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Hi Everybody. It’s been two years since we added compost to our garden. Some spots for it heavy the first year, others almost none at all. We were able to buy some omri certified, composted chicken manure to spread on the garden. It looked great, felt great, smelled a little hot (ammonia)...

Hi Everyone. I clean out my coop twice a year and have accumulated a lot of soiled bedding. It’s mostly straw. (Flock fresh, some hemp bedding, etc. looking to buy from a local ranch soon to save $$$.) Anyways, given that it’s already a mix of green/brown, is there a rule of thumb for this...

I was working late and got a text from my SO about there being banging outside. It’s late, maybe 1130pm. Tomorrow is trash day, the weather is cooling down, and that means one thing: bears. Black bears, for now. I feel so much better about the coop and our back yard knowing we have a...

I’ve got 4 BRocks and 4 BJJ that all seem to have a pecking problem. I’ve put blinders on 6 of the 8, but still see bullying and pecking behavior out of multiple chickens. I’ve tried adding extra roosts and places to go in the run, spreading out the roosts so they can’t peck at night...

Does anyone have recommendations for automatic doors or anything else for making coop maintenance a little easier? My girls are on a schedule and will go out at first light and be in at dusk. I’m usually in bed by 830-930 and up at 4am, so as it stays lighter longer, the chickens will be out...

Greetings, I’ve got a pecked in my hands that’s getting the blinders tomorrow. Some of my rocks have been showing some signs of their feathers being plucked above the tail. There’s one pristine JGiant who I think is doing it. She is getting blinders. I’ve gotten a new puppy and work has...

With winter going on, I’ve been leafing through seed catalogs and websites looking for interesting things to grow this year. Our tomato’s did well this year, and the beefsteak variety we had made preserving fairly easy. (Meaty, skin came off easily after blanching, etc) We do a lot of Roma’s...

Greetings, Winter is here! We are having a cold snap where daytime temps will be just above 0F and nighttime temps will be -10 and -30F. I generally don’t heat the coop but this seems brutally cold. Can I leave a red heat lamp on all night? I have their brooder heating plate that I could...

I had pecking issues earlier this year, in the fall. We’re coming into a real cold patch (5F tonight) and I was wondering if I should put my brooder heat plate in my coop to maybe give the hens some relief. Any thoughts on this? There is new feather loss in some of the birds (one looks ROUGH...

Greetings, It looks like we have a problem with a pecking hen. At first I thought it was one of the jersey giants (we had one who was larger than the rest and would bonk some of the others in the head every now and then) but it appears to be one of the larger barred rocks. I observed her...

We generally have black bears roam the neighborhood after dark but have been having some more bold bears start earlier. I found some bear scat outside the fence and lilac wall of the chicken run. The coop is very sturdy but I’d like to get an electric fence. Any suggestions for an energizer...

I have two hatchery BR’s that seem to have non standard coloration. They are also much friendlier than the other chickens, rocks included. Seems to be white on black, or penciled almost. What do you think? Time will tell but it’s fun to guess. Hen or Rooster? Photos are of the two...

We have four barred rocks and two of the four's feathers are coming in mostly white, with black bars. One is much darker than the others, another is your typical looking BR, while two have some feathers coming in that are mostly white with little bits of black barring (Mostly around the neck...

1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens? These are our first chickens. I've been interested in livestock for a long time now but we weren't in the position to buy any till just recently. We picked them up last weekend. So they are a little over a week old by now. (2)...

Greetings everybody, I think this is my first post here. We're currently brooding out (4) Barred Rocks and (4) Jersey Giants. We live in Montana on about 2/3 of an acre. I have neighbors and would like to keep things presentable (working on a nice looking coop), hoping to avoid mud holes and...