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So we had a hen that was sick who is now getting much better. It was raised with the other 5 from chick stage. Last weekend my wife decided to just drop the quarantined chicken back into the extended run with the other 5. As you can imagine chaos ensued and the quarantined chicken got beat up a...

Title says it all. We've got those hanging bag traps to lure Japanese Beetles from our garden and fruit trees. Is it OK to feed them to our chickens? It would be a mix of dead and mildly dead. FWIW there are no toxins in the traps. Its a citronella smelling lure that baits the beetles and they...

So we've got a couple apple trees and every year in early to mid spring some small non mature apples drop off to the ground. I'm wondering if we cut them into manageable pieces if they're ok to give to the chickens. We already give them a wide variety of scraps but the wife was worried for...

We decided to get serious about gardening this season and yesterday I tilled up a 8x55' plot, or at least broke ground. Still a lot more tilling to do. Mrs Raptor brought up trying to use the chicken poop as fertilizer. We use straw in our coop so any poop we got would be mixed with straw. Any...

So we've been dealing with our birds just barely being able to get up on the top rail of the chainlink section of our extended run. The t-post fence you see in the background has never been an issue because there's no bar for them to see to try and jump up on. Anyhow here was our solution...

Obviously chicken related.

When we used to buy eggs from local folks that had chickens they were always covered in what I can only assume was poop or dirt, or a combination. We use straw for bedding and have always had our eggs come out like this. These have not been washed or cleaned in any manner, other than knocking...

So our hens started laying about 2 weeks ago and we're getting 2-4 eggs a day. We've been keeping them in a container on the counter top based on some stuff I read online saying that unwashed eggs could be kept that way for a month or more. Should we be putting our fresh unwashed eggs in the...

So we got our first egg this evening. Was kind of surprised being that we're going into winter. Anyhow I'd like some input on the egg and what we could do, if anything, to get better eggs. Granted, our pullets are only about 5 months old. Take a look at this egg and tell me what you think...

So we only have hens and know nothing about roosters. Today my wife and I made a trip to the grocery store and on our trip through the backroads (we live in the sticks and I'm always looking for coops/chickens while driving) we spotted what at first looked like a huge turkey. I slowed down and...

So many threads started about "winterizing" coops or chickens. Folks really should do some research. Chickens are hearty animals and can handle temperatures pretty low, much lower than most folks realize My 6 Hens tonight in not very cold Virginia. The picture of the weather info is from the...

I have no idea lol! I set up our new coop with a 4ft bar and 5ft bar for 6 hens. The recommended allowance is 1ft per bird. I present exhibit A. And generally they're a lot tighter than this. This is mostly in jest lol!

So we have a pretty large coop and run for the 6 hens we have. And we've been letting them out to roam in our 24x36' fenced in area in the afternoons and weekends. Their wings are clipped. But the last two days we're dealing with what you see in the pic. I partially blame myself because I put...

Our hens are 17wks old. The bag of Starter feed we've been using up until now says you can switch to the Layer feed around 16-18 weeks. But the Layer bag we looked at today at TSC said not to use that feed until the birds are laying already. Obviously ours aren't yet. I've read a lot of times...

For me and Mrs Raptor so far in our chicken journey its when they're chick's. When they get tired and start to look like heroin addicts slowly nodding off and and then faceplant into shavings. Nothing else so far has had us laughing so much since we got these birds.

Hopefully this site isn't overly liberal. So the question for us folks that live more rural is what guns you keep on hand to thwart potential predators? Me? I keep a cheap but accurate 22lr on standby and a 12g shotgun with slugs when our birds are free ranging. And of course I always have my...

Tomorrow morning! Plenty of pictures will follow. To preface I'm a carpenter previously and now work in a wood shop. IOW, not a novice. But this will not be what I could make it. Cheap (relatively speaking) and dirty with minimal materials. Stay tuned...

So the fact that the coop we bought is too small for our six hens has been weighing heavy on my wife and I, especially since they're getting bigger by the day. Initially we were going to press on with what we have and just see where it goes as we didn't have any major extra expendable income...

So we got our chicks 7/9/22. They're fully feathered and doing well in our set up. Obviously we had a heating lamp for the brooding box stage but since fall and soon after winter are approaching we are wondering if they will still need heat in the coop with their adult feathers. We've read...

The wife and I got into chickens a couple months ago. Got 6 chicks (hens) from TSC along with their entry level coop. Things are going well so far. My wife has done a lot of research but we are by no means experts, if anything we're flying by the seat of our pants. I will attempt to post some...