Articles by pipdzipdnreadytogo
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Name That Chicken!
A Guide to Improving your Identification Skills
Take a look at the picture below. What do you think? Is this a picture of a hen or a rooster?
This picture is of my Ancona, Rangi. At the time, Rangi was 5 months old. In spite of the very prominent set of comb and...
Chicken First Aid Kits
Sometimes in chicken-keeping, things happen that no one expects. It could be a sudden disease, a squabble between birds causing injuries, or even a predator attack that leaves your birds wounded and weak. For your birds, having certain supplies on hand could make the...
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Cold Weather Advisory:
A Detailed Look at the Question of Supplemental Heat
As autumn rolls around, and many of us start thinking about the winter ahead, one question seems to come up more than others: Do my chickens need supplemental heat for the wintertime? To answer this question with a...
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An Inside Look at the Humble Sexlink Chicken
Sexlinks are one of the most common types of chickens out there, sold by most big hatcheries and in many feed stores that supply chicks. Their popularity is likely because production-oriented hatchery sexlinks are known to put out huge numbers...
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An Experiment in Chick Sexing Methods
We’ve all heard them, those crazy methods for sexing chicks that sound too far-fetched to be true. Often, they are not even backed by good reasoning, and so any logical person would chuckle at the suggestion and brush it off as absurd. But so many swear...
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Kick the Heat Lamp:
Better, Safer, and Healthier Options to Heat Your Brooder!
When setting up a brooder, one of the biggest essentials for the chicks is a heat source. Young chicks are unable to maintain their body temperature and so must be kept warm in some way. When shopping for heating...
The Essential Quarantine:
An Important, but Often Underestimated Part of Raising Chickens
Many who raise chickens are unaware of what many risks there are in bringing new birds into a flock. New birds could be carrying anything from mites or lice to disease, and in many cases, the cure is not...
The Ultimate Wintertime
Chicken-Keeping Preparation Checklist!
Below, you will see a checklist for wintertime preparation. Click on the green box for a bit more of an explanation as to the importance of each item or other information on the topic. The links in each section give even further...
Pipd’s Peeps:
The Dorkings
In the spring of 2013, I eagerly awaited my annual chick order. This was the year that I decided to try out various white egg laying breeds and decide which was a good fit, personality-wise, for my flock. I wanted white eggs for the variety in my egg basket, but...
Which Came First?:
Finding the Truth Behind the Riddle
Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
The question itself is ancient, posed long before forces in the natural world were well understood. Today, it is an oft used riddle with a knee-jerk answer based on faith and philosophy, a clever...
Little Red Coop
(On a Farm Down in Indiana)
...Okay, so "little" might be a bit outdated now... With a 26x8 footprint, plus 6x8 foot wing on the side, this coop is FAR from little anymore!
For years, my birds lived in a tiny, 4x8x4 foot tall coop that was as miserable for us to work with as...
Freema
Oh, Freema, where to start?
Freema was my girl practically from the start. When she was just a few days old, she began trying to climb up my arm. This soon evolved into her sitting on my hand with the expectation that she would be lifted out of the brooder.
Once the chicks were a...
The Littles
A number of events led to me receiving my brood of chicks in 2014. The main thing that had happened was that of the chicks I ordered in 2013, the one that I was most looking forward to getting, the Silver Gray Dorking, did not hatch. And so, for 2014, I had on order a Dorking as...
Te Heihei
By the end of 2012, I knew I was getting chicks in 2013. I had carefully planned my order, placed it as soon as Meyer Hatchery opened up the 2013 hatch dates, and waited (not-so) patiently for May 13 to arrive so that I could pick up my babies. Things happened and a couple chicks were...
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The Guinea Fowl Boys
(and Girls, too!)
In the summer of 2009, while I was away out of state overnight, two of my chickens were killed by a predator. Not knowing a thing about them beyond their reputation for being ‘watch dogs’, my family invested in a small brood of four Guinea keets...
Pipd’s Peeps!
The Birds of my Flock
Current happenings and updates on my flock posted here: Pipd's Peeps Thread
This is just a directory of all of the birds currently in my flock, including a picture of each bird, their breed / variety, origin, and hatch date if known. I've divided this into...
I am no longer updating this page. For more about Scooter, Vespa, and Frannie, check out this page: The Bantam Flock!
Their story...
We found out about these swap meets that occur several times over the summer, and thought it would be an easy way to add birds to our flock. My mom went alone...
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100 Pictures of my Flock:
The 2016 Edition
Welcome to my 2016 project, 100 Pictures of my Flock! Basically, the goal is to take 100 pictures of my flock in the year 2016! But taking 100 pictures would be far to easy--and, indeed, I likely do so every time I go out with my camera to mingle...
Just for me to keep track of the birds in my breeding pens over the years. 🙂
Current breeding flocks (and non-breeders in my mixed flock) are listed on this page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/pipds-peeps.72248/page/silkied-cochin-bantams.95/
Note on leg band color: I band on the...
Sadly we have lost all of these hens except old Olive. I've moved Olive's section to a page with my red sexlinks and will no longer be updating this page.
Generation 1
I began my adventure into chickening with a bit of disobedience on my sister's part. She had gone to Arkansas in the spring...