My Pet Chicken Blog

Our personal flock recently had its very first illness, and I am 100% to blame. In seven years, we’ve had to worm our flock ONCE. That’s the single solitary health problem we’ve ever had. Then, I had to go and get dumb. Although I’m smacking my forehead and slightly embarrassed about my lapse in judgment, […]

My chickens are gifts that keep on giving. Nothing they create goes to waste. In my previous article about composting chicken poo, I mentioned how even chicken waste isn’t wasted, but put to use in my garden. Egg shells can go into the compost pile, too, and they make an excellent, enriching addition–mine sometimes do–but […]

Part 2: Raising worms to feed your chickens This is the second installment of my post on raising worms to feed your chickens! Part 1 can be viewed here. When I build my beds, I start by laying in my bedding. Strips of newspaper, manure or peat moss makes very good bedding. Then I moisten […]

As a gardener I take advantage of my chickens’ droppings whenever I can.  First, I get all dressed in my chicken cleaning uniform, gloves and boots,  then trudge out to the coops with shovel in hand. When I clean the coops I make sure nothing is wasted and it all gets moved right to my […]

You know what else chickens can do for you? They can help you make beer at home. No kidding. We have chicken beer all the time–the girls just LOVE helping! Well… all right, it’s not “chicken beer,” exactly. It’s not beer made from chickens. It’s not even beer made FOR chickens. (Is that what you […]

Some of my most cherished memories from childhood are from the years I lived on my grandparent’s 160 acre farm in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. My grandfather would plow his fields with a team of mules and I would plod along behind busting up dirt clods with my bare feet. We had chickens that […]