If you want turkeys that hatch their own babies and put flavorful meat on the table, heritage turkey breeds are exactly what you are looking for Unlike the conventional broad-breasted birds you find at the grocery store, heritage breeds can mate naturally, sit on their own eggs, and raise poults without any help from you That makes them a
For several weeks in the late spring and early summer, gnats, flies and other nuisance insects make their arrival known Most of these are simply a nuisance However, buffalo gnats, also called black flies or turkey gnats, are more than just a nuisance They can quickly wipe out livestock, including poultry species
Why are buffalo gnats a problem?
The female buffalo gnat feeds on blood Similar to a mosquito, she will bite an animal, or person, in order to draw out blood She then feasts on the blood Normally, the body would react to this by
Foxes are lethal chicken predators They are fast, cunning and bold One fox can quickly decimate an entire flock of birds if you aren’t careful Here is the second installment of our 4-part series in how to identify chicken predators: foxes
Identifying Fox Attacks
Foxes will attack chickens in all hours of the day They will hunt them during the day and at night They are fast and sneaky, and it can be hard to identify a fox attack Sometimes the chickens will simply disappear without a trace If you’re home when a fox attacks, you
Now that you’ve gotten your chicks, how long should they stay in the brooder? When will they be old enough to be introduced to the coop? It’s a good rule of thumb that chicks need to stay warm until they are fully feathered When you look at your chicks, if you see downy feathers, there’s a good chance that they still need warmth in the brooder You can expect your chickens to have all of their adult feathers somewhere between 5-8 weeks of age This will vary some depending on the breed and the individual chick
When
Ever heard someone called a spring chicken? That phrase has a real origin It was once standard to start meat birds in the spring alongside the rest of the farm’s livestock, simply because spring was when chicks were typically hatched and therefore when birds became available for slaughter Today we have the tools to make raising meat animals a year-round project You can raise meat birds at any time of year, as long as you plan ahead Here’s how to raise fall meat birds that grow fast and finish well, even as the temperature drops
Let’s be honest: mealworms look entirely disgusting to us The crunchy brown worms seem thoroughly unappetizing to the human eye To a chicken, though, they’re bites of heaven Your flock will go absolutely crazy over them, and it turns out there are genuinely good reasons to hand them over beyond the entertainment of watching a hen sprint across the yard From protein content to molting support to a clever bedding trick, here’s why feeding your flock mealworms is worth doing, and how many to actually give them
