Found 115 hits.

Perfect Pie Crust to Use or Freeze – Recipes

...if overused, make the crust tough. Pulse the butter, flour and salt in the processor until the butter is the size of small peas. Pulse with quick bursts, not letting the machine run for more than a couple of seconds at a time. Pulse in just enough water (about 6 tablespoons) so that the dough becomes crumbly and barely holds together. I pulse and pour at the same time. Many pie crust recipes recommend putting the dough in the refrigerator for a half-hour or more. I’ve found that the butter-filled dough becomes too hard to work. By using frozen butter,...

Bare Butts, Feather Loss and Feather Picking – FAQ – Health and Behavior

...just look unkempt. For more about molting, see this post. When a hen goes broody, she’ll pull out her breast feathers so that her skin is in contact with the eggs. If you have a bad-tempered, bare-chested hen sitting in a nesting box, she’s healthy, but broody. One clue to what is amiss is where the bare spots are. If you have a rooster, you’re likely to see feather loss around the neck and back, due to the rooster pulling out and shredding feathers when he treads the hens. Sometimes the rooster favors one hen, so that her saddle (back)...

Setting Up Your Own Camera – FAQ

...USB cable. These cameras are generally used for video conferencing and video instant messaging, but instead of pointing the camera at you, just point it out the window. Unfortunately the camera has to remain indoors and close to the computer (maximum length of a USB cable is 5 meters). Also typically you can only watch the video from that computer. For more information see this tutorial at HowStuffWorks. Network camera If the camera has to be far away from your computer then you need a network camera. These self-contained cameras are not attached to a computer, they just need power...

Little Barn Coop Plans – FAQ – Housing

I have two barns in my backyard. The “Big Barn” is the barn with the Dutch doors that you can see from the HenCam camera (and you can see the inside of it from the BarnCam and GoatCam). It’s a lovely post and beam structure, bought as a kit, and put together by the manufacturer, Country Carpenters. Instead of the standard wood floor, I had a concrete slab installed. The other barn is a small shed. Ours was custom-built, but it is similar to the prefab buildings for sale at home centers. What makes this coop so charming are the...

Believe the Ears – HenBlog – Wednesday, October 7, 2015

...around agility courses? Clicker trained. It’s transformed how animals are cared for in zoos. An elephant needs a pedicure? Instead of using punishing restraints, use clicker training and she’ll offer her foot. However, it’s been slow to come to the horse world, where whips, spurs, chasing, kicking, yelling and severe tack remain the norm. People who go into clicker training with their horses do so because they want a kinder, gentler way. They don’t want to use force, they want the behavior to be mutually rewarding for both horse and owner. What could be better than teaching with cookies? But,...

The Broody Hen and the Bunny – HenBlog – Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Broody hens looks so content and motherly, fluffed up on their nests. Just DO NOT disturb them. That puts them in a BAD mood. A broody hen in a bad mood wants to take it out on someone. But not on someone that might peck back. They still respect the pecking order. A broody hen in a bad mood is likely to do something that that very same hen, if not broody and if not in a bad mood would never do – like attack the innocent rabbit. Eggers has been broody for weeks. She sits on everyone else’s eggs...

Good Outing/Bad Outing – HenBlog – Tuesday, March 8, 2016

...soil into a wide swath of flying dust? The chickens say, the more the merrier. I call that bad.   The Goat Boys had an outing. Eating weeds and thorny runner vines in the meadow? We all agree that is good.   Scratching itchy heads on the peach tree trunk is good, too.   Eating the decorative cherry bush? That’s bad. At least I say it is.   Lano says that rolling in the dirt is good. His owner has another word for it.   Tonka says that a walk in the woods on such a day is as good...

Good Broody / Bad Broody – HenBlog – Thursday, July 5, 2012

Pearl and Beryl are both broody. Both are fluffed up and hot. Both think that they have to hunker down in a nesting box in order to incubate (non-existent) eggs. But that’s where the similarity ends. Beryl is in an angry, bad mood. Pearl sits placidly on the nest. Beryl can’t bear to be moved. When I let the hens out to free-range, I disentangle the two broodies from their boxes and toss them outside, too. Beryl chrrrrs in frustration and runs back inside. Pearl goes for a stroll and takes a half-hour to scratch and eat. Broody Pearl on...

