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We harvested chickens for the first time this weekend. I now have 5 chilling in the fridge. One was harvested Friday morning & I plan to roast him today. Should I just roast him like a regular supermarket chicken, or should I do anything different? They are pastured chickens & most are...

I have 2 roosters that are 18 months that have coexisted peacefully in the flock since they were raised together as chicks. Back in September I had a broody hatch out 5 more boys. They grew up together with the adult flock in the same coop and yard from day 1. Over the past few days, the...

Egg laying is mainly tied to daylight hours, not temperatures, but maybe extreme cold could affect it... Yesterday's high was in the mid 20s here, and 16 out of my 19 hens laid an egg. Today I had 12.

Here is a photo of my coop that is a year and a half old, so I'm on my second winter with it. I'm in Southwest Indiana and our temps get down close to 0 several days each winter - last winter we even had a few nights in the negatives. I don't add any heat. The dimensions are roughly 12ft long...

I never would have thought of that! Thanks for the idea!

To be clear: I'm not the one who puts bleach in the water. I use well water and don't put any bleach in it. This post was not created to debate things. I just wanted to see if anyone out there knows of a company that sells stainless steel waterers. Thank you.

True, but we can still take steps to DRASTICALLY reduce our exposure.

I don't want plastic for the same reasons- chemicals leaching into the water, especially in the sun on 90+ degree days.

Why do you put bleach in their water??? Correct, you are not supposed to use ACV in the galvanized waterers. Stainless steel is non-reactive, so I think it would be fine to use ACV in stainless steel. My flock has been raised exclusively on organic feed & pasture, never vaccinated or given any...

Anyone know where I can buy a stainless steel chicken waterer? I have galvanized right now but worry about metals leaching into the water, plus after just one year of use they are looking pretty ugly inside. I'd like 3-gallon or 5-gallon sizes.

I use Scratch & Peck feed that I purchase through azurestandard.com . It's organic and doesn't contain soy or corn. Go to their website to see if they have a drop point near you. Deliveries are once a month and shipping is 8.5% of price. You can order it from Amazon.com also, but I think the...

I've lost two hens over the past week. Heads picked clean except for combs, breast feathers plucked & meat eaten down to the rib bones. I'm almost certain it's an owl because I saw one a few nights ago on a post in my vineyard. The chickens are in a pasture surrounded by a 6 foot fence...

I've only had one experience so far- My broody was off the nest for quite a while the day before hatch. I think she even got up briefly the morning of hatch day...

Tomorrow my 8 "chicks" will be 11 weeks old, and they are still with their broody mama hen. This is my first experience with a broody & I'm amazed at how dedicated she is to them! Mama is the Delaware in the middle, and the others are her "chicks".

Here's a picture of the cackle pullets at around 7 weeks old along with a 8-9 month old dom hen from Meyer. Now that they are bigger, their coloring as far as light/dark is about the same as that Meyer hen- I can barely tell them apart. I wish I had fed them more so they'd be laying now too. The...

I received 16 Doms from Cackle back at the beginning of May. A couple had some curled toes, but All were healthy and I did not vaccinate or use medicated feed. I lost 2 recently to a great horned owl, but the rest are still here. They still haven't started laying though! I think I wasn't...

Do your Doms lay eggs through the winter? My first batch is a year old now, and second batch is almost 6 months old, so this will be my first winter with laying hens and I'm not sure what to expect. I'm in southwest Indiana.

Oh, and the yard is fenced well from ground predators, but I'd worry about a big owl still at night. The low temps only concern me because they are roosting alone without other chickens to share body heat with.

Thanks for the reply. I will just keep carrying them back for now. Last night they did it again, but we were able to discourage one of them enough that she went to the coop on her own. The other 2 were much more stubborn and had to be carried. Haven't added any new birds since May other than the...

I'm in southern Indiana. Fall temps recently showed up & the lows got down to about 40. Coop is roughly 12' x 6' with over 33' of roosts. Ventilation isn't a problem because the south side is completely open except for a 2' x 9' strip of nest boxes across the middle. Coop is open 24/7 and...