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 late spring and early summer, gnats, flies, and other nuisance insects make their arrival known Most are exactly that, a nuisance But one is genuinely different Buffalo gnats, also called black flies or turkey gnats, can quickly wipe out livestock, including poultry They arrive in dense swarms, they bite, and in bad years they have killed entire flocks in a matter of hours If you keep chickens, this is one seasonal pest worth taking seriously Here’s why buffalo gnats are so dangerous and what you can do to protect your birds while they’re around
Foxes are lethal chicken predators They’re fast, cunning, and remarkably bold, and a single fox can decimate an entire flock in short order if you aren’t careful What makes them especially frustrating is how little evidence they leave behind, which sends many keepers hunting for answers after birds simply vanish This is the second installment in our four-part series on how to identify chicken predators, and here we’re covering foxes: how to recognize an attack, what sets their behavior apart, and how to keep them out
You’ve got your chicks home and settled in the brooder Now the big question: how long should they stay there, and when will they be old enough to move out to the coop? The short answer is a reliable rule of thumb Chicks need to stay warm in the brooder until they are fully feathered, which usually happens somewhere between 5 and 8 weeks of age Here’s how to read your chicks, hold the right temperature, and know exactly when they’re ready for the big move
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
