by Rebecca Nickols Photos by author Last year I was asked by the Master Gardener chapter that I’m a member of to do Power Point presentation on backyard chickens. Since I’m more of a gardener than a farmer, I thought I would not only share the whys and hows of basic chicken keeping, but also […]

by Rebecca Nickols While my heart goes out to those that were in the direct path of hurricane Isaac, the storm has brought some much needed rain to the drought-stricken Midwest. So far we’ve had two days of constant rain fluctuating from a drizzle to a downpour. Usually one associates rainy days with sadness, depression, […]

by Jennifer Sartell Photos by author My husband, Zach, and I love to watch old horror films. Our favorites are the black-and-white versions from the 1950s, where there’s always some sort of nuclear mishap, and as a result, insects have grown to the size of small cars … or lizards … or, worst of all, […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author If you read the Community Chickens e-newsletter on a weekly basis, you’ve probably seen the great collection of posts that discuss gardening with your chickens. Fellow contributor Rebecca Nickols wrote a four-part series that includes a wealth of information regarding the subject. I have enjoyed reading the other contributors’ […]

by Cheryl Long and Tabitha Alterman – Photographed by Barbara Bourne The conventional egg industry denies that free-range/pastured eggs are more nutritious than eggs from chickens kept in crowded, indoor conditions. The American Egg Board’s Web site states “True free-range eggs are those produced by hens raised outdoors or that have daily access to the […]

 by Laura Sayre — Title photograph by Matthew Stallbaumer If you’ve eaten eggs from hens raised with access to fresh green pasture, you know how different these eggs look and taste in comparison to your ordinary supermarket variety. The egg yolk color is probably the first thing you notice: a deep, bright orange-yellow instead of […]

by Jennifer Sartell Photos by author One of the bittersweet things about raising ducks, specifically pekins, is that they grow SO fast. Ducklings are so adorable, and while my heart melts when they’re little, I’m not sad to get the brooders out of the house after they’ve grown. Our brooding time was about a third […]

By Eric Guel Photos by author My family has been homesteading for three years. Like most Western homesteaders, we’re hobby farmers … We don’t do this to stay alive, though we feel most alive when we’re doing it. 🙂 Through each passing season we’ve learned about gardening and animal husbandry through reading, asking our neighbors, […]

by Rebecca Nickols Photos by author   This spring the Master Gardener chapter that I’m a member of is doing a series of gardening classes and I’m excited that I that I will be doing a presentation entitled “Gardening with Chickens.” In my previous posts for Community Chickens I shared the first two portions of my […]

by Rebecca Nickols Photos by author Can cats and chickens coexist? I have five cats of my own and until recently, this hasn’t been an issue of concern. Years ago my border collies and cats developed some sort of agreement on the boundaries on our property. The dogs rule the front yard and the cats […]