Do Not Store Eggs in Your Refrigerator Door This shortens the lifespan of an egg, as the temperature continually changes with the opening and closing of the door. We keep our freshly collected eggs in flats and in coated-wire baskets until they are ready...
They'll be in a 1-pound box next to the nails and screws; all three together are known as fasteners. An easy way to measure is to put one staple about every handspan, which is the distance from tip of your thumb to the tip of your little finger on an...
I am so excited! We're getting four new chickens to add to our flock . We lost a few to old age and predators over the past few years, and our existing flock is down to only four hens.
One of the three breeds recognized in the Asiatic Class in the American Standard of Perfection. The Black Variety was first admitted in 1883, the White ten years later and the Blue over 100 years later in 1987.
They are non-sitters, rarely exhibiting any signs of broodiness. The White Leghorn is the foundation of the modern commercial egg industry worldwide. They are hard to beat for egg production.
Use: The Belgian Bearded d'Uccle (pronounced dew-clay ) is a bantam chicken breed primarily used for exhibition, though hens are modest layers of small, creamy-white eggs, averaging two to three per week.
She will no longer lay eggs, her comb and wattles will develop, her feathering will become more male in appearance and structure, and she will even begin to crow. This article was excerpted from Chicken & Egg: Raising Chickens to Get the Eggs You Want...
Here are options that will keep your chickens healthy and prevent their eggs from cracking. They also dry, shrink and smell. (Again, this is my article and my opinion!) For all the reasons mentioned previously, shavings are the ideal material to line...
“Mites are fast, scurrying specks in the vent region,” Jacob says. Inspect the bird's skin, breast and under the wings. Northern Fowl Mites The most prevalent poultry parasite, these blood suckers are found in flocks around the country, but they prefer...
Straw & Chopped Straw In the chicken yard, straw and chopped straw are an absorbent resource for bedding. Usually this happens in the spring—and they begin the new deep-litter process with a fresh layer of 4 inches or more of clean bedding.
The Deep-Litter Option For chicken keepers who can't rotate their chickens' pasture and need to keep the flock in one place, Rhodes recommends the deep-litter coop method . They Provide Organic Pest Patrol By giving the chickens the opportunity to scratch...
People ask me all the time if I am going to eat them. The hens in our charter flock turned me from chicken agnostic to borderline obsessed. I am pretty sure she would sleep with us if we let her.
Home is a place we want to come to, especially at the end of a long day. It won't be long until she takes the hint and goes bed with her flock mates. If your flock is hopelessly motivated by food like mine is, use their weakness to your advantage.
Here are a few things that can affect how early or late a flock begins. Once spring arrives, I'll start seeing the abundance I'm used to getting from my flock. Let me know what other chicken-keeping questions I can help answer on “Chicken Quarters”—remember...
An added bonus: Because these leafy plants contain plenty of xanthophyll , an orange-yellow pigment, the eggs your layers produce will feature rich, golden yolks. Harvest the tips of the crabgrass sprouts when they reach about six inches in height to...
To make your own feeder device, place caps on the ends of a 2- to 3-inch-wide PVC pipe—the length is up to you and the size of your flock, but at least 1 foot is recommended. If you think that your chickens will be scared of new devices, place the potentially...
Don't introduce new birds while your flock is molting, don't move them to new quarters and don't handle them any more than necessary. Considering the timing and that your hens have practically stopped laying eggs, my guess is that your chickens are molting.
Better yet, enlist a guardian animal , such as a livestock guard dog, to protect your flock. They're smart, and they learn quickly: Once they've had a taste of chicken, they'll be back for more, again and again.
Below are four long-tailed breeds to consider, as well as care tips to keep your long-tailed chickens healthy and happy. Many fanciers like to tie up the tails with silk ribbons, as is the Japanese custom for Onagadori chickens, the ancestor of many of...
Fun items, like specialty treats and chicken sweaters (I wasn't kidding!) are also available through pet-chicken websites and catalogs. There are handy charts and tools online for finding your perfect breed.
Pecking and Cannibalism Treatment Historically, chickens' beaks have been clipped to deter cannibalism. It's often difficult to determine the difference between random pecking and pecking that will lead to cannibalism and possibly the introduction of...
Chicken anatomy goes beyond the wing and the drumstick. Lessons in chicken showmanship and the occasional peek at a poultry book can expand your knowledge. But there's much more to these domestic birds' bodies than meets the eye.
We had more questions than answers. It was once so commonplace to have chickens. I was in my kitchen trying to think of what else I could do to control what my growing family was eating.
In many parts of the country, winter is cold, blustery and frozen through for months without relief. The ground is soft and spongy, making the lawn easy for chicken feet to rip and shred the land as they forage.
And would the roosters likely end up hurting the other hens or baby chicks? Roosters rarely harm hens or chicks, though they often fight with other roosters in the flock. Layer breeds deliver.
During the summer when laying is prolific, refrigerating makes more sense, a luxury non egg-washing countries usually don't have. On the counter or in the fridge? If you do not wash your eggs: Store them on the counter in an egg rack or in a pretty egg...
Some holistic home remedies work as well or nearly as well as commercial blood-clotting products. White vinegar applied to minor injuries causes blood vessels to constrict and stanch bleeding.
