If your poultry flock experiences a health issue, suddenly all those little details you thought you’d never forget, but now you can’t quite remember, become immensely important. In such an event, you’ll be happy you previously understood the importance of keeping a flock history and took a few moments to write down incidents as they […]
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Unlike cows and sheep, chickens are not primarily grazers and cannot digest large amounts of tough fiber. Short pasture perennials are therefore more suitable than taller plants as forage for free range chickens. But, like any pasture, forage for chickens must be suitable for the climate and properly managed. Warm Season Forage Among warm-season greens, […]
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Brooding Cornish cross broilers is similar to brooding any chicks, with the notable exception that the hybrid Cornish broilers get bigger faster. They eat almost constantly, and rarely move far from the feeder. They also drink a lot of water to wash down all that feed. So they need plenty of room to accommodate their […]
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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 […]
Continue ReadingFrom burrowing badgers to high-flying hawks, chickens have their fair share of dangerous predators to contend with. As chicken keepers, it’s up to us to protect our flocks from these threats whenever possible. That’s why we put together this handy infographic that identifies a number of common predators and offers suggestions on how to keep […]
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Chicken keepers have many different reasons for having a backyard flock of chickens. Here are 20 of the best reasons put forth by people with a passion for poultry: Chickens lay eggs. Keeping your own flock of hens ensures a ready supply of freshly-laid eggs right outside your back door. Chickens eat insects. […]
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At dusk, chickens instinctively seek a high place to spend the night where they feel safe from predators. Lacking a comfortable place to roost inside their coop, they may seek an outdoor roost. It might be the top of a fence or gate, in a tree, or even on the coop roof. Chickens that roost […]
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