by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm       As the long dreary days of winter drag on, I get impatient for the new life that spring brings. Hopefully our goats are pregnant and we’ll be enjoying all that new kids bring to a farm. We’ll be starting up the milking routine once again, […]

Mid January, it is that time of year that I am really looking forward to Spring. Our ground is still frozen and snow covered. The days are short, but growing longer and all I need to get excited are seed and hatchery catalogs.   When I first got chickens I was on a free for […]

Chicken coops are like real estate.  After all, a coop is a house, right?  Housing for humans and chickens are really needed for the same reason:  shelter from the elements of life.  How fancy or simple a house or coop is, depends on the person (not the chicken – I have yet to meet a […]

I didn’t sleep very well that night.  I was so excited!  The day had finally arrived.  The day I had been dreaming about.  The day I had been planning for.  I was getting 6 babies that day.  Yes, 6 babies!  No, not little bundles of joy, human babies, but another kind of little bundles of […]

Guest post by Sherie Bradley We finally had our own place….with acreage! I couldn’t wait to get some chickens. There was a shed in the backyard that my husband had dreams for, but I was secretly making plans to turn it into a super coop. I already had my ducklings growing like weeds at my […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm When raising chickens it’s always important to have a “back up” plan. Just when you think everyone in the flock is happy, content and healthy, nature has a way of surprising us. Chickens can become ill or suffer injuries. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to […]

by Wendy EN Thomas from Lessons Learned from the Flock   A while back, I wrote about a chick of ours that had grown at a much faster rate than our other chicks (odd duck in the chicken coop.) I had wondered if indeed she was even a chicken (some people (including myself) thought she […]

 by Wendy EN Thomas of Lessons Learned from the Flock We have an odd duck in the flock. This spring we picked up 12 new chicks, 3 Buff Orpingtons, 3 Barred Rocks, 3 New Hampshire Reds, and 3 (what we thought were) Araucanas. One of the Araucanas, however, was lighter than the rest, she had […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm If you’ve been following me here on Community Chickens, the Iron Oak Farm Facebook Page or on our You Tube Channel, I’ve been documenting the progression of our Black Spanish turkey hatch. I’ve been sharing videos and photos covering each step of this exciting time. Some of the […]

We just hatched out 6 beautiful little chicks. It’s been our first indoor brood in a few years. I’ve been letting our broody hens take care of hatching for the past few springs, but this year I had a specific breed I wanted to give a try. Hopefully some of these little babies are pullets […]