Beulah Returns – HenBlog – Monday, February 3, 2014

The nursing home hens have been doing their job. The memory loss residents watch what’s going on in the coop from their activity room windows. Other residents have to go outside to see the chickens, which isn’t a bad thing. I heard from a friend who’s mother is in rehab there after a broken hip. On Saturday the weather warmed to the 40s and she wheeled Marian outside to see the flock. If not for the animals, they would have stayed indoors. My friend looks forward to bringing the great-grandchildren for a visit.   The other thing that the hens...

A Life Transformed – HenBlog – Tuesday, December 17, 2013

...was going to be transformed. I could hear! My husband was there with me, and when Steve spoke from across the room, I could hear him. I could hear every word! Too bad Steve sounded like Darth Vader’s wimpy cousin. It is not like putting on new glasses, when the world suddenly comes into focus. The brain has to figure out what those inputs mean. I gave my brain lessons. I listened to slow and steady narrators of wildlife documentaries on my iPad. I listened to audio books with clear-voiced actors. It had been years since I’d been able to...

Euthanizing a Hen – HenBlog – Tuesday, October 28, 2014

...see how serious this was, so I isolated her overnight in a dog crate. Manure production would be telling. The next day I didn’t find any poo. This was bad. I dosed her with olive oil and epsom salts diluted in water. She continued to be an active member of the flock. She ate. She drank. But Etheldred’s crop remained too large and hard. I fed her a bit of bread soaked in oil. She ate it up. She roosted with the others. But her crop remained hard. Finally, yesterday morning, she did not come off of the roost. I...

Social Feather Picking – HenBlog – Monday, March 24, 2014

...see stressed hens, in fact, everyone is laying. Yesterday, each of the six Ladies laid eggs, as did six of the ten Gems. I’m observant. If it escalates, I’l know. If a hen is harmed, I’ll know. But, I doubt it. It’s a bad habit that doesn’t seem to bother anyone but me. I’ve made peace with the feather picking. I don’t think it will ever fully stop, bad habits rarely do. But, I’m ever hopeful that when the snow finally melts away and the hens have dirt to scratch and wallow it, bugs to find, and sunshine to bask...

Hens in the Garden – HenBlog – Tuesday, February 2, 2010

...plus degrees everyday for two weeks and not even a frost at night... Ken from St Louis Mine have the same routine has yours Terry. I too let them roam in the spring in summer while I'm out but they can be sneakly little biddies. I look away for a second and one of them are in a flower bed!!!! Cindy Oh, Terry, how refreshing of you to post the 'green' garden photos of last summer at this cold, icy-blue time of year! You are right. The hens can't discriminate between the 'good' and 'bad' bugs and just like my...

Chickens in Orchards – The Vintage Hen – Tuesday, July 31, 2012

It’s peach season. I have one tree. This year’s crop was not only sparse, but also wormy. After cutting away the bad parts (and feeding to the chickens) I had only 2 small bowls of peaches for breakfast. This afternoon I’m going to a farmers market to buy peaches, as the season is fleeting and I need some for eating, and a bushel to freeze for pies this winter. Starting this fall, I’m going to try a new method of peach borer worm control. Chickens. A few of my vintage poultry books detail how to integrate a flock into a...

Integrating One Hen Into A Flock – HenBlog – Tuesday, February 4, 2014

...your animals is to spend quiet time observing them. This often doesn’t happen in winter when the temps are well below freezing. Within a half-hour of watching, I discovered a serious problem. Misty is a feather picker. I saw her walk up to Owly, who stood there placidly, while she pulled feathers out of her neck. Misty did the same to Beatrix and even to the higher status Nancy Drew. Bad behavior is not always accompanied by commotion, so this had been going on for awhile without me knowing it. Feather picking is very bad, and I’ll write about it...

