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. How do I incorporate a couple of new hens into my existing flock, which contains nine hens that are each 2 years old? A. New flock members need to be introduced slowly for two reasons: biosecurity and pecking order. The first and more important relates to the ease at which various contagious diseases can pass from one chicken to another. If you plan to add chickens to your flock, you need to quarantine them from your existing flock for 30 days. It’s not good enough to examine the chickens to see whether they appear healthy. Chickens are very good at hiding symptoms, and often by the time you notice anything wrong, the situation is serious. Quarantine new birds in a location far away from the rest of the flock…
Lisa Steele is the creator of Fresh Eggs Daily (www.fresheggs daily.com) and the author of several books including Gardening with Chickens and her newly released 101 Chicken Keeping Hacks. A fifth-generation chicken-keeper and master gardener, Steel lives on a small farm in Maine with her husband, two dogs, indoor/ outdoor barn cat, and flock of assorted chickens and ducks. If you have a question, email chickens@chickensmagazine.com , with “Flock Talk” as the subject. We’ll select our favorites and publish them in upcoming issues.…
Iowa Blues are great foragers, and dual-purpose birds. Very little is known about the origins of this breed, though a folk tale has its lineage beginning with a Leghorn that was believed to have gone broody while under a building, emerging with chicks like none seen before. Some of the chicks were colored basic chestnut while others appeared uniquely pheasant-like with remarkable color patterns. Despite being called “blue,” the Iowa Blue breed does not exhibit true blue feathering. Head, neck and breasts are white or silvery white, with a thin black stripe down the middle, which transitions to white-laced black feathers. The remaining plumage is bluish-black or gray with penciling. Some variation exists between males and females in the back and saddle feathers. Its comb is red, single and…
If you’ve ever witnessed or been part of an effort to change a city’s ordinance on allowing residents to keep chickens, then you know the topic of avian health is an important one. Bird health reaches far beyond the perimeter of the coop. Many cities cite health or sanitation as a reason to prohibit chicken-keeping within their borders, and those municipalities that do allow backyard flocks often have strict rules of cleanliness. When left untended or improperly cared for, chicken health can deteriorate rapidly. That said, chickens are very simple to care for properly, and with a bit of regular work, your flock can be healthy year after year. Having a healthy chicken flock boils down to following a few, simple protocols. Let’s explore each, one by one. 1. Good…
Here’s a tip from reader Kathy Arbuckle, who commented on the “Band Recognition” article in the March/April 2019 issue: “I have used colored plastic leg bands for many years to help me quickly identify members of certain ages in my flock. However, I have encountered a serious problem on occasion. In the past, three of my hens have been injured by the sharp points on the plastic leg bands actually penetrating their legs and causing abscesses, tendon injury and even crippling one of the hens. After seeing this occur more than once, I now clip off the sharp tips of the circular plastic bands with pointed wire cutters before placing them on the bird’s leg. That small adjustment has remedied the problem, so now I can still spot those marked…
The first time I saw someone sprouting seeds to eat was while visiting a friend living in some crunchy granola group house in the 1980s. The guy held up some fancy jar — made for sprouting seeds — and slowly rolled it in his hands. He held it up to the light from the window over the kitchen sink. Inside was a tangled mess of mung beans that had sprouted and were stretching out: Their seed leaves were seeking bright light while their roots were seeking dark soil. I didn’t want to break it to those seedlings that the only darkness they would find was in the stomach of this guy marveling at his own ability to sprout some beans. Over the years I’ve eaten plenty of sprouts. They seem…
