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Tag: chickens

  • The Life Cycle of a Chicken (Infographic)

    The Life Cycle of a Chicken (Infographic)

    So I guess it’s a bit of an urban legend that chickens need roosters to lay eggs. Which makes sense, of course, given we humans need a male and a female to “lay” a baby! However, this understandable misconception is due to the fact that eggs are not the exact equivalent of a human baby bump.

    Chicken eggs are just that, eggs. They need to be fertilized to develop into baby chicks, but they’re perfectly good eggs for food, in fact they’ll be wasted if we don’t eat them! This is why the relationship between humans and chickens is such a beautiful one.

    This handy infographic from TheKitchn.com displays the lifecycle of a chicken, and I found it very handy to understand how eggs are created and why, in fact, you do not need a rooster to lay chickens for eggs. There are, of course, other reasons you might want a rooster, but purely for the purpose of laying eggs, as you can see by this illustration, your ladies will be plenty productive all on their own. Enjoy!

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  • How to Make Fermented Chicken Feed

    How to Make Fermented Chicken Feed

    Us humans love fermented food. It’s not just kombucha and sauerkraut for hippies, most of us eat fermented food in the form of beer, wine, cheese, yogurt, vinegar, pickles and sourdough and levain-style artisan breads, which are all fermented when traditionally made.

    I’m a big fan of fermentation because not only are most fermented foods delicious, they’re also packed with beneficial bacteria that can heal your gut and improve overall health tremendously.

    So when I first heard about fermented chicken feed, I was instantly intrigued. If you’re rolling your eyes, I understand, it definitely sounds like a pretty hippie thing to do. But plenty of happy chicken owners report that their chickens go crazy for fermented feed and lay more eggs when they’re fed it regularly!

    It’s also very simple to make.Here’s how you do it it:

     

    1. Starting with the feed you already give your chickens on a daily basis, take the amount of feed you normally give to your chickens in one day, and put it in a jar with a lid (a quart or half-gallon mason jar will probably be perfect)
    2. Cover with filtered water so that the feed is completely submerged, with at least an inch of water covering it
    3. Put the lid on and let sit for three days (at this point, you could start a new batch on the second day, and again on the third day, and so on as you use the first day’s batch up, so that you have a new one every day to use. But you also might want to try out just one batch at first so that you can make sure your chickens will like it before using up that much chicken feed!)
    4. After three days, drain, and feed to your chickens!

    I hope your chickens enjoy this and repay you with lots of eggs. Enjoy!

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  • Winterizing the Chicken Coop (Video)

    Winterizing the Chicken Coop (Video)

    We love our feathered friends, so it’s important that we make sure they have the best care through the winter! This clever Chicago couple kept getting questions as to how they cared for their backyard chickens through the notoriously brutal Chicago winters, so they made a video to show what they did. Their chicken coop looks nice and cozy! Check it out:

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  • Ways to Keep Chickens Happy

    Ways to Keep Chickens Happy

    I’m not sure that there is any data that quantifies how many more eggs you can get out of a happy chicken, but most people that raise animals could tell you that keeping your animals happy will help you get what you want out of them.  Stress can cause chickens to fight with each other, molt, and can have an effect on any animals immune system.  Keeping your chickens happy will reduce costs on keeping

    them healthy and will provide you with more eggs and better meat.  Here are some ways to please your chickens.

     

    Greens

    Chickens that are confined are going to be more prone to stress and have a greater need for dietary supplements.  Despite what most people think, chickens don’t eat grains or bugs as much as they eat grass or other greens.  If your chickens are confined make sure to provide them with greens.  A cheap way to do this is to grow comfrey.  Chickens love comfrey, and it can be dried so that you have some in the winter.

