Feeling Cooped Up

Chickens are spooked easily by sudden changes. Where I live, we haven’t had much of a traditional winter, but last week, the sky fell. In fact, an entire foot of sky piled up around my chicken coop. My dearly departed Red Star Mabel would have trudged through the snow like an Arctic explorer, but since […]

Safety Check: 4 Water Sources for Your Chickens

Like all living things, our chickens need water to survive, thrive and produce healthy eggs. Clean water keeps hens’ reproductive systems working the way they should, and some chicken keepers, especially newbies, worry about water quality or if they’re properly watering their flock. To provide some clarity, here are four water sources for your chickens […]

store eggs

How to Store Backyard Eggs

On the counter or in the fridge? This is what you need to know about keeping your chickens’ eggs before it’s time time to eat them.

What Do I Do With Small Eggs?

Our backyard chickens usually produce an inconsistent product. Their eggs vary in shape, size and color, mostly because we collect a variety of breeds based on their coloring, lace, combs, cold hardiness, heat tolerance, egg colors and sizes—whatever tickles our fancy, really. Whether or not we realize it, those of us with many different breeds […]

6 Ways to Banish Rodents from the Coop

Have you ever found little mouse droppings peppered throughout your coop bedding—black oval pellets about the size of a grain of rice? Evidence of rodents in your chicken coop can be unnerving, but it’s important to recognize that winter is a hungry time for wild animals. The reward of a warm bed and a full […]

The Pullets are Laying Eggs

I’ve been buying eggs for 2 months. My family doesn’t eat very much meat, so we technically fall under the flexitarian, or semi-vegetarian category, making eggs very important to my family. When the girls aren’t laying, our choice is to eat more meat or buy eggs. It’s embarrassing to buy eggs and chicken feed, but […]