Category / Chickens

How to Predator Proof the Chicken Run

September 22, 2017 by Melissa

Chickens love to be outside. They get a thrill from free-ranging in the yard and garden. They love to explore, scratch in the grass and hide under large plantings for afternoon naps. However, sometimes it is not feasible for the chicken to be allowed to roam freely where they want to go. The reasons are many, including when you are not home or on vacation, poor weather conditions, and nearby predators. It is always a good idea to have a safe run enclosure for the chickens attached to their chicken coop even if they don’t use it very often. When considering design, one of the most important things that you want to think about is how to predator proof the run. Here are some of the things I did when I designed my chicken coop and run.

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Chickens Health Issues

Why You Shouldn’t Use Frontline on Your Chickens

August 22, 2017August 22, 2017 by Melissa

This week I really felt obligated to write this post. If you are like me, you want the very best for your chickens. We hate when our chickens are ailing or have something wrong, like a mite or lice infestation and always like to fix things asap. Like you, I certainly don’t like problems to linger or affect my flock or cause harm. However, sometimes in trying to do good and help our chickens, we can actually end up doing harm. Sometimes we can’t even see the harm that we are doing. Sometimes we can even be potentially harming ourselves without even realizing it. This is what is potentially happening in your flock when you use Frontline. Here’s why.

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Featured

How to Forage a Backyard Flower Bouquet

September 8, 2017 by Melissa

Get Dirty: How to Plant a Window Box

April 12, 2017April 28, 2017 by Melissa

How to Speak Chicken

March 29, 2017March 29, 2017 by Melissa

Chickens

Selecting Chicks: 8 Tips for Choosing the Healthiest

July 31, 2017 by Melissa

We’ve all been there, enticed to take a peek into the peeping bins and tubs of day old chicks at the feed stores. They are so irresistible and sweet. Watching them is so entertaining and fun. I could spend hours observing their antics and interactions. One of the toughest decisions that I usually have is how do I chose which ones to take home? Selecting chicks can sometimes be an overwhelming process. Picking the healthiest and strong chicks is not difficult if you know what to ask and what to look for.

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Chickens Giveaways

Omlet Chicken Fencing Giveaway for Your Flock

July 17, 2017July 17, 2017 by Melissa

This past spring, one of my newest sponsors, Omlet, sent me one of their chicken fencing kits. Having moved to a new place with more predators and more areas for the girls to get into trouble, they quickly realized that they had a solution to one of my very essential problems. Despite supervising their free-ranging, I was yearning for a way to keep my girls contained in a single area while I could continue to work in the yard nearby. My problem was solved when their fencing arrived on my doorstep.

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Chickens Eggs Stories from Our Nest

Chicken Behavior: All the Eggs in One Nesting Box

June 8, 2017July 31, 2017 by Melissa

Have you ever seen this? Do your chickens seem to lay all their eggs in one nesting box? Well, my chickens certainly do. My flock has this strange habit but it turns out that I am not alone. Other chicken keeper’s chickens do this as well.

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Chickens Eggs Health Issues Videos

All About Double Yolk Eggs from Chickens

May 29, 2017September 22, 2017 by Melissa

I knew about these eggs with double yolks. I had seen plenty of chicken keepers sharing double yolk eggs with their audiences. It has been seven years since starting out keeping chickens and we still were waiting for one. Then this past week, one of the chickens laid a huge egg. It was about the size of two eggs and took up my entire hand. I thought surely, this must be a double yolk egg. At first, I didn’t want to crack it open. I let it sit on the counter with its sister eggs, so that I could admire it when I was in the kitchen. It was so large and pretty and I know that the chicken that laid it must have had quite to the effort to pass it. Then last night, the kids wanted eggs for dinner. It was time.

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Chickens Gardening Gardening with Chickens Plants Projects Tours

Garden Restyling and Refurbishing Makeover

May 26, 2017July 9, 2017 by Melissa

As many of you know, late last summer I moved to a new home. The thought of starting the gardens over was overwhelming, But luckily for me, one of the things that I loved most about the new place was the potential that I saw in the landscape. I wasn’t going to have to start from scratch again, but I certainly knew that I would need to make it my own. It just needed a bit of garden restyling. You can imagine my surprise at our final walkthrough when I discovered that the previous owners stopped watering as soon as we signed the purchase and sale agreement. When we moved in everything, and I mean everything, had dried up. Plants were dead and the earth was a giant dust bowl. I prayed that everything was just dormant and would return come spring.

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Chickens Stories from Our Nest

Spring Travels 2017: Out and About

May 16, 2017 by Melissa

Wow! All of a sudden it’s mid- May and I find myself having returned home from a whirlwind of adventures and spring travels. I’ve missed you so. From Orlando,where we last left off- I hopped straight on a plane to the Country Living Fair in Nashville. I wanted to share with you some of the amazing highlights of my time on the road.

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Gardening Gardening with Chickens Plants Projects

Get Dirty: How to Plant a Window Box

April 12, 2017April 28, 2017 by Melissa

One of the easiest ways to garden and add a touch of seasonal whimsy to your chicken coop, garden shed, or home is by adding a window box or two. If planted properly, window boxes do not require a lot of care and can easily be changed or added to as you desire. Today I wanted to share a few tips, tricks and secrets to help extend the life of the window box, how to chose the right soil, how to properly feed your plants and suggest some lovely fail-proof plantings.

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