Chicken breeds for broody hens
Natural incubation keeps a backyard flock going. The hen gets broody, the rooster does his job, she lays her eggs and sets on them, and 21 days later, she emerges with chirping chicks. A hen is broody when she insists…
Buy baby chicks or hatching eggs?
Buy baby chicks or hatching eggs? After living in Madison, Wisconsin for four years, I returned to California’s Central Coast in 2007. I hatched some eggs two years ago for baby chicks for my own backyard flock. I wanted traditional…
Poultry and Chicken research at the library and feed store
Madison, Wisconsin was the best place for me to live while I was writing How to Raise Chickens! The University of Wisconsin’s Steenbock Memorial Library , has a world-class collection in agriculture and life sciences. Their research librarians are the…
The Deep Litter Method
To help keep my chickens warm during the winter, I practice the deep litter method in my coops. I typically clean out my chicken coop twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring. The litter from…
Chicken Nutrition
No matter what kind of animal you are talking about, nutrition is both numbingly complex and startlingly simple. On the simple side, animals need food for fuel. On the complex side, there are questions about the best balance of nutrients,…
