Recent content by Junaleefarm

We live in SW Missouri so this is broiler chicken country. Our county has a large broiler chicken club and competition at the fair every year. The kids actually get free baby chicks to raise and show from one of the big chicken places. I think that 4-H can be kind of regional so if chickens...

No real help here- we have 10 or so chickens that never sleep in the coop. They generally sleep in the trees even when it rains or snows, we finally just gave up and left them alone. I do believe if you lock them in the coop like muttsfan suggests it should work. This will also work if your...

Be very careful if you are selling your eggs at a local grocery store. Once you start selling retail and not just off the farm things change. You should do some serious research on labeling of food products. As far as the USDA is concerned you can not just label your products for retail sale as...

We use bleach and water with a drop of regular dawn dish washing soap. We put 1 TBLS bleach in a 32 ounce spray bottle add one drop of dawn and fill it up with water. We liberally spray the udder, use a new paper towel for each teat (we buy these in bulk) and thoroughly wipe down. After milking...

no problem- that's why we all like hanging out here.

Are your chickens in a coop with an enclosed run? If not they could be trying to hide the eggs to hatch out later. We free range our chickens and sometimes find large clutches of eggs stashed in a hiding place in the barn or woods.

Most chickens won't go much further than where they could see there coop and feeders. We have had a few that venture a little farther. So a quarter mile flat when they could still look back and see familiar sights would not be out of the question.

The best egg laying breeds of chickens will lay about 275-300 eggs a year. This would be about 6 eggs for every 7 days. I'd say that a Maran would lay closer to 225-250 eggs a year which would be more like 5 eggs every 7 days. We've only had a few over the years but seemed like good birds to me.

I have chickens that sleep in the trees all the time. They never have any problems and it often gets down to 0 degrees or sometimes in the negative at night here.

As long as your chickens were not recently put out in the cold 27 degrees won't even phase them. Its all a matter of acclimation to the climate-if they slowly get used to it through the fall- no problem. If your chickens have big old floppy combs there could be issues with frostbite but only if...

It would have to get awful cold for my dogs to worry about it. Now heat on the other hand- we make sure they keep well hydrated with cool fresh water in the summer. It often gets plenty hot here 100 degrees plus sometimes. There is always plenty of shade and we try to keep their coats well...

Good looking pup!

Our Great Pyr's are often seen panting in weather below 32 degrees! These dogs have never been inside a house and are used to being out all times of year. They usually are out on patrol during the night and often are dozing during the day.

Good advice here- main thing is to handle your chickens, if you do this often you will always know if something is amiss. I will add one thing- if you do notice lice or fleas treat with sevin dust or a good pyrethrin powder- put some where the chickens like to dust bathe and they will get it in...

Depending on where you live you could call your extension service and possibly have them refer you somewhere you could have a necropsy performed. As stated sometimes things just happen but generally you would have noticed if your chicken was suffering from some disease.