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Letting your girls out towards the end of the day is a good option if you have to "supervise" them. It's pretty relaxing to sit and watch them and they won't go far because as soon as it gets dusky they'll want to get on their roosts for the night. We're in a more rural area and have never lost...

Excellent and sensible advice. I've seen those egg wipes - always felt they were an expensive waste of money. Glad you didn't mention them in the article. I'd rather keep the bloom on my eggs if there's just a small muddy smear on the shell. Generally if you keep a clean coop you'll have clean...

I have a pair of gardening/chicken shoes that generally live on my back porch so I don't trample chicken poop into the house. Otherwise good hand washing is the way to go. In 12 years I haven't had anyone sick from visiting my girls or collecting their eggs. The other thing to do is just keep...

Good article - we had some Cornish chicks some years ago, almost by mistake. At 8 weeks they were being attacked by the layer chicks so we immediately dispatched them. They were 5lb birds and very tasty but I really didn't like the fact that they couldn't lead a natural life. If we do get some...

we like to think that we're giving their bodies a little break. we try to work with nature and not against it.

We have never given our girls extra light and heat during the winter and they do quite well. Egg production goes down a little but if we give them plenty of protein and they don't actually stop laying. We use 2 parts layer crumbles to one part rolled oats and one part cracked corn.

we use an axe but for a few minutes before gently hold the bird upside down. Makes them really calm so it's easy to quickly slip a noose around legs and neck before the chop.

Last time we had a rooster - he was really mean & attacked everyone! Into the soup pot he went. We have a beautiful, small but heavy axe that does the job very well. We learned to dispatch our hens quickly & calmly - always with a thank you.

I've had a backyard flock for about 10 years - have been a regular visitor to this forum and decided that it was actually time to join! As well as 20 hens, I have 3 dogs & 1 cat. Also going to become a backyard beekeeper in the Spring!