The Three Nursing Home Hens – HenBlog – Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Nursing Home Project began with five hens. I was concerned that five were too many for the space, but I also thought that there’d be losses. I was right on both counts. Clementine, the favorite hen, died of internal laying. Beulah, the Black Star, decided that her flock mates were too close to her and she was too bored, so she got into the bad habit of feather picking. I brought her back home, where she is reformed. The nursing home flock is now down to three. Three hens are just right. They all get along. They’re busy, and...

An Early Molt – HenBlog – Tuesday, August 10, 2010

...everywhere, and yet she looks as sleek and glossy as ever. Some girls are like that. Never a bad hair day for her. Some hens don’t molt until the cold weather settles in. They’ll look partly naked, their skin will show, and you’ll worry about them. Don’t. They always seem to do fine. New feathers will appear. The feathers will look like porcupine quills, and the hen will be all prickly with them. It looks uncomfortable, way worse then stubble after shaving, but the chickens don’t seem to mind. Hen keepers never look forward to the molt. The coop is...

Preparing for the Chicks – HenBlog – Tuesday, April 5, 2011

In just a few weeks there will be fifteen little fluff ball chicks in my barn. I’ve a lot to do before they come. I’m doing a thorough cleaning before they arrive. All living organisms have colonies of microbes living within them. The chicks will be going from the comparatively sterile environment of the hatchery to my property, which has had chickens on it for eight years, and wild birds and animals on it forever. It’s not a bad thing for the chicks to be exposed to the real world, but it will take awhile for their immune systems to...

How To Stop a Broody Hen From Brooding – HenBlog – Monday, June 6, 2011

...breast feathers, so that her skin (which, by the way, elevates in temperature when broody) has direct contact with the egg. They’ll flatten out. They’ll be in a VERY BAD MOOD. Once a day they’ll get off the nest, leave a humungous stinky pile of poo, eat, drink, and go back on the nest. If you want the fun of hatching eggs and raising chicks, a broody hen will do the job. But most of us don’t want that. We want pleasant hens laying eggs, not feathered furies occupying the nesting boxes. I have two bantam White Leghorn hens. They...

Caper Goes to the Vet – HenBlog – Thursday, May 13, 2010

...of that target stick just about anywhere. So, instead of tugging and pulling, I simply had them go towards the stick. Still, Steve had to pick the boys up and put them in the van. The ride was surprisingly uneventful. A bit of meh-mehing. They were so busy learning how to stand up in a moving vehicle, that they didn’t try to dismantle the back seat. The drive to the vet’s office is only 20 minutes. We waited outside. The boys decided to do some landscaping for Dr. Sarah. These branches needed trimming. The boys noticed plants inside and offered...

Nesting Boxes – HenBlog – Thursday, June 15, 2006

It is raining again, which means that the hens are bored and a tad uncomfortable. Their feathers are bedraggled. Instead of lolling about in the warm dirt taking dust baths, they brave the rain for a few minutes, then crowd inside the henhouse. Instead of quickly laying their eggs and hurrying outside to find a curiosity or a tidbit, they want to hunker down in a nesting box. We have three nesting boxes for eleven hens, which is usually plenty. But Snowball and Blackie are broody, so they have staked out two and are immovable. That leaves only one box....

Sweet Clementine – HenBlog – Thursday, April 10, 2014

...so easily, and so that was good, too. I did a necropsy, which confirmed what I had deduced. Clementine was an internal layer. Instead of the yolks progressing down the reproductive tract, and forming eggs, they were dropping into the body cavity. This is not uncommon. Sometimes a yolk misses the fallopian tubes, and so drops into the body cavity, where it is reabsorbed, and so the hen is ill briefly, and then she recovers. Sometimes the fluids in the body cavity become infected. Dosed with antibiotics, the hen might stabilize, the unformed eggs solidify, and she can go on...

Hens Don’t Have Teeth – HenBlog – Friday, April 20, 2012

Contrary to what you see in the movie Chicken Run, chickens don’t have teeth. Like all birds, they have beaks. Which means they can’t chew – at least not in their mouths. Instead, they eat tiny rocks, which are stored in their gizzard. The gizzard is a tough and powerful muscle, and as it squeezes and churns, it uses the rocks to grind up the food. Today is one of those days that I wish I had a beak and a gizzard. Instead, I have teeth, which despite me doting on them day and night require much attention by my...

