Rudd Ranger Chickens Helping A New Orchard

As we watched from just beyond a low poultry fence three adolescent Rudd Rangers raced from their coop to chase a grasshopper The fastest one snatched the protein-rich treat and quickly swallowed it

We were at Etzel’s Sugar Grove Farm just north of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the home of Rodale Midwest Organic Center Their staff are working to solve an orchardist’s problem

“We are learning ways to use chickens to create an income source before tiny trees bear fruit or nuts,” said Research Director Sean Stokes Planting fruit or nut trees is expensive, and they need to be tended for several

Breed, Hybrid: What’s This All About?

Leafing through the Hoover’s Hatchery catalog or clicking through its website is a fun way to discover the amazing diversity of poultry The sheer number of chicken types is fascinating but it can be confusing Just what is a breed? Hybrid?

Just What Is a Breed?

One thing is certain All chickens belong to the same species, whether they are immense Jersey Giants or diminutive bantams Such useful birds probably were developed from the Red Jungle Fowl, which still lives in the wild in some southern Asian forests Scientifically the modern chicken is Galus galus domesticus

It can get complicated People

The Best Chicken Waterers

An egg sizzling in the frying pan is chock full of protein and vitamins but 76% of it is water With every egg laid a hen loses water from her body She needs plenty of clean drinking water to stay healthy and keep laying those delicious eggs

Unlike mammals, Chickens don’t sweat Their urine is a solid coating over droppings They don’t need as much water as a similar-sized mammal, but they still must drink several times every day no matter what the weather is

It’s easy to install a big feeder in the coop that keeps hens happily eating for

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

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