My Pet Chicken Blog

Recently I have been made aware that there is a fascinating “new” breed of chicken floating around the internet.  No one knows what it is called, where it comes from, or where to get one. It would seem it was first spotted on Pinterest, which is a great place for locating the new and unusual, never-before-seen […]

Crisp autumn air surrounded me as I went to feed the chickens this morning. Dried leaves crunched under my feet and the hens scratched for the last of the bugs trying to keep warm under the fall carpet. This season makes me start to dream. The birds look so pretty in their fine “dresses” as […]

Hatching eggs can be such a fun adventure!  It can be fraught with ups and downs, successes and failures… chicks and no chicks. It’s pretty easy to get NO chicks… but to get YES chicks, you want to calibrate your hygrometer properly. I was always an AVID hatcher, but I have to admit, it doesn’t mean I […]

Chickens are so easy to raise that they fit almost anywhere. Many are in small suburban backyards where predator loads are smaller, and flocks are a little easier to protect. However, some of us live on larger, wilder land and have to deal with an additional variety of predators that would love a good chicken […]

I’m a Lavender Orpington, and my name is Hermione… although usually mom just calls me “Good girl!” There are lots of things my mom especially loves about me, so she wanted me to tell you about myself to illustrate the 5 best points of the Orpington chicken breed. But I’m not just a pretty face. […]

I may have a flock of spoiled chickens. My brother-in-law has started his first job: he works at a bagel shop, and he knows the way to my hens’ hearts. His company normally donates any leftover bagels to halfway houses and homeless shelters, but on occasion, in support of spoiled chickens, he brings the inedibly stale […]

Has your chicken math exceeded your run space? Have you decided to add a run to an existing coop for added predator protection? Whatever point you are at in your flock care you will eventually hit the point where you need to add some protected space for your birds. To inspire some ideas about designing your own custom […]

We all hate wasted bird feed, all those little bits that spill out of hanging feeders onto the ground, or the excess waste of crumbles or pellets lost from a ground feeder due to scratching hens. There is a cost to this wasted food, especially when you run out a week sooner than expected, and have to […]

Now that the heat of summer has passed, and the fall nights are cooler, you may have noticed your coop is a little messier than normal. Perhaps much, much messier. This time of year, whenever I collect eggs I can’t help but wonder: is it Molting Season or do I have Exploding Chickens? With autumn comes molting […]

The lovely array of available chicken breeds lay a rainbow of colors for backyard chicken keepers’ egg baskets. The feeling you get from gifting a dozen eggs to a friend and the moment they open it to see colors they didn’t think were possible (outside of egg dying) is gratifying. These yummy little orbs make anyone’s meal or […]