September 2016

If you want to start raising chickens for meat or eggs, chicken hatcheries are the easiest place to start. These are professional companies that breed chickens. You probably know someone who ordered day-old chicks which arrived in the mail- they came from a chicken hatchery. You can find chicken hatcheries specializing in a particular breed […]

Even if you’re soft at heart, name your flock, refer to them as “the girls” and just can’t bring yourself to raise chickens for meat, they are very useful as livestock. You can just raise chickens for eggs and, at the same time, make use of their poop as awesome garden and vegetable fertilizer and take advantage […]

Are you wondering the gender of your baby chicks, or maybe even of your older birds? Sexing chicks is a tricky business. Even the professionals at the best chicken hatcheries sometimes make mistakes. But it can be important to know how to sex chicks, especially if you live in a neighborhood where roosters are not […]

Many backyard poultry keepers want to know how to raise chickens for eggs ethically. There is a growing awareness in America of the disturbing practices on large factory farms. Indeed, it is the desire not to participate in this harmful system that leads many of us to keep our own hens. If that is your […]

Once you are comfortable managing your flock, you may want to learn how to breed chickens. There are many reasons to breed. You might want chickens for meat. You may need pullets to replace your aging layers. Or maybe you want more eggs to feed a growing family or to sell. Knowing how to breed […]

The Livestock Conservancy lays out strict requirements for heritage chicken breeds. To be called “heritage” a chicken must be have parents and grandparents of a breed recognized by the American Poultry Association prior to the mid-20th century, they must reproduce through natural mating, live a long productive life (5-7 years for breeding hens) and have […]