Rats and Mice in the Chicken Coop: How to Keep Them Out
Rats and chickens end up sharing the same backyard more often than most new keepers expect, and once rats find …
Walk-In Chicken Coops: Is the Extra Space Worth It?
Crouching into a hutch-style coop to collect eggs or scoop out bedding gets old fast, usually somewhere around the third …
Keeping Chickens Cool and Safe in Summer Heat
Chickens are built for cold far better than they are built for heat. A hen can fluff her feathers and …
Predator-Proofing a Chicken Coop and Run: A Building Checklist
A predator proof chicken coop is rarely the result of one big decision. It is the sum of a dozen …
Isolating a Sick Chicken: Why Separation Helps Your Flock
A hen sitting quietly by herself in a corner, fluffed up and unwilling to move, is one of the more …
Nesting Boxes for Chickens: Sizing, Placement, and Setup
Hens do not need much to lay reliably: a dim, quiet, appropriately sized box, in roughly the right place. Get …
Introducing New Chickens to an Established Flock the Right Way
Introducing new chickens to flock life rarely goes smoothly if it happens all at once. An established flock has a …
What Chickens Can and Can’t Eat: A Backyard Feeding Guide
Kitchen scraps feel like an obvious way to reduce waste and treat a flock at the same time, and most …
How to Tell If a Chicken Is Male or Female
A box of straight run chicks looks like a uniform ball of fluff for the first several weeks, and that …
How Much Space Do Chickens Need? Coop and Run Basics
Ask five experienced keepers how much space chickens need and you will get five slightly different numbers, none of them …
How to Keep Chickens Warm in Winter Without a Heat Lamp
The instinct is understandable: temperatures drop, and the first thought is to get a heat source into the coop as …
How to Keep Chicken Water From Freezing This Winter
A waterer that was full and liquid at dusk can be a solid block of ice by morning once temperatures …