    Mulch

    If your chickens are confined, you have probably notices that they have scratched the earth bare in their pin.  Chickens love to scratch, and keeping them off the mud and their waste will reduce their exposure to parasites that could slow egg production or even be passed from the egg to you.  Keep your chicken’s pin filled with a thick layer of fresh (fresh meaning that it is reasonably dry and not covered in chicken manure) mulch.  When they have soiled it, it will be covered in nutrient rich manure that your garden will love.

    Roosts

    Chickens are social animals that have a well-ordered hierarchy.  If this hierarchy is disrupted fighting will ensue.  One way to reduce that amount of fighting is to provide roosts for your chickens that are at different levels.  The more dominate the chicken the higher it will roost.  If there is only one height the dominate chickens might attack a less dominate chicken for being at their height.

     

    None of these tips are difficult, so do your chickens a favor and keep them happy.  They will be healthier, more productive, and live longer to provide you with more food.

     

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  • Chickens Do More than Just Produce Eggs

    Chickens Do More than Just Produce Eggs

    If you are new to homesteading, you will find that many who practice this way of living will tell you that you should get some chickens. What is it about chickens that make them so great? Well, in addition to producing eggs, not to mention meat, they have some other benefits as well, and they could be just what your homestead needs.

    Chicken waste is full of nitrogen, which is very good for the soil. In fact, chickens can help to produce some of the best manure you can find for your garden. All you need to do is keep your chickens in the area you want fertilized for a couple of days. In addition, chickens are able to remove a wide variety of pests from your garden. They will gleefully eat all of the bugs and pests that would otherwise ruin the plants in your garden.

    Chickens can also help to spread out mulch. As they go through the mulch looking for food, they will naturally spread out. Even a small flock of chickens is able to spread out and reduce the mulch pile in no time.

    Of course, raising chickens is a bit more complicated than just going out, buying some chickens, and putting them in your yard. You need to do some research so you will have a better understanding of how to raise the chickens properly, what type of housing you need to build, what to feed them, the best breed of chicken, and more. As long as you take the time to understand what it takes to raise them, you can experience all of these benefits.

    Now that you know just how beneficial chickens can be, it’s time that you added a few to your home.

     

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  • The Benefits of Having a Rooster

    The Benefits of Having a Rooster

    Roosters have a bad reputation.  Many people who want to raise hens for eggs choose not to have a rooster in the flock.  Some have heard that roosters are aggressive, or they don’t want to noise, or they just so the reason to have one.  But the reality is that hens can be just as aggressive; if there is no rooster around the dominant hen will take on the role of rooster.  If noise is keeping you from having a rooster around then you shouldn’t have chickens at all because hens make plenty of noise.  There are benefits to having a rooster in your flock, here are 3 of them.

     

    Chicks

    Hens won’t fertilize their own eggs.  If you want to raise chickens as a source of food then having subsequent generations of chickens is important.  One rooster can keep 12 hen’s eggs fertilized.

    Protection

    One of the reasons that roosters get a bad reputation for being aggressive is that they are protective of their flock.  The less domesticated breeds have more protective, and sometimes more aggressive roosters.  While the hens are doing their thing, the rooster will take up a high position and watch out for threats from predators high and low.  They will scan the skies for birds of prey, watch out for dogs or weasels, and sound an alarm that is specific to the threat letting the hens know how to best react.

    Social Order

    Flocks with roosters simply function better and seem to offer a better quality of life for the hens.  Roosters keep order in the flock, help find food for the hens (sometimes they trick them), and even help the hens by scouting out potential nesting sites, though the hen ultimately chooses to approve or reject the site.

     

    While roosters are not without their potential annoying drawbacks, namely the crowing, they can offer benefits that greatly outweigh their annoyances.  Try adding a rooster to your flock if you don’t already have one. If it doesn’t go the way you want it to, you can always eat him.

