Yup. On Monday, I was in the back yard doing some pruning, when I heard an angry crow. Looking up to the power in the next door neighbors’ yard, I noticed a huge hawk trying to enjoy its lunch in peace with a crow incessantly harassing it. In addition to bugs, chickens, and plants, I am also a nerd about birds. I ran inside and grabbed my old camera. When I uploaded the photo on the computer to see it…
I had already planted the backyard gardens before we got our first dog back in 2000. Shortly after getting her, she began to drive me nuts with her incessant digging, trampling of tender plants, laying on others, and eating whatever she could reach off the tomatoes, berry bushes, and fruit trees. We loved that big sweet black Labrador, so of course she wasn’t going anywhere, but I also wanted my garden to thrive. I was at my wits end. Something…
Can bantam chicks be sexed as day old and if so how do I sort baby pullet chicks from cockerels? Telling the gender of my bantam chicks was a problem for me when I first started keeping chickens, but through a bit of research and careful observation over many clutches of chicks, I learned how to tell the genders with better accuracy. I share what features I compare in the bantam baby chicks in this post.
Bantam Cochins are one of the best breeds of chickens for small urban backyards, mainly because they are generally quiet, curious, very friendly, easy to handle, kids like their small size and docile nature, they don’t fly like other bantams do, and they do well with confinement to a small coop or tractor. Some people are reticent to keep them as part of their flock because they are also known for going broody often, just like Silkies. Well, the part…
Backyard chickens make great pets and wonderful fresh eggs in suburban gardens, as long as a hen doesn’t start to crow like a rooster. Hanbury House shares what works and what doesn’t to stop the crowing.
I usually like to post links to TV and newspaper articles related to backyard chickens all together on a different page, but this one hits a bit closer to home and was on the front page of the local paper yesterday. Excerpt taken from the Long Beach Press Telegram, June 18th, 2012. Residents want Long Beach to allow livestock by By Greg Mellen Staff Writer LONG BEACH – If urban farm advocates have their way, several meetings last week could lead…
My two broody hens stared at each other in their separate nests for the last 4 weeks, on fake eggs and then on the fertile Cochin eggs I bought on ebay. I had been thinking about the possibility of letting them sit with their chicks together, too. However, most of the expert chicken sources recommend separating broody hens from the rest of the flock and from each other. I have read a few horror stories on backyardchickens.com where two broody…
Coopers Hawk sitting in our backyard Chinese Elm tree, trying to decide which chicken it wants for lunch. Hawks are a serious concern for free ranging chickens, even for flocks living in urban areas, like ours. Since I spend a lot of time outside and love watching birds, I have noticed we get plenty of fly overs from Coopers Hawks, Prairie Falcons, American Kestrals, and Red Tail Hawks. With 3 chicken keepers on the block and a big park that…
My son, J, came to me at the beginning of September and said “Mom, I want to buy that white chicken. How much is she? I have my own money.” He knows I regularly sell my chickens and wants us to keep this one. But then again, my kids would like to be able to keep them all. J explained he would be responsible and take good care of her. But as most parents will attest, when a kid buys…
The hardest part of letting my hens raise bantam chicks is we can’t keep them all, especially males. Penguin just recently decided she was done being mommy for her brood of chicks. Since I still have not gotten up the courage to process a rooster, it was time to rehome the extras we can’t keep in our little coop. They were 9 weeks old. This little fellow in the above picture went to a new home today, along with a…