Until recently the island of Bermuda had about 30,000 feral chickens inhabiting its 21 square miles. The government of Bermuda began an eradication program because the chickens had become a nuisance to the island's 65,000 human residents. Despite the best efforts of the ironically named...
Assume that you've chosen a particular breed of meat bird (not a hybrid) and over time want to develop an improved strain of the breed specifically for free-range meat production. In other words, you want to apply some scientific rigor to selecting breeding stock over many generations. Which...
I was recently at the Tate Gallery in London and saw an interesting 300-year-old painting. Note the chickens. Very beautiful, and if you look carefully at the crested rooster you can see some cuckoo barring on its sickle feathers. Any guess on the breed(s) it might represent or later become...
Dan Powell of Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, first told me about a remarkable bird developed by Dr. Albert McGraw of Anderson, Alabama. The bird was called a silver spangled Araucana by Dr. McGraw, but lately we've taken to simply calling them McGraws. Dr. McGraw, who raised chickens since 1925, used...
How does a large commercial hatchery like Murray McMurray, Cackle, etc., get their chicks? I assume they contract for local farmers to produce hatching eggs. True? Any idea how much the hatcheries pay per egg?
Greenfire Farms is a very small farm that raises ultra-rare breeds of chickens. Some folks have asked how we brood our chicks. We have an innovative system of 24 cages placed over fiberglass trays. The manure falls into the trays and they're hosed clean once a day. The manure is pumped...
Hedemora, a native Swedish breed, may be the most cold hardy chickens in the world. They routinely lay eggs down to 5°F and free range at -5°F for hours at a time. They have a unique layer of down under their feathers and some birds of this breed have fur-like feathers that cover their bodies...
I would like to buy large fowl rumpless black auracana hatching eggs, chicks, pullets, or hens. Please let me know what you have available. Must be pure black birds. Thanks much.
I bought a used Pure-Flo 105-1 incubator. These are the big glass front cabinet incubators that were popular for hatching ostriches about a decade ago. I don't have the manual and would happily pay $30 for a copy. My understanding is that the manufacturer is no longer in business. Thanks.
After more than 500 years of living in their native country, Swedish flower hens were recently imported into the United States for the first time, giving America's poultry hobbyists a new and beautiful breed of chicken. You can learn more about these birds here and here.