Chicken Keeping Secrets

In the coming weeks, we’ll be talking about hatching your eggs. Before we get to that, it’s important to understand the anatomy of an egg.

It’s a little technical this week but hang in there. You’ll be candling your eggs at particular intervals throughout the incubation period and knowing what you’re looking at and looking for will be easier if you understand how the egg was made and all its parts. Candling being to hold your eggs up underneath the light of a candle or torch to see inside the shell for specific signs. (more…)

“We have 3 chickens about 6 months old just started laying, could we introduce chicks into the same coop? Thanks.” ~ Gayle Kiernan

Hi Gayle thanks for the question.

Introducing new birds into an existing flock requires following a few key principles to be done successfully.

There is a definite pecking order within a flock of any size. Someone gets to be in charge. If there is a rooster, it’s usually him. (more…)

In the coming weeks we’ll be talking about hatching chicks and raising them through their first year and we will address nutrition for young birds at that time. But for this week, we’ll address the nutritional needs of birds that have reached the point of coming into lay.

What you put into your chickens is what you’ll get out of them. I don’t think you can go wrong with a high quality commercially formulated feed. Although they can be costly, manufacturers have spent a lot of time and money to make sure their product provides a balanced diet and will produce optimum results. (more…)

“One of my chickens (we have 3) has just laid her first egg the shell is very soft what can I do to improve the egg shell.” ~ Monica Kolb

Monica, thanks for the question.

When your hens first start to lay, often times you will find very soft shells or maybe no shell at all. You might get some double yoked eggs. (more…)

Plants That Are Toxic To Chickens – Listed below are common plants that are known to be toxic to chickens (and most other birds). Ensure your chickens do not have ready access to such plants, especially if you are free ranging your chickens… (more…)