Table of contents for November - December 2025 in Chickens

The ornamental Booted Bantam chicken makes a striking appearance at poultry exhibitions. Hens are decent layers, considering their bantam status, and provide very small, creamy-white eggs. Michael van Gelder, a fancier from the town of Uccle in Belgium, developed the Booted Bantam chicken breed by crossing Bearded d’Anvers chickens with other feather-legged bantam-chicken varieties. The breed arrived in North America by way of Germany during the early 20th century. It was admitted to the American Poultry Association’s Standard of Perfection in 1914. The Booted Bantam chicken breed has a compact build, feathered legs and unique feather hocks, and long feathers that stick out from the lower back-thigh area. The APA recognizes five colors: Mille Fleur, Non-bearded Black, Porcelain, Self Blue and White. All have standard plumage. Shanks are various shades…

When the days grow shorter and autumn’s brisk entry turns leaves colorful and crisp, dipping temperatures mean it’s time to think about preparing your chicken coop for the winter. Because most backyard chickens live outside, exposed to the elements’ cool chill, you need to provide a clean, cozy and draft-free coop for them. Your specific chores — and when you do them — will vary, depending on where you live. In the Pacific Northwest, for instance, temperatures rarely reach below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, so chicken-keepers have no need to pull out water-bucket deicers or heat lamps. In the Midwest, however, where winter temps regularly plunge into negative digits, more sophisticated chicken-warming tactics are necessary to prevent cold-weather threats, such as comb or wattle frostbite. No matter where you call home,…

If you keep chickens long enough, it’s going to happen— no matter how experienced, how prepared or how deeply you care. Eventually, you’re going to lose a bird to a predator, deal with illness or disease, or struggle with doing too much or not enough. When it happens, it can leave you heartbroken and full of self-doubt. I’ve worked with thousands of chicken-keepers. And I’ve seen this same story unfold time and time again: Someone contacts me after a loss or tough time, often in tears, feeling like they’ve failed the very animals they love most. But the hard truth is, injury, illness, accidents and loss come with the territory. When you keep chickens, it’s going to happen. And when it does, it doesn’t mean you’re not a good chicken-keeper.…

While “tried and true” and “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” can be wise rules to live by when managing backyard chickens, it’s important to not “bury your head in the chicken litter” when it comes to improving your coop. To that point, many chicken-keepers are by nature tinkerers following in the tradition of farmers who throughout history focused on developing more efficient ways to produce food (such as the cotton gin). Our group of engineers and veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, has focused on developing innovations for free-range and pastured-poultry producers. While all our developments might not be exactly what works in your backyard, it’s often helpful to have some baseline knowledge about what worked and what didn’t. WHERE TO START? The most important things to…

Chickens give us so much. What better way to show them some love back than pampering them? Here are a few fun ways to pamper your flock. CHICKEN SPA I don’t know about you, but when I think of pampering myself, I sometimes picture images of a relaxing bubble bath, a massage, a facial or time at the spa. Well, there are ways to give your chickens a similar experience (with a few alterations, of course). Instead of a soapy bubble bath, provide your feathered friends with a dust bath. In addition to being relaxing, dust baths are important for maintaining the feathers and skin, removing debris, absorbing excess oil and moisture, repelling parasites and controlling body temperature. Although they often find or create one themselves, it’s nice to create…

CJ was absolutely terrified the first time I lifted her out of her brooder. At 6 weeks of age, the little blue Orpington pullet was fully feathered. I wanted her and her clutch-mates, TJ and Margie, to experience “real life.” Our birds go from brooder to chicken tractor to coop. It was time for them to feel grass and sunshine, discover bugs and explore a larger space. Oh, how she screeched! She tried to hide under her perch, under her mom, under her brothers. She carried on and on (as did her siblings) and spent her first day in the tractor huddled beside Mama Natalya … and the second day. On Saturday, she started wandering around the tractor, although she still shrieked and ran evasive patterns when I went to…

Keeping a backyard flock is a great way to have fresh eggs that don’t cost a small fortune. But your hens are more than a handy egg source. Chickens are often a lively cast of characters with varying personalities that need mental and physical challenges to keep them from getting bored. If you can’t free-range your flock very often and their run never changes, it’s easy for boredom to creep in. Boredom can result in a lot of negative behaviors such as feather picking, pacing or nonstop squawking. While these issues may start as minor annoyances, they can quickly morph into costly vet bills. Adding cool toys to your chicken run offers boredom busters and endless entertainment to birds and owners alike. You can purchase interesting gadgets to spark fun…

I absolutely love helping new backyard flock owners. Their excitement and enthusiasm, coupled with sincere concern for the birds they raise, make me eager to take them under my wing, so to speak. I’m always happy to share my knowledge and experience with them and to answer their questions, regardless of how many times I’ve heard them in the past. At our poultry-owners’ group meeting this past week, however, a question I’ve never heard completely stunned me into silence … and that’s saying a lot! The fledgling flock owner — a young woman named Kat — seemed hesitant to ask me something but simply had to get her question off her chest. Earlier, she’d lovingly spoken of her baby chicks, a sextet of Wyandottes, Orpingtons and Plymouth Rocks she’d been…

If you’ve ever noticed strange scabs or sores popping up on your chickens’ faces, combs or wattles, you might be dealing with something called fowl pox. This is one of those diseases that can look really alarming. However, with the right care and some natural support, most chickens pull through just fine. Let’s take a look at what fowl pox is, how it spreads and what you can do to help your flock recover. WHAT IS FOWL POX? Fowl pox, also called avian diphtheria, is a slow spreading, highly contagious viral infection that causes lesions on the skin that eventually scab over and fall off. An infected bird will look as if it has the human form of chickenpox. The good news about fowl pox is that, although it’s common,…

This simple chicken-tractor idea happened when I took on four little orphan chicks. My son had twice as many as he was able to handle, and a neighbor dropped them off with him. I was planning to build it slowly, but the growing chicks really put on the pressure. I live in the woods, so the predators are many, and it’s a rental, so I’m not able to attach anything to the grounds. I felt that with this design, I didn't even need to ask. It’s on wheels and can be moved, so no damage happens to the ground at all. I started out with the remains of the top of a trampoline; the part that holds the safety net, aluminum poles and a metal ring (in pieces, eight pieces…

Fewer daylight hours, colder weather and more time in the coop all combine to alter your chickens’ daily routines as fall turns toward winter. This causes changes in their nutritional needs, particularly in colder weather regions, such as the Upper Midwest and New England states. As chicken-keepers, it’s important for us to understand how these changes affect our chickens’ dietary needs and to feed the flock accordingly. That way, with proper nutrition, our birds will stay healthy even through chilly winter weather. INCREASE FEED RATIONS Daylight hours are fewer and temperatures get colder as winter approaches, and hens naturally cut back on egg production and begin replacing feathers lost during molting. They use the protein they consume in their layer ration to produce new feathers instead of eggs, and when…