as black-laced white, pied, or Crollwitzer. The first turkeys in the United States with the palm color pattern appeared in the 1920s in […]
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Ammonia is a pungent-smelling gas constantly released by bacteria that decompose chicken droppings. Not only does ammonia smell bad, it’s also a health hazard for you and your chickens. High levels of ammonia in the coop’s air can discourage chickens from eating—affecting the growth rate of young birds and the production of laying hens—and can […]
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Chickens that stop roosting in their coop after having been trained to go into the coop at night likely have a good reason for not wanting to return. Your job then becomes determining what the reason is and taking corrective measures. Here are the seven most common reasons chickens become reluctant to go home to […]
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Natural grit consists of a collection of coarse sand, pebbles, and similar small, hard objects chickens eat while pecking on the ground. The grit lodges in the bird’s gizzard, where muscular action grinds the grit together with feedstuffs to break them down for digestion. Over time each piece of grit gets ground up, along with […]
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Chickens that spend nights within an enclosed coop will be protected from predators that prowl after dark. Chickens naturally want to “come home to roost,” although they may need to be taught where home is. Here’s how to train your chickens to go into their coop at night. Furnish a cozy coop that provides […]
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Training your chickens to come when you call them can be handy in a number of situations. You might use the training to gather your flock into the coop when you are ready to close it up for the night. You could call free range chickens together to protect them from a roaming dog or […]
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Commercially formulated rations are developed to maximize nutritional benefit based on a flock’s age, beginning with chick starter, then moving up to grower, developer, and lay ration as chickens mature. Meat birds have their own formulas for starter/grower rations and finisher ration intended to induce rapid growth. Aside from different formulas for different age groups, […]
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A lot of chicken keepers who are unfamiliar with both barred Rocks and Dominiques have trouble telling the difference between them. Once you’ve seen both, though, you’ll have no trouble readily identifying which is which. First let’s get one thing straight: “Barred Rock” is not a breed. The breed is Plymouth Rock. The original color […]
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With their large, hawk-like eyes, flattish head profile, downward turning beaks and striking feather patterns, Easter Egger chickens are often described as looking like hawks. Easter Eggers are related to Ameraucanas, which also have a somewhat hawk-like appearance. Easter Eggers are not considered to be a true breed, because they lack uniform conformation and plumage […]
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This September marks the 75th anniversary of World War Two’s Operation Market Garden, during which a hen named Myrtle parachuted into the Battle of Arnhem with Britain’s 1st Airborne Division. Summer of 1944 was hot in Leicestershire, England, as paratroopers of Britain’s Tenth Battalion, Parachute Regiment waited for deployment. Irritable after a series of proposed […]
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