Search Results for: label/chickens/page/2/2011/04/making-it

675 results

The Homegrown Revolution Chickens

Avatar photo
Animals, Chickens
...Some very difficult to photograph chicks have arrived at the Homegrown Revolution compound courtesy of East Valley Tack and Feed. We have just three to start with–an Araucana, a feisty Rhode Island Red, and a Barred Rock. We’ll describe the luxurious coop, dubbed “Chicken Guantanamo”, and our improvised brooder later . . ....

Read…

Your Thoughts on Treadle Feeders?

Avatar photo
Animals, Chickens
8 Comments
...nded last week was using treadle feeders. Think of it as a Skinner box for chickens. Chickens walk up to the feeder, step on a treadle, and feed is dispensed. It beats having to wake up at five in the morning to put out food in a conventional feeder. You have to teach your chickens how to use a treadle feeder. One of the veterinarians suggested putting something shiny on the feeder. Your flock will step up to peck at it and discover that the feede...

Read…

Breaking Broodiness in Chickens

Avatar photo
Animals, Chickens
11 Comments
This picture is what happens when I forget to take a picture of our broody hens. This past week three of our four hens decided to all get broody at once. And since we have only one nesting box they all crammed into the box as tight as passengers in economy class in what passes for air travel these days. Since it’s August and hot and humid, I began to worry that they would overheat. Then I remembered a trick passed along by a UC David avian veteri...

Read…

A tip for bored chickens . . .

Avatar photo
Animals, Chickens
11 Comments
Yet more ideas from the poultry seminar I attended last week. Behavioral specialist Richard Blatchford of UC Cooperative Extension had a great idea for entertaining hens like ours that are confined to a run: give them a bale of straw and don’t even undo the strings. I used to cut the strings and toss them the bale in sections. Keeping it intact keeps them occupied for a much longer time. They’ve been obsessed with the bale for days now and are sl...

Read…