Recent content by Christopher28fair

I'm hoping to find an India Blue peahen for free or not too much, or maybe in trade (very reluctantly) for my all white peahen. I have an India Blue peacock and the peahen just will not give him the time of day. Chris in Devon PA, posted May 15 2021

Things I just learned about foxes. Foxes can see at night. Foxes hunt at night. Foxes aren't necessarily scared to be near homes or animal pens. Foxes can easily jump a 6 foot fence - in the dark. Foxes can jump that fence - at night - and, even if there is bird netting carefully laced to the...

As those of us who have had chickens for a few years know, there is an unpleasant fact about chickens that must not be ignored. Chickens can sometimes be afflicted by a sort of schizophrenia, particular to chickens. Yes, one day, when your flock is moseying about the yard, tending to the usual...

Given a choice between a freshly poured bowl of sparkling clean water and a one-inch-deep puddle of muddy slop they themselves are standing in, your typical chicken will choose the muddy slop every time.

This happens to me once every six months... I notice a drop-off in the number of eggs my hens are laying. I ignore it - figure they're just taking a break. I happen to glance under the coop, and notice what appears to be one egg. I investigate. It's a pile of thirty eggs.

No matter how many chickens you have, if you have three nesting boxes, at some point at least two hens will crowd into one box.

It's widely considered rude, in the chicken community, to throw feed at your chickens, hitting them with their own dinner. Yet you will notice that - despite your best efforts - one hen or another will invariably run UNDER the feed you have just thrown, showering her like a common cow. After...

One tactic foxes use is to rush at the pen, scaring the chickens, making them jump into the air - that's often their favorite escape tactic. If your pen is open air - with no netting or mesh over top, a hen will sometimes jump out of the pen and into the open, where the fox can get them. #2 If...

I have 13 hens and one rooster. There’s a fox in our neighborhood, but two sides of our property face fairly busy roads, so he doesn’t usually come too close to our house, and I have fences protecting the yard. One fence is kind of flimsy - it’s really meant to keep the chickens IN, and it’s on...

Sorry if this has been mentioned already.... but last year I was able to sell my eggs to a local bakery, and now they won't take them. Neither will any of the other nearby bakeries. There 's a new rule against it - one place told me it was because of the risk of Salmonella. Salmonella? About...