My Pet Chicken Blog

Spring has almost arrived! March 20th, 2020 is the spring equinox and we will all soon be enjoying more sunlight hours, with earlier dawns and later sunsets. (Thank goodness….) Here’s my March backyard chicken checklist to help you prepare for spring with chickens. 1.Incorporate chickens into your garden plans Gardening is the whole reason I […]

One of the best parts about working at My Pet Chicken is being able to talk about chickens, all day long, with people who like talking about chickens!  We discuss young birds, and old birds and everything in between. If you’ve just caught the chicken-fever, you know what I am talking about when I say […]

Let’s talk luxury. After all, there are chicken needs, and there is chicken indulgence. I’ll be the first to admit that most people view a second coop as an indulgence, not a need. But there are certain circumstances where the second coop can quite literally be a lifesaver for your flock. Update: Right now (July 2017), we […]

This post was written by Joyce. You have to admire the perseverance of a would-be mother hen.  I have a Salmon Favorelles named Laverne who would starve on the nest before she would give up being a broody hen, even when there are no eggs under her.  As a rule, when I’d like a broody […]

Mostly, chickens will lay eggs in the nest boxes you provide for them. Instinct usually has them prefer enclosed, shady, out-of-the-way spots for laying, and nest boxes usually provide that. Your nest box can be something built in to your coop… or it can be a modified bucket, an old drawer, a fruit crate and […]

I wrote a post a while ago, entitled “three ways chickens will freak you out.” A recent comment by a reader reminded me of another way chickens can freak you out, and it inspired me to share the story of how I almost gave our chicken sitter a heart attack! Poor John. He didn’t take his “chicken sitter” duties […]

Every so often, I give in to one of my persistent broodies and let her raise chicks for me. I wasn’t planning to raise any more chicks this year, but couldn’t resist when my cute broody bantam hen became broody again.  Typically, my broody hens raise their babies outdoors, but I’ve found that my chicks raised outdoors, with less human interaction, tend to […]

My first attempt at hatching eggs did not go so well, but I had quite a surprising experience on day 21!  This unique experience made up for all the sadness and worry I had been going through with this batch of fertile hatching eggs. Three and a half years ago, when I was still fairly new to chicken raising, I did not own an incubator, […]

  Even after years of chicken keeping, I have yet to try incubating myself.  I have 8 wonderful Silkies who are willing to hatch just about anything I give them. When I’m not in the mood to be overrun with chicks, but they insist on going broody, I toss them a couple of golf balls to keep them happy. Over […]

Silkie hens want to be moms. That’s just about it for Silkie hens. They live for it. If they aren’t raising chicks, they are brooding eggs or thinking about raising chicks or brooding eggs. I have the feeling that they talk about it amongst themselves when we’re not around. So when my little White Silkie […]