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  • 3 Easy Ways to Keep Your Chickens Healthy

    3 Easy Ways to Keep Your Chickens Healthy

    Chickens are some of the most common animals to see on a homestead or farm.  One reason is that they are some of the easiest animals to care for.  But even chickens can develop health issues like tape worms, mites, and various intestinal infections.  As with everything else, taking care to prevent these issues will be easier than treating them retroactively and will ensure that you have a healthy supply of eggs and meat without interruption.  These are 3 easy ways to help your chickens stay healthy.

     

    Pasture

    Just like you, chickens are healthiest when they are eating well.  One of the easiest and cheapest ways of ensuring your chicken’s health is to provide them with access to pasture.  It’s not the bugs that the chickens are after when they are pecking at your lawn.  Pastured chickens will eat as much as 30% of their calories in grass alone.  This will dramatically cut down on the feed and supplements that you would need to provide your chickens if they were not given the opportunity to graze.

    Dust

    Chickens do not bath with water, but with dust.  Providing them with an area that remains dry even in wet weather, and has a thick layer of fine dust will help them keep off skin parasites like mites.  If the area your chickens are in doesn’t have fine dust, or if it doesn’t seem to be enough for them, you can supplement this with diatomaceous earth.  Diatomaceous earth can also be sprinkled over their feed to help treat intestinal parasites like worms.

    Water

    Clean water is a must for chickens, especially if you want to keep a constant supply of eggs.  If your chickens are allowed free range this might be harder than you think since your chickens will not be selective about the water that they drink.  They will just as soon drink out of a contaminated puddle as a clean water dish.  For this reason, you might want to add a small amount of chlorine bleach to the water dish that is in the coop they go in for the night, and make sure to change out their water dishes at least once a day, more if they show signs of illness.

     

    Chickens are fun animals to have around and are typically robust.  If you give them what they need, they will thrive, and in return you will high quality eggs and meat.

     

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  • Tips to Keep Your Chickens Safe from Predators

    Tips to Keep Your Chickens Safe from Predators

    Most homesteaders have chickens. The chickens are essential for providing eggs, so you don’t want anything to happen to them. Of course, we all know chickens are delicious. And quite a few predators know the same exact thing. Therefore, you need to take steps to keep your chickens safe from all manner of predators. Here are some tips to make it easier on you.

    What Predators Are in Your Area?

    The first thing you need to do is take some time to research what types of predators are in your area that are likely to prey on chickens. You may have coyotes, foxes, weasels, and more that are quite common. Think about some of the other animals as well. These can include rats, some snakes that eat eggs, and predatory birds. You need to devise defenses that are able to withstand all of the different types of predators in your location.

    Use Chicken Wire Wisely

    You need to use the chicken wire for more than just building a fence around the coop. Yes, you need a fence, but you also need to make sure that the wire is placed into the ground at least 12 to 15 inches. This will help stop predators that try to dig their way inside.

    In addition, you should add the wire to the top of your chicken run. Make sure the “chicken wire ceiling” is about seven feet high – you need to make sure you can still walk around under it. This will give your chickens plenty of light, but it will help to keep out pesky birds of prey that might otherwise swoop down on your poor chickens.

    Look for Holes in the Ground and Plug Them

    Take the time each day to walk around the grounds of the chicken run and around the coop to look for holes in the ground. These holes could be from a variety of different types of predators including foxes, skunks, and weasels. If you find any of these holes, plug them right away. You might also want to set out some traps – outside of the coop of course.

    Do the Same With the Coop

    In addition, you should look at the chicken coop for any holes. Even a very small hole no more than half an inch or so in diameter is enough to allow in certain predators. You never want to let predators get right into the coop. This is especially true when it comes to weasels – they seem to like killing and will often kill all of the chickens in a coop even though they might not eat much at all.

    Remove the Brush

    A final tip to help reduce the number of predators who are looking at your chickens as food is to remove the brush in the area around the coop. If a predator has to move across a large amount of empty space in order to get to the chickens, they are less likely to do so, as they do not want to be seen or caught.

    These simple tips should help to keep your chickens much safer and much happier.

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