Recent content by Bocrates

Find a local breakfast diner and arrange with the cooks to pick up their leftover cartons on a Sunday afternoon. We get enough cartons for 10 dozen eggs per visit for free, after a hardy meal of course. They probably throw away 10 times that a week.

macpac32003, A leaf rake, bow rake, gravel shovel, and bucket are what we use. You can see the access door in the 5th photo. My wife and I are tall and certainly hunch down in the run, but it doesn't take much time which reduces the burden. The chicken ladder is on a hinge so we can raise it...

Wow! I feel like a lazy chicken owner. Don't tell my girls. Morning - We have an automatic door and heated water, so I usually don't make my way out there until mid morning. Gather eggs and take a glance to make sure all the girls are well. If it snowed more than a few inches, then I will...

4/11/2014 8:00 pm

Have you tried placing fake eggs in the nesting area and making sure it is darker than other areas? It works for ours. And don't worry about those temps. They are warmer than our girls can hope for 3 months a year. No heat.

Newfoundlands. They love kids and chickens, hate predators and strangers. Ours will lay by the chicken run or front door in 12 hour stretches. Their downside is lack of endurance on long outdoor adventures and the endless fur balls throughout the house. We love them though.

I grew up with them. Lived 20 years in big cities not giving them a thought, then life slowed down a bit. I woke up one day and realized I wanted chickens again. Not sure why, it just felt right. It's been such a fun, challenging, and rewarding project for us. The eggs, pest control, compost...

I've often thought wind chill was an irrelevant measure of temperature when it comes to chicken husbandry as well. If you are concerned anout wind chill then you are failing your chickens. Chickens should always have an option to go into a wind free zone, and it doesn't take much work to give...

"Featherball", aka cabbage tetherball, never gets old in our run. Chickens love jumping.

I know the fisher cat. We used to live in VT. We have the 2" x 4" wire doubled over the run top. I debated on the sides but I honestly don't think it will keep a bear out as I have seen them rip through the 3/4" plywood siding on my neighbor's shed. I worry more about them damaging the coop...

Another idea could be a chicken. They will scratch, peck, and gladly eat eggs once they get a taste for it.

Our Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, and Australorp think that 0F at 7am is a perfect time to exit the coop and start another long day of scratching around. They also don't seem to mind those -10F nights without heat in their coop. I've been impressed with their ability to carry...

We haven't seen a night above 30F since mid Oct with many well below 0F. No issues for us and I believe that our low humidity climate and choice of proven cold weather breeds have been the most important factors. We don't heat or insulate, just have the coop wind protected and used a coop design...

We keep a game camera on the tree next to the coop. It's pretty interesting to see what happens while we sleep. Bears, foxes, pine martens, stray dogs/cats, and even elk and deer have been captured inquiring about our chickens. We are still waiting to capture a photo of the mountain lion that...