Chickens is a trusted resource for information on the nutrition, health and wellbeing of these delightful birds, as well as the care, collection and consumption of their eggs. Includes timeless "how-to's", valuable advice, and entertaining photos.
Q. I would like to add some more chickens to my flock in the spring, but I’m not sure I have enough room for more with my current setup. How much space do I need? A. It’s great that you’re considering your current situation before you add to your flock. Overcrowding can lead to pecking or aggression issues, not to mention create an unhealthy environment for your chickens. A general guideline is that you need 3 to 5 square feet of coop floor space for each chicken, but even more important is that you allow for at least 8 inches of roosting bar per bird for sleeping at night. You should also have one nesting box for every three to four hens. As for pen or run space, if you…
Pure Marans hens lay unique rich, coppery-brown eggs , which are a result from a recessive gene; when crossed with another breed, the eggs appear much lighter. The Marans Chicken Club USA describes the breed as “a medium-sized bird with the character of a rustic farm hen , giving an impression of solidity and strength without being coarse . The legs are lightly feathered, but leg feathering should never be excessively heavy.” Marans are dual-purpose, laying up to 200 eggs annually and making decent table birds. Find out more at www.maranschickenclubusa.com . Marans originated in the port city of Marans, France. American Poultry Association-approved plumage varieties include White, Black Copper and Wheaten. Other varieties breeders are working on include Birchen, Black, Blue, Blue Copper, Blue Wheaten, Columbian, Crele, Cuckoo and…
More than a century ago, Jacob Biggle was a household name in towns and farms across the U.S. and Canada. The noted author had written a series of inexpensive and wildly successful books about subjects as diverse as horses, orchards, pets, berries and bees that saw as many as 10 editions printed in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. One of them was The Biggle Poultry Book: A concise and practical treatise on the management of farm poultry. Biggle was also a frequent contributor to Farm Journal, the leading agricultural publication of his day. His books were produced through the Farm Journal’s publishing house, which was based in Philadelphia at the time. Jacob Biggle, however, wasn’t his real name; it was a pseudonym. To this day, no one is…
It’s never my intention to embarrass my wife when we go out to dinner. But she sometimes cringes when I ask the waiter for a to-go box so I can feed the leftovers to our chickens. The staff is always happy to hear that the food isn’t going to waste, but my wife pretends she doesn’t know me. Too few restaurants compost or give their food waste to farmers, which contributes to the average citizen generating 20 pounds of food waste per month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That adds up to about 240 pounds of food waste per person in a year. Citywide, that means food waste from homes, restaurants and institutions comprises about 13 percent of municipal trash going to the landfill. That probably costs your…
Messy roommates can be such a pain — especially when they leave wet droppings around to track onto your beautiful eggs. Let me explain: You see, my chickens and ducks had long cohabitated in a revamped dog run, not the best of living arrangements. For years, I dreamed of my handy husband and I building the chicken contingent its own dream coop, but every year, other do-it-yourself projects prevailed. It never happened. So last spring, with six new Barred Rock pullets growing at light speed in our mudroom, I scrapped our DIY plans and searched online. I soon found a selection of handsome, sturdy-looking coops built by a local craftsman in Orting, Wash. That afternoon, we went coop shopping; the next day, a large cedar coop arrived via pickup truck,…
Welcome to our new series on poultry health. Throughout the year, we’ll head down the alphabet, from A through Z, to cover some of the most common and concerning poultry ailments, illnesses and diseases as well as how to prevent and treat them. Let’s get started with letters A through C. Avian Influenza We don’t waste any time, do we? This is a big one. Before we get into how it might affect your flock, though, let’s first bust one myth about the bird flu: that you’ll get the influenza virus if your birds do. It’s much more complicated than that. While it’s true that the avian and human influenza viruses are the same type, huge genetic differences exist between the subtypes that infect birds and people. While it’s possible…
