Typically, chickens will go in to roost on their own when it starts getting dark (dusk). Just as a rooster knows to start crowing at dawn, chickens instinctively know to head in when it starts getting dark.
We've been off-grid-solar for 11 years now and try to be as self-sufficient as possible. Garden produce and meat chickens end up on the pantry shelves. We process as per the advice of an old homesteader who raised chickens for a living. We process about 50 - 55 Cornish Cross chickens each...
I'm off-the-grid in western Montana. Although its April and spring has officially begun, as I write, there's a blizzard going on. Outside temps around freezing! Three weeks ago I put some fertilized eggs under 2 broody Buffs. Yesterday, we had our first to hatch. Today I put a waterer with...