When you raise hens from baby chicks, finding their first eggs can be exciting. Chickens don’t all start laying at the same time, so you’ll likely find an occasional small egg, then maybe one each day. Before long you’ll be finding multiple eggs daily. But since most chickens don’t lay an egg every day, how […]
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If you’ve spent much time around chickens, you’ve probably noticed that these birds can be surprisingly vocal creatures. Roosters may have earned a reputation for crowing at sunrise, but you can often hear hens clucking and squawking to one another as well. In fact, recent research suggests that chickens are capable of making as many […]
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Chick Days occur during a brief period in spring when local feed, farm and home stores offer baby chicks — and sometimes ducklings, turkey poults and guinea keets — for sale. Nearly all stores have chicks around Easter time. With the ever-increasing popularity of chicken keeping, some stores start Chick Days in early February and […]
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How do you spell the chicken breed that lays eggs with blue shells: Ameraucana or Americana? If you said Ameraucana, you are correct. So how did this breed get such an oddly spelled name? To answer that question requires reviewing the breed’s origin. Araucana In 1925 a breed of chicken discovered in Chile was […]
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Natural disasters are on the rise, and if you keep poultry you are responsible for the safety of your birds. No matter where you live, nearly everyone is vulnerable to disasters of one sort or another — wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, chemical spills, hurricanes or tornadoes. Here are eight commonsense steps that will […]
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If you spend much time on YouTube, you may remember seeing a massive Brahma rooster strutting his stuff in a video that went viral last year. We received quite a bit of interest in Brahma chickens as a result, so we figured this would be a great opportunity to provide our readers with a little […]
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Australorp and Black Jersey Giant chickens look and behave a lot alike. Both are good foragers, and the hens of both breeds tend to become broody and raise their own chicks. Both breeds have a bright red single comb, red earlobes, a black beak, and dark brown eyes. Australorps come in one color — black. […]
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Chickens lose feathers for any number of reasons, some of which are seasonal, while others can occur at any time of year. Here are the most common reasons chickens and other poultry lose feathers and what you can do to help your feathered friends remain feathered. Feather Picking Feather picking is most likely to […]
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A Minnesota firm has obtained a patent for an incubator that can alter the sex of an egg before it hatches. Naturally hatched eggs result in about 50 percent females and 50 percent males. Anyone who has ever hatched eggs hoping for a majority of laying hens knows the problem — too many roosters. To […]
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In many areas local ordinances prohibit keeping backyard chickens, but regulations vary from one place to the next. Before bringing home your first chickens, check applicable zoning regulations, municipal codes, homeowner association rules, and lease restrictions. You will learn whether you can keep chickens at all, and, if so, what restrictions might pertain to your […]
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