• Last updated 1/5/12 by Buff Hooligans

  BUFF  ORPINGTON  HENS Revised 1/5/12   the Scarlett Johanssons of the chicken world... Raising Buffs as an entertaining, fun complement to a garden yard.      Buff Orpington pullet, about five months old.            The Buff Orpington breed is a great choice for a backyard chicken - beautiful with a nice personality and winter hardiness.  The breed originated in Orpington, Kent, United Kingdom in the late 1800's. There are Black Orpingtons, White Orpingtons, Blue Orpingtons (somewhat rare), and Buff... read more

• Last updated 7/28/09 by Buff Hooligans

+Adding New Chickens to Your FlockCompiled and edited by Buff Hooligans  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Part One:     Quarantine! Part Two:     Understanding Flock Dynamics (the Pecking Order)Part Three:   So You Still Want to Introduce New Chickens to Your Flock?                           Methods of Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Part 1Most Important Advice Ever: Quarantine! From a post... read more

• Last updated 6/21/11 by Dawn419

We began using food grade Diatomaceous Earth in June 2007, after we moved the Banties to their temporary outdoor home. Make sure you buy Food Chemical Codex Grade DE ( read more

• Last updated 1/25/09 by Blisschick

Jersey GiantsHistoryJersey Giants are the largest purebred breed of domestic chickens.  The breed was created between 1870 and 1890 by brothers John and Thomas Black in Burlington County, New Jersey.  Their original intention was to breed a large table bird that could take the place of a turkey.  The breeding program included Black Javas, Black Langshans, and Dark Brahmas.  In the beginning, they were called "Black Giants", actually being named after the brothers and not their initial color.  The name "Jersey Giant" came into official use in 1921 when the American... read more

• Last updated 11/6/09 by patandchickens

 ISA Browns...a.k.a. Hubbard ISA Browns, Hubbard Browns... ...are a line (or breed or whatever you want to call it) of sex-link layers, created by crossing certain Rhode Island Red roosters on certain Rhode Island White hens. I say "certain" because the strain is about 30 years old now and has been strongly selected for egg-laying characteristics the whole time. It was developed by the French company Institut de Selection Animale (hence the "ISA"), later bought out by Merck with the company name changed to Hubbard ISA (hence "Hubbard"), which is now part of Hendrix... read more

• Last updated 5/3/12 by newhenstein castle

  New Henstein Castle   After working on my husband to agree to let me add 5 chickens to our family, I finally got HIM working on our coop.  It wasn't the delicious eggs or the charm that the chickens would add to our home, but the actual project that would require toooools! That was what tipped him over the edge.  First we looked for books on how to build chicken coops, but soon I found BackYardChickens.Com.  Jackpot! We got an idea what was most important, such as square footage per chicken and how many nesting boxes.  Soon we felt confident to sit down... read more

• Last updated 11/26/11 by Nifty-Chicken

 BYC Page Creation Tool BYC has an amazing community ofl 63,080... no wait... 63,081... oh... now it is 68,082 tremendously smart and experienced members.   We've got a great forum, but a forum isn't always the best way to organize helpful information.For this reason we've created the BackYardChickens.com "BYC Page Creation" tool.    This will give you the ability to use a slick editor to create your own pages to share with the world.   One of the most common uses for this great tool is for members to create BYC Coop Pages to be added to the site. If you are logged... read more

• Last updated 10/1/07 by DoctorGoose

So, seeing as BRs are the only chicken I've had long enough to comment on, that's what I'll do. I got my first chicken from the feedstore about 8 years ago. Wonder of wonders, the first eight chickens I owned were pullets. I do have an uncanny sense about chicken-sexing, No--I just picked two pullets by mistake the first time. I had no idea that Barred Rocks could be sexed by color. And they can--apparently, if they have darkness down the front of their legs, it's a pullet. Roosters tend to be lighter than pullets as well. Anyhow, my two first chickens lived in a... read more

• Last updated 7/19/08 by Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain

Ever had a couple of chickens to pluck, and don't want to spend hours pulling out the pin feathers one by one???WAX IT!! OK... I had to share this... ZykloniaDark-GothikRanchr had posted something about this in another thread, and as I had just spent the last 3 days doing fine-detail plucking on 17 meat birds, I decided to pick Delight's brains on it.  I cannot take the credit, but we did it today on three roosters (yes, my extra lt Brahmas are no more) and I was amazed at how easy it was.   I decided to document it for other "visual" learners. You will need:~a... read more

• Last updated 4/22/09 by Dawn419

Our 5 EE's arrived on May 14, 2007 from MMH. We love their coloration and distinctive personalities. The 40-something year-old kids in us are looking forward to our first "Easter Eggs". They live in our main coop with our 5 Mottled Cochins, 3 Silver Sebrights, 2 Black Tailed Buff Japs and our Silver Spangled Hamburg.1 week old:             2 - 3 weeks old:              Here they are at 25 and a half weeks old. Click on thumbnails for enlargements.The Girls (from left to right): Goldie, Jamaica and Lacey:The Boys, Geezer and Buckwheat:      "The Girls" began laying... read more