The charm of a small yard with a flock of hens is indisputable, but raising chickens in the city can present some aesthetic challenges. If your coop is stationary, you probably have a uniform plot of brown underneath the run. If you have a mobile coop, maybe you have some circles worn into the […]
My chickens love the explosion of insect life in the spring—and so do I, but it wasn’t always that way. In my life before chickens, my Kentucky backyard was unusable for several months of the year, simply because of blood-sucking insects. Because my chickens devour a majority of the bugs that bug me most, […]
Mites can make your chickens uncomfortable and ill, and they can even lead to death. Learn four ways to treat your birds with natural products.
Chickens are good at finding places to dust bathe. They will snuggle up between the roots of old trees, lie down in the garden, and fluff their feathers in decomposing mulch. Dust bathing absorbs oil from their skin, and wood ash coats the skin to become a barrier protecting from mite infestations. As a preventive […]
Make sure no egg your flock lays goes to waste by heeding these egg-collection tips.
Tired of struggling to unpeel a hard-boiled egg at Easter? We've got a technique that will leave your shells easy to peel and your yolks a beautiful yellow.
A deep-litter bedding system is you need to make coop-cleaning easier and to produce a high-quality garden fertilizer.
Chickens talk, squawk, sing, play, run, hide—they're as entertaining as any domestic pet you'll ever meet.
Every year I look forward to my local newspaper’s holiday haiku contest. Its many ‘winners’ see their poems published in the Christmas edition of the Courier-Journal. In 2014, a sign nailed to a mailbox post stating “Fresh Eggs” inspired me to submit this: ”Fresh Eggs!” shingles read. Yoking to activism, Metro Cluckers flock. When we […]
In a saturated egg market, you need your eggs to be seen. Use these tips to boost your asking price and make customers happy.
When I started raising my first flock of chickens, I would sometimes start a conversation with something like, “So sorry I’m late! I had to chase a chicken.” It was always true, of course, but it was a great conversation starter about my favorite hobby. Now that I’m more seasoned, I’ve noticed a pattern when […]
Because cats are carnivorous predators, it’s common to wonder if a neighborhood cat or stray will leap over your fence and attack your laying hens. But are cats really that dangerous? Stray Cat Strut While my first flock was still quite young—feathered out but not laying—a neighborhood cat would come by to stalk my birds. […]
