Converting a Dog House into a Chicken Coop Here are our sweet Silkie chickens. My daughter has these babies as “show chickens” for 4H. Aren’t they adorable? We had them separate from the other hens since they were show birds, and their coop was just an open box. It did the trick, but we wanted… [read more]
How To Raise Chickens For Meat On The Homestead
Raising chickens for meat, either as broilers or roaster chickens is one way to be assured of the quality of chicken you are feeding your family. Let me show you some tips from what we learned on how to raise chickens for meat. Our family raises 150 meat birds each year, and we will can… [read more]
Moving the Compost Bin into the Chicken Area
We decided to move our compost bin from our garden to our chicken area recently. Before everyone starts giving me all the reasons why it’s not a good idea, let me tell you why we did it. Our chickens are free range. That means they have full control of a fenced in area. Sometimes that… [read more]
How To Get Ready for Chicks
Spring is on the way, and with it, new life on the homesteads. There are a lot of homesteaders that can and will hatch their own chicks, either by incubator or broody hen, and there are those of us without roosters that will be ordering more chicks. Either way you choose to add to your… [read more]
Caring for Your Chickens in the Winter
Chickens are a rather low maintenance animal, in my opinion. Caring for your chickens in the winter doesn’t require much effort, just a little foresight. Chickens need water in the winter. You will want to keep it from freezing as much as possible. My affiliate partner, Amazon, sells these really cool heated waterers that work… [read more]
What is a Chicken Tractor?
What is a chicken tractor? Basically, it’s a coop that you can move around fairly easily in your yard. The benefits of this are that the chickens will get the bugs and grass from an area and fertilize it. Also, it will also be able to provide better protection from predators. Here is our first… [read more]
How to Grow Fodder to Feed Chickens, Ducks and Rabbits
Growing fodder is a cheap way to feed your chickens, ducks, and rabbits throughout the year. It’s a simple concept, really. Basically, it’s allowing grains to sprout and grow into their respective grasses for feed supplementation for poultry. The animals then get greens with chlorophyll, as well as the proteins from the grains and the… [read more]
5 Reasons to Keep Chickens and 4 Reasons Not To
We love our girls, we really do! If you are considering adding some chickens to your backyard homestead, here are my top 5 reasons to do so. Of course, with 5 reasons to keep chickens, we have to add “and 4 reasons NOT to”. Bug and Pest Control Chickens are great for bug control. They… [read more]
What to Do With Chicken Feet
Yes, we raise our own chickens, and yes, we use everything but the cluck around here! Someone once asked, “What do you do with the chicken FEET?” You asked, so here’s what to do with chicken feet. My most often use for chicken feet is making an awesome stock with them. They are full of… [read more]
How to Tell if a Chicken is Still Laying
How do you know if your chicken is still laying eggs? Here’s how to tell if a chicken is still laying or is a liar, and what to do with them. With the price of feed and time spent on cleaning coops and such, it’s really important for us to know what hens are still laying… [read more]