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Sleeping birds before dawn???? Yeah right. I swear our chickens never sleep. I was up all night last night and there was crowing going on at 0300.

No kidding. All but one of our housing units are tall enough to stand up in. Made one run short with a hinged top thinking we would just lift the tops up when we wanted to get in there.....tops are too heavy and can't hold things very well and still lift the tops. Am now looking at raising...

Yes. Less fighting among the males, larger size in both sexes because you don't have males chasing the females, which causes both sexes to have less time to eat and then running off all the calories they do eat. I didn't think it would really make a significant difference, but I am now a...

Man, I am so sick of trying to explain to people why I would "waste" time and money on chickens, gardens, etc. The last few weeks have been just full of obnoxious people asking me stupid questions like, making snide comments and giving sneering looks. Another reason I live in the country. Sheesh.

This is probably why it takes me a lot longer to decide who makes the cut or not, since I have to spend extra time watching them, taking photos of them to study instead of being able to line them up separate from one another all at one time.

Me too, which is why I have a few crates that I use for broody breaking, but not nearly enough to stick them all into a crate at one time.

LOL - that's us here. Grab a chair and sit in the pasture while the chickens run around and we try to look at them from every angle to see who is going to make the breeding cut. Have more photos of chickens with their butts in the air than of their other ends.

I haven't had a problem with slime in ours. I use apple cider vinegar in the water and that has helped to control slime no matter the type of container the water is in.

Not here. I always keep fresh water in the "proper" watering buckets, but when it's hot enough to have wading pools, the chickens will drink out of the wading pools first, and only go to the real water drinking buckets if the wading pools are empty. I have also been surprised at how cool the...

Feed kinda depends on what you can get locally. Much of what some of the others here use isn't available to me. I use Tractor Supply brand game chick feed and Purina Flockraiser for the older birds, since it has more protein than the reg chicken feed available here. And my chickens wont eat...

I had an excellent hatch from eggs that were 2 weeks old before putting them in the incubator this year. Was not anticipating it to be that great. Not sure how it happened, but it did. All I did was sit the eggs in a carton on the counter and lifted each side of the carton a little a few...

When do hens go broody? Well, I've got a few that are broody constantly. Get so sick of throwing them in the broody breaker cage only to have them go broody a few weeks after they get out of the cage. Middle of freaking summer and molting and one stupid hen is STILL broody.

Nothing to excuse - makes me feel right at home. We're always under construction here either on our own house or chicken houses. :)

Pyrethrins are deadly neurotoxins for cats. People should be careful permethrin/pyrethrin if they have kitties that could get anywhere near the stuff. If cats get any on paws/fur and groom themselves, it could kill them.

Actually you can get "soured" milk from pasteurized milk if you add in some plain active yogurt. I make homemade butter and use whipping cream mixed with a little yogurt - usually "organic" yogurt or some plain greek yogurt, then let it sit out on the counter a couple of days before I churn it...

There are some people that I have seen that are interested in standard-bred birds but don't want to spend the money. Big box stores have changed the way people think about things - putting price above quality in many people's minds. I also think part of the reason that people go with hatchery...

Seems like an awful big coincidence to have more than one chicken come up with that in the exact same place if it were fowl pox. Always a possibility but it seems a bit weird to have it occur in the exact same place, same eye on different chickens.

Great! I tell you, some days you just have to do a chicken-basket-upset to try and get everyone to behave.

You could try moving all the other cockerels except that one out and see if moving them out keeps the peace or if he tries to start harassing the females. If the bullying cockerel ends up terrorizing everyone even after the other males are out of that pen, then you could always just go ahead...