Do chickens like to free range? That seems like such a simple question to me. In my experience as a backyard chicken keeper as well as growing up in a rural area, chickens like to free range. Have you ever seen a bird sunning themselves and thought they weren’t enjoying that moment? Dust bath anyone? […]

by Meredith Chilson The hustle and bustle of the holidays are past. As the new year unfolds, I like to take some time to reflect on the previous twelve months and to do some proper planning for the next. Proper planning begins with paper and pencil. I envision the days, weeks and months as an […]

by Meredith Chilson Life in the chicken coop on our little homestead has been moving along predictably. Summer found the girls in the nest boxes in the mornings, getting their egg-laying duties done by noon, and off to the afternoon hunt and peck fun. Late summer and fall, for some reason, found several hens going […]

Let’s face it, poultry of all sorts are the best!  They are not only our pets and companions; they are useful around the home. You can put your flock to work all over the yard. There are great reasons why we love our chickens, ducks, geese, guineas, turkeys, pheasants and any other kind of poultry […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm We spend a lot of time at the feed store. Goat feed, chicken feed, wormers, buckets, pails, tractor parts, bedding, fencing, vitamins…yeah the folks over at the feed store see a lot of us. As many of you know it’s chick season and in my many “ins and […]

Mildred in molt with one lone tail feather left Do you keep records on your chickens?  With backyard chicken keeping becoming more and more popular and homesteading taking hold, keeping records of our flocks is very important.  In addition, most veterinarians are not avian specialists and finding one that is an avian specialist is not […]

by Meredith Chilson   Why do you have chickens? Do people ask you this?  Do you ever wonder; think back to the beginning; try to figure out where it all came from? When I was small, I lived on a dairy farm.  Milk checks came once a month, and my mother raised chickens for “egg […]

by Jennifer Sartell of Iron Oak Farm There’s this new word floating around (or at least it’s new to me), and that would be “Hipster”. I keep seeing it. I was reading a recipe blog the other day and in one of the comments, the commentator was calling the chef a “Hipster” for pronouncing a […]

by Melissa Caughey of Tilly’s Nest One of the wonderful things that I love about the Community Chickens community is that we are able to all learn and share from one another.  It is fantastic seeing everyone comment, share, and contribute to our lively discussions.  But I must say, that I should point out that […]

by Jennifer Burcke Photos by author I’ve been keeping chickens for two years now.  I keep waiting for the excitement of finding an egg in the nest box to wear off.  Yet I get that same giddy feeling every time I find that one of our hens has left a beautiful, fresh egg for my […]