How to Keep the Dropping Board Clean Dropping board is a term used to describe the area directly below the roost bar in a chicken coop. It helps by collecting the manure and keeping it contained so that removal of the chicken manure is easy to complete. With chores, I always find that the easier they are to complete, the more likely that the chore will get completed. While chickens are sleeping on the roost at night, feces drop from them onto whatever is directly below. Not cleaning up … [Read more...]
Quiet Chickens – What Breeds to Choose in the Suburbs
Quiet Chickens - Is that an option? Are there quiet chickens that won't disturb the neighbors? Many suburban and city neighborhoods have voted to allow residents to keep a few chickens in the backyard. This recent question was posed to me by a resident trying to get her town to allow chicken keeping. Generally speaking, I don't find chickens noisy. Yes, roosters will crow, but most urban cities and suburban towns prohibit roosters, so that is not the concern. Hens will be more quiet than … [Read more...]
Managing and Composting Chicken Manure
Composting chicken manure is a side benefit of raising chickens. This beneficial by-product must be managed before it can be used as a garden amendment. Chickens provide us with hours of companionship, fresh eggs, and......manure! Lots of manure. Approximately one cubic foot of manure is produced by each chicken in approximately six months. Multiply that by the six chickens in an average back yard flock and you have a mountain of manure every year! If you live on a farm, that may not be a … [Read more...]
Pullet or Cockerel? How to Know
Are some of your chickens looking different than the others? Do you know how to determine, early on, if you are raising a pullet or a cockerel? Lets say you wanted to raise chickens for eggs and purchased some hatching eggs. Or, perhaps, you couldn't resist the fluffy little munchkins at the feed store this spring. In any event you now have chickens growing up in your backyard. You are feeding them and caring for their every need. But wait! Some of the chicks are starting to look … [Read more...]
When is the Best Time to Start Chicks?
Waiting until spring for the best time to start chicks, can be too much to handle. Nothing starts a severe case of chicken fever like a brooder full of baby fluff butts. Chicks are extremely susceptible to the cold weather and unless you live in an area that has warm weather year round, It can be much easier to wait until close to Spring. Here are my reasons for waiting for the best time to start chicks. Baby chicks are mailed from hatcheries soon after hatching. They are mailed … [Read more...]
