My mom gave me this tip that she's been using for years, and it's been invaluable so I thought I'd share! To can tomatos, you don't need a pressure or water bath canner. Prepare tomatos, tomato sauce, salsa, or tomato juice as you normally would (with half inch head space), then just put the...
When I collected eggs this afternoon I found one that had a couple of patches little bitty balls which look like some kind of insect egg. However, they are hard and the same color as the egg, so could it be some kind of calcium deposit? They are not part of the shell - you can see where I...
My husband and I came home yesterday to find one of our young hens dead on the coop floor, a blood-streaked egg beside her. Her rear was bloody, but we couldn't really tell if any "innards" were out, or had been out...it just looked bloody. Was this a prolapse?
I feel horrible, but I...
My 12 pullets (can you believe I got 100% correctly sexed chicks), 4 buff orpingtons, 4 barred rocks, 2 rr reds, and 2 e eggers, are now exactly 6 months old today. No eggs yet and I'm getting impatient...I figured they'd be laying by now.
Yesterday one of the barred rocks let out a big...
A friend of mine and I are on vacation, several hundred miles from home, and hubby is in charge of my 12 pullets (10 weeks old).
He called to tell me he'd found one dead this evening in the coop, with what he described as a "rubbery neck" and her intestines protruding from the rear. I'm...
Today my 10 Cornish X that DH and I have referred to as "Team Meatie" went to the big Coop In the Sky, and their carcasses are now chilling in the fridge. This was my first time processing chickens, and I worried all week if I'd be able to handle it. Shooting a deer from a distance is one...
I'm raising my own meat chickens for the first time, and I have 10 cornish X who will be flying to the Big Coop in the Sky in about two weeks.
I'm wondering about skin. Do you folks skin or pluck? Skinning seems like it would be so much easier. When I buy whole chickens, I cook them with...
Well that's maybe being a little dramatic. I have 14 6-week old chicks who are in a coop, but for during the day I made a little 3' x 4' run so they can get out in the grass (the coop has a wire floor to deter predators).
I decided today I needed to move the coop, so I hooked up the tractor...
Well I hope I'm in the right thread for this question...and I hope this isn't a stupid question, but I'm new to chickens (in my adult life, at least!)
I currently have a flock of 14 chicks - 5 buff orpingtons, 5 barred rocks, 2 easter eggers, and 2 rhode island reds. They were five weeks old...
Just completed our hen coop! After studying many MANY coop designs, I attempted to get the best of all worlds...mobility, durability, weatherability, and predator-proof(ability). We plan to let them range in a rotating poultry netting fence, then move the coop to a new area as needed...yet...