by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author Our hens have lived at 1840 Farm since last September. They made their long transition from day-old chicks to egg-laying hens over the course of their first five months living here. They endured an extremely harsh winter in New England and emerged relatively unscathed. Within minutes of emerging from […]

by Karla T. Q.  We have 4 Rhode Island Reds in their 3rd laying year. Last year and this the shells are getting progressively thinner, such that sometimes they break in the nest. We have 2 Buff hens in their second year with no problems. We feed Layena crumbles, scratch feed, calcium (oyster shell) supplement with […]

by Rebecca Nickols Photos by author On my last update, I shared with you that I had lost one of my four beloved Buff Orpingtons. Since then, tragedy has once again visited my coop and “Lil Comb,” my smallest Buff, also died. She developed loose droppings on a Sunday afternoon, but during the day she […]

by Rachel Hurd Anger Photos by author Our Buffed Laced Polish has become a nuisance, and that’s not only putting it lightly, but family-friendly. Sookie thinks she’s a rooster, and in her squeaky little mind somewhere behind all those head feathers (feather-brained?) the hand that feeds her is the biggest threat of all … that’d […]

Our Barred Rock, after she regained the feathers she lost because of stress by Nancy Farrell Q: My chickens are pretty much bald on their back ends. They are all still laying and seem fine, but we were wondering what causes this and what can we do to fix it? – Lynnette A: Lynnette, chickens […]

by Rebecca Nickols Photos by author. When I started my chicken-farming experience (or should I say experiment) last summer, I thought that four chickens was a good number to begin with. Not too many, but enough for my family of four. After I realized that chickens weren’t much harder to take care of than my […]

by Meredith Chilson Q: After enjoying eggs from our three hens for the past several months, we decided to increase our small flock by two. After reading up on introducing new hens, we decided to put the two in after dusk, when all had settled down for the night. For the first several hours the […]

by Karla T. Q. Our hen is laying eggs on the floor. How to get her in the nesting boxes or doesn’t it matter? — Karen S., West Sunbury, Pennsylvania A. The main reason that I would say it does matter where they lay is that you want to be able to FIND them. For […]

by Rebecca Nickols Q: I found one of my eggs this morning with some blood on it. I was wondering if the chicken who laid it might have some sort of disease or sickness? Could you give me some advice? — Insook Cheon, Gardiner, N.Y. A: Great question, Insook. Blood on an eggshell is usually […]

by Jennifer Sartell Today I will be answering a question from one of our readers: Q: “I have four chickens and for some reason one of them did not return to the coop tonight, and I found her under the porch. I picked her up and brought her back to the coop. In the past […]