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Although I live in the South, we are in the Appalachian Mountains where we can have very cold winters, although nothing like the winters you folks in the upper mid-west have. We can have long spells of very cold temperatures, but our snows usually come, look pretty for a few days, and then go...

They do like to feel private and secure. My two youngest RIRs tend to lay about mid day. If I need to be working in the run at that time I try to avoid working near the coop so I don't make them feel uncomfortable; nevertheless, if I am working in the run and one or both of them are in the coop...

I had a similar problem early in the summer...torrential rains one afternoon after another turned our chicken run into a muddy stinky mess. I had been using wood shavings, but they soaked up water and just added to the mess. The flies were terrible and my chickens were not happy. After getting...

My run is next to an old shed where I often leave a radio playing 24/7. I started doing this as a predator deterrent a couple of years ago when we had some very active foxes in the adjacent woods. I've played various kinds of music, and am currently playing a classic rock station (Rolling Stones...

For some reason, I prefer "fart egg" to "fairy egg".:D It kind of goes along with something an elderly man told a friend of mine about the three things a man should remember if he wants to enjoy old age...one was never to pass up an opportunity to use the restroom, the second was never trust a...

I agree with HuskerHens18, they will eventually warm up to you. They sound a little young to be very trusting yet. If you spend some time in the run with them (take a folding chair) let them see you bring in food and fresh water, they will eventually learn that you are trust worthy and will...

A "fart egg"? I never heard of that. She has laid a couple of normal eggs in the past couple of days, but each of my layers is off a little in the heat. A "fart egg"...I can't wait to share that with my wife.

I have five chickens: a two year old Welsummer, a Barred Plymouth Rock, a Golden Laced Wayandotte, each about a year old, and two RIR pullets about 5 months old. The Welsummer lays dark chocolate brown speckled eggs, and the other two adult hens lay brown eggs with no speckles, and lighter than...

I had a similar question a few weeks ago when we had 9" of rain over about a 5 day period. My run, which had wood shavings with hard earth beneath, became a muddy, stinking mess. I don't know how to post a link to that thread, but I got some very good advice. Now my run has wood chips (like the...

We eat plenty of chicken, but never one of own. These birds are my friends.:)

My girls have staked out a couple of places in their outdoor run where they created their own dust bath areas. They do prefer to make their dust baths themselves out of very fine dirt which they have thoroughly scratched into dust. Their run used to be a dog run, and still has an old doghouse...

I stumbled onto this website when searching for chicken related sites: www.drinkingwithchickens.com. It is actually a blog about fancy drinks, and won a blog award from SAVEUR Magazine as best drinks blog. I know there are many folks here who do not drink or approve of alcohol, so I hope you do...

I think you have a double post.

As of today, I have layers of wood chips, pine straw, and pine bark throughout the run. I appreciate the advice and input from you all.

We have had problems with foxes also. True story: a few years ago when we would free range our chickens, my wife was on the porch reading when she heard a commotion. She looked up to see one of our hens running as fast as she could, being chased by a fox, who in turn was being chased by our...

That's great! I bet you could sell those.:D

I forgot to mention that my run is shaded by some very large oak trees. In the autumn, when the acorns fall, its fun to watch the hens race the local squirrel (who lives in one of the trees) chasing acorns when they hit the ground. Of course the chickens can't do anything with the acorns, but...

I like the idea of a mirror. I must try that. I have some fairly large branches that I rearrange from time to time to give the girls some different perch views. My chicken run is in an old dog lot, complete with an old dog house. I pitched a few shovel fulls of dirt into the dog house, so they...

Follow up question...what do you do about the swarms of flies that appeared with the mud? We've had flies before, but not to this extent. Today was nice and sunny which helped to dry out the mud to some extent, but then we had a gully washer thunderstorm about six. The weather forecast for next...

I'm going to have to do some minor trenching to help with drainage. We get a lot of rain over the course of a year, but its unusual to have so many days of hard rain. This rain is compliments of storm Alberto.