By Meredith Chilson Do you remember the story of our “Jimmy” chicken? A couple of springs ago, we had a Buff Orpington hen who wanted to be a mother.  She hoarded eggs, puffed and hissed, feathered her nest—but to no avail, because we had no rooster. We tried all the tricks we knew to break […]

by Wendy EN Thomas of Lessons Learned from the Flock When I was young, one of the worst things you could say was to call someone a “chicken.”  It meant you thought they were weak, lacking, and it was a challenge for that person to then prove to everyone that they were not.   Oh […]

by Melissa Caughey of Tilly’s Nest If you are a gardener like me, your mailbox is beginning to fill with mail order catalogs.  Each year, in addition to the perennial gardens, and the fruits and vegetables that we grow, we always plant things just for the chickens.  A chicken garden does not need to be fancy nor […]

by Shannon Cole of Country Girl In The Village This winter has been a long and cold one in Michigan. It is a welcome sight to see the snow and hope that this precipitation is replenishing the land for all that it lost in Summer’s droughts. For my flock, we do not add heat lamps […]

by Wendy EN Thomas of Lessons Learned from the Flock I remember the days of youth when nothing, and I mean nothing, could keep me indoors on a winter afternoon. Spring chick that I was, each day my mother would cluck over me as I put on my snow pants, jacket, hat, mittens, jam my […]

by Heather Nicholson of Scratch Cradle Do you want to save money on your feed bill? Do you want better feed conversion, stronger shells, shinier feathers, and healthier birds?  If you are willing to do a little extra work, you can ferment your chicken feed and reap a bounty of rewards. What is fermented feed? […]

by Liz Hessen of For the Love of Chicken Poop We took on our flock of backyard chickens for humane reasons. We knew ours would be well cared for and in return give us healthy eggs. Because all the researching, reading, asking, talking and looking, starts way before you get chicks (or should) it has […]

By Jennifer Sartell A friend of mine recently asked me why her beautiful white Cochin bantam was turning yellow. She admitted that the spring freezing and thawing has done a muddy number on her coop and run, but that it seemed like the problem was something other than a “dirty” issue. Evidently, she read my […]

by Meredith Chilson Many backyard flocks have a rooster or two—to protect the hens as well as to help create the next generation of chickens.  We had a lovely Buff Orpington rooster living in our family’s coop for a while, in fact. The family rooster I’m going to tell you about now, though, is only […]

by Rebecca Nickols from the garden-roof coop I’m rather fortunate when it comes to having my own personal handy-man / carpenter at my disposal. My husband can create and construct just about anything. And.. when it comes to “Cool Coops” he came up with one of the most unique chicken coops I’ve ever seen! – Click […]