My Pet Chicken Blog

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 […]

In my neighborhood, olive trees are a pretty common landscaping tree. They’re in many parks and backyards, dropping olives, staining sidewalks and shoes, and making a general mess.  Olive picking sounds like fun, but you don’t know pain until you’ve sprained an ankle on a slimy olive pit, slid down the sidewalk, and been dumped unceremoniously […]

I have an embarrassingly large number of chickens who eat quite a bit of food. (Let’s not get into actual numbers of birds I may or may not have, because then the chicken math I keep in my head starts to break down.) So when my friend Judi showed me her DIY No-Waste feeder, I had to make a waste […]

My post about the Five Rules for Keeping Multiple Roosters is one that tends to get a lot of interest—and that makes sense! After all, if you’re hatching your own chicks at home, unless you have divine powers, you’re more or less guaranteed to hatch too many roosters for a laying flock. You typically want […]

Biosecurity for your flock means both cleaning AND sanitizing. But a lot of people don’t necessarily realize there’s a difference, or why you should be doing both. So let’s talk the basics of biosecurity. CLEANING is simply removing the gunk. When your chickens kick up dirt, bedding or other detritus into their waterers or feeders,  you clean […]

We have always advised practicing good biosecurity with your birds. When you handle them, make sure to wash your hands—make especially sure your children wash their hands. Baby chicks look like adorable, kissable little fluff balls. But of course they’re walking and pecking around in poopy litter. Erg. That’s a salmonella danger. While backyard pet […]

“Free Range Eggs!” Before having chickens of my own I though this was the gold standard of eggs and what I should look for.  You don’t want eggs from chickens that are confined, right? Well, when looking into the horror that is factory egg production I realized that a “Free Range” stamp was not all […]

It’s that time of year when your luscious green grass starts to dry up and become crunchy and brown.  It doesn’t look very appetizing, so why would your chickens want that? Wouldn’t you want a fresh green salad all year round? Well, HELLO FODDER!!! Sprouting fodder for your chickens is similar to growing sprouts for human consumption. […]