Coop Ventilation – HenBlog – Friday, May 23, 2014

...of, the frozen combs could be linked back to inadequate ventilation. Chicken manure is 75 to 80% moisture. Additionally, when chickens breathe, they expel moist air. Damp air holds germs and viruses and causes respiratory ailments. Additionally, when manure breaks down, ammonia fumes are released, which, when breathed by chickens (and humans) can cause respiratory distress. We’re well aware of this in the summer, when the coop smells bad and the air feels humid. But, in the winter, most chicken keepers don’t worry about damp air because the coop feels dry when the weather is frigid. Although the air doesn’t...

Brood Coops – The Vintage Hen – Thursday, March 21, 2013

On Saturday, March 30, thousands of chicks will hatch at Murray McMurray. Twenty-five of them will be shipped on the next day and arrive at my post office first thing on Monday morning, April 1. When I ordered the chicks in the middle of the winter, I’d had images of their arrival at the beginning of a new season, with fresh green grass on the lawn and crocuses coming up in the woodland. April Fools joke on me! This is what my front yard looks like. Instead of putting the chicks into a heated brooder, I had hoped that I’d...

Handling The Chicks – HenBlog – Thursday, April 18, 2013

...on my lap while unfamiliar hands pet them. In contrast to the good behavior of the Gems was what happened to a group of chicks raised on a farm and used in an educational program. They were handled daily by children. At the end of the season the farmer gave the pullets to myself and a few other backyard chicken keepers that he knew. Instead of being acclimatized to people, they wanted nothing to do with us. Every one of those chickens had behavior problems. Now, it’s likely that if you have a few chicks and are handling them gently...

Twiggy Keeps Laying – HenBlog – Friday, November 14, 2014

Only one of the seventeen hens in my backyard is laying.   Twiggy. She is a two-year old White Leghorn. Twiggy was the first of a batch of twenty-five chicks (that arrived here in the spring of 2013) to lay. She produced her first egg at the age of 17 weeks. She then laid one egg a day for an astounding two weeks straight before taking a 24 hour break and resuming production. She laid all through last winter, not daily, but enough so that there was always a white egg in the refrigerator. Twiggy is now 20 months old....

Why I Don’t Use Avian Vets – HenBlog – Monday, December 17, 2012

...them all. The vet did not do any blood work, and the diagnosis was one that could have been determined with a quick on-line search. If you do need medical care for your flock, I recommend that Instead of finding an avian vet, look for a large animal practice, preferably with a vet on staff who keeps a flock of chickens on her own farm. Every few years I run fecal samples to make sure that my chickens don’t carry a load of parasites. The avian vet, two towns over, insists that first I need to bring the “patient” in...

I Like Mules – The Vintage Hen – Monday, December 9, 2013

A mule looks sort of like a horse with long ears, a long face, bristles instead of a mane along the neck, and a wisp of a tail. I’ve never ridden one, but I’ve known a few, and I like them a lot. I’ve done several pack trips through wild mountains here in North America. We dudes were on horses, but many of the pack animals were mules, especially the one entrusted with the bulky and awkward and all-important cookstove. I’ve known wranglers who prefer riding mules. The head cowboy on a trip through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in...

Chickens Get Bored – HenBlog – Friday, June 28, 2013

Chickens are charming because they are innately curious, busy-body birds. They’re in constant motion, investigating new things (is this shiny droplet food?), socializing, scratching, pecking, dozing, and chasing (each other and anything small that moves that might be edible.) Unless they are outside in a large and complex environment, they get bored. Boredom, as with all animals, leads to trouble. With chickens, that trouble leads to bad behaviors, like pecking each other, and pulling out feathers (their own and others). Chickens that would otherwise be high-status hens become bullies. Chickens that would otherwise be wallflowers are cornered and pounded on....

What Chickens Don't Eat – HenBlog – Wednesday, September 24, 2008

...at any danger. Despite the fact that chickens are always hungry and always on the look-out for something wiggly, they won’t go near these. Buffy pecked at one and then walked away. Perhaps the sawfly larvae taste as bad as they look? Does anyone know about a chicken’s sense of taste? The girls also refuse to eat fuzzy caterpillars, which means they aren’t helpful with the tent caterpillars either. The bantam hens don’t like tomato horn worms. Too big. Luckily, the large hens in my flock fight over them. We tend to think of chickens as indiscriminate eaters. But they’re...

Why Outside Roosts – HenBlog – Monday, July 13, 2015

The other day, a small drama played itself out in the Little Barn’s pen. Veronica, the Marans hen, has gone broody. Midday, she took her bad-tempered and ruffled-feather self out of the nest to eat, drink, poop, dust bathe and preen. Broody hens look different – their feathers not only stick straight up, making them look larger and of a different shape, but they’ve often pulled some feathers out of their breast (the better to incubate those eggs that they deludedly believe that they have.) Different is not welcome in a flock. The other hens pecked at her head and...

A Cause of Odd Eggs – HenBlog – Friday, June 14, 2013

It’s very difficult, as the keeper of a small and varied backyard flock, to make an accurate diagnosis about most health issues. Hen standing like a penguin? It could be cancer. Or she could be constipated. Rattly breath? Respiratory disease (and there are many) or ascites, or peritonitis. Or she swallowed a bit of straw wrong and will be fine by evening. If you’re looking for answers and go to an on-line poultry forum you’ll get a lot of misinformation, rehashing of Damerow’s books, and maybe some good tips, if you can sort the useful from the bad. There are...

Chickens and Dogs – HenBlog – Wednesday, May 28, 2014

...ignored puppy on a farm, she learned to hunt and eat rabbits and such. Added to that history is her highly reactive temperament. When she sees movement, she chases. She tears off like a streak first, and thinks later. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The local coyotes, herons, hawks, raccoons (and the list goes on) stay clear of our backyard. But, a dog with such a strong prey drive can’t always distinguish between a chicken scratching in the woods and a squirrel.   Some big dogs are fine with chickens. My late, great Nimbus, was the ideal dog to...

Dangerous Heat – HenBlog – Wednesday, July 7, 2010

...temperature gauge, thinking it’d go down now that the car wasn’t baking on pavement. I got on the Bronx-Queens Expressway. Overheated vehicles were in the breakdown lane, their owners squinting in the sun, waiting for help. My car’s outside thermometer read 109 (Fahrenheit, that’s 42.7 C.) I did not want to be in one of those stalled cars. It’s never relaxing driving out of NYC, but this time it was scary. Far out of the city, in Connecticut, the thermometer remained in the triple digits. I knew things were bad when I saw ten tractor trailers, pulled off and parked...

Keeping the Girls Busy – HenBlog – Wednesday, October 6, 2010

...and a short roost (as is seen in coops advertised for “up to ten chickens”) there’d be bloodshed. Keeping the girls amused with greens keeps everyone healthy. I’ve attached a suet feeder inside the coop and on bad-weather days fill it with whatever vegetables I have around. Today my garden has overgrown lettuce, so I clipped a bunch and gave it to the hens. They’ll peck at it instead of each other. Also, feeding greens through the fall and winter is a good nutritional supplement. It’s also nice for the bunny! There’s no crowding problem in the big barn. The...

Their Eggs and Our Eggs – HenBlog – Tuesday, August 31, 2010

...item that claimed that the salmonella outbreak could have been prevented if the hens had been vaccinated, which is yet another example of how factory farming would like to rely on drugs and not good husbandry. Even federal health inspectors admit that one possible reason that the eggs were bad is that the housing was unsanitary (to put it mildly – the hens lived in rodent infested, manure-packed chicken houses.) At a time when communities are trying to change regulations to allow for the urban and village hennery, it’s very important that the distinction between what we do and what...

Blizzard Ready – HenBlog – Monday, January 26, 2015

Sonja Looking good..I do mean the guys and girls housing.. not the weather lol. I just came back in from shoveling snow, it has been coming down non stop for a day and a half now. Some fresh bedding