A Chick’s First Month

A chick’s first month is tumultuous! Hatched in a Hoover’s Hatchery incubator, as soon as that baby girl chick’s fluff dries off, she’s gently placed into a shipping box The combined body heat of many babies keeps them warm as the box bounces along in a truck heading for the airport Soon she’s zooming through the sky to some place she’s never been to or even heard of It could be New Jersey, Miami, California, or even Canada Then she’s trucked again to a farm store and put into a big brooder awaiting customers A family buys her and

Heat Kills Chickens

Heat kills chickens but flock owners can protect their birds by taking a lesson from Theodore Roosevelt

 

When an intense heat wave descended on New York City in the summer of 1896 millions of people lived crammed together in tenements Around 1500 died from the extreme heat Roosevelt was then a little-known police commissioner who did two things that saved human lives

 

He ordered the fire department to spray water in the streets and on tenement buildings  It lowered the temperature a few degrees And, ice In that era before refrigeration, tenement dwellers couldn’t afford to buy ice Roosevelt gave them

California Grey: An Unusual and Fun Hybrid Breed

Want to try an amazingly productive yet unusual chicken with a fascinating history?

The California Grey might be just right

What Makes California Grey Chickens Unique?

California Grey’s are oddballs Most families tending backyard flocks prefer brown egg laying, large bodied breeds and hybrids California Grey’s look like Barred Rocks with the distinctive barred feather pattern that gives them a name shared by a common night bird, the Barred Owl Some poultry fanciers call the color pattern “cuckoo”

Glance at a California Grey hen and it would be easy to assume it’s a slimmed down

Honeybees and Chickens in the Backyard

Of all domestic food-producing animals honeybees are special They can legally trespass!

If cows, pigs, sheep or even chickens wander off a property without permission an angry neighbor might be calling up Bees are different They’ll zip upwards of three miles to collect nectar and pollen They buzz over fences and property lines to gather food for their larvae and to make into honey Honeybees even thrive in New York City Local beekeepers tend hives on building roofs far above the street The industrious insects forage in parks and on domestic flowers

Managing a Broody Hen

Managing a Broody Hen

One of the most fascinating experiences of raising a backyard flock of hens can also be the most frustrating

 

Every once in a while, a hen acts strangely She fluffs her feathers, changes her clucking pitch, stops laying, and spends almost all her time in the nest Reach in to retrieve eggs from under her and she’ll enthusiastically scold and probably give fingers a good peck

 

She’s broody!

 

Broodiness is a natural bird instinct Until artificial incubators came along in the late 1800s all baby chicks were brooded by a live hen Farmers would prepare rows of nests filled

Testing Chicken Treats

Testing Chicken Treats: What Backyard Hens Love Most

Sometimes our chickens are just like kids Put a serving of steamed kale on one side of a child’s dinner plate and balance it with ice cream on the other side Which disappears first? It’s no mystery

 

We wanted to see what treats our hens favored When they were outside basking in the late winter sunshine we put three bowls on the coop floor Into one went a handful of dried soldier fly larvae Another held black oil sunflowers and the third baby marshmallows

 

Then we let the chickens in to test which treats

Introducing New Chicks Into a Flock

How to Introduce New Chicks to Older Hens Safely

Every other year we’re faced with a tricky chicken management dilemma How to introduce new chicks into a flock of mature hens Years ago, we didn’t do it right and ended up with adolescent hens persecuted by older birds Over the years we’ve found ways to successfully merge young birds harmoniously with older hens

Why Do It

 

When female chicks are four to six months old, they’ll start the most productive laying cycle of their lives For the next year they’ll lay anywhere from 200

Springtime Coop Tune Up

Cleaning Tips for Healthy Hens

It’s that time of year Birds are migrating as plants push greenery up through the ground They let us know it’s the season of spring cleaning Along with scrubbing and organizing the house, remember the coop A spring makeover will make it function and look top notch

 

At Winding Pathways, we mount a coop spruce up project before lawn mowing season arrives Here’s what we do:

 

Litter: Last fall we cleaned litter out of the coop’s interior and put it in our compost bin  Microorganisms toiled all winter converting it into compost This spring we moved that

Keeping the Flock Healthy

Keeping Your Backyard Flock Healthy Through Good Care

Chickens are amazingly healthy animals Given good care they’re hardly fazed by winter’s chill or summer’s sweltering heat In the five decades we’ve kept chickens our flocks have always been healthy

In the past few years millions of commercial chickens were killed to slow the spread of avian influenza, or bird flu It’s a deadly disease but hardly the only malady that can sicken or kill our faithful coop friends

Knowing that diseases lurk we constantly work to protect our hens from illness A key strategy is buying healthy chicks from Hoover’s Hatchery Then

How to Keep Muddy Chicken Feet Out of the Coop

Most families have a rule about muddy boots: they come off in the garage before anyone tracks a mess inside The same principle applies to your flock Mud is wet, it makes a coop mess, and moisture fosters disease That’s the real issue A damp coop floor is not just unpleasant to clean, it creates the conditions that lead to respiratory problems, ammonia buildup, and foot issues But keeping chickens shut indoors every time it rains isn’t much of a life for them either The good news is that keeping muddy chicken feet out of the coop comes down