Recent content by StoneHens

Well, I'm new to this too, but I don't mind giving an opinion! So far, my best layers are the Orpingtons. We are in a hot desert so we specifically wanted heat-tolerant breeds, starting with Black Australorp, Sicilian Buttercups and Ameraucana. They all did well with the heat, but the...

My two Sicilian Buttercup hens have huge spurs. They aren't aggressive, but I wouldn't call them docile either! It's probably more common than people realize.

We are having a similar situation here in southern Arizona--hotter than usual, even for June! Our enclosed run is shaded by trees, but also covered with shade cloth and thin bamboo fencing. In the heat of the day we spray water on the cloth, which creates an evaporative cooling zone in a...

My 5-week old Wyandotte pullets are getting very upset at night when they can't roost with the big girls. (The two babies are in a separate but attached pen adjacent to the fully enclosed run). We had planned to keep them in the small pen until they are near the size of the grown girls. They...

A great tip I learned from a thread on here is to give them some hot peppers as a tonic. We just added some hot water to their normal feed and added about 1 Tablespoon cayenne pepper per cup of feed. They all loved it and snarfed it down. the next day we got our first EE egg since November...

I say go for the area with the tree. We built our enclosed run extending out from an old 4 x 6 shed. There is a small mesquite tree just outside the shed, so when we attached the hardware cloth we made sure to attach it close to the tree trunk. (we used wire, not wanting to nail into the...

We have: 1 Ameracauna/EE 2 Black Australorps 2 Sicilian Buttercups Hoping to get 2 Silver-laced Wyandottes later this month. They have an enclosed pen 10x24 with a 4x6 coop inside.

Still working on the sign, but we call the enclosure "Stone Hens". I'm thinking of chicken silhouettes arranged like a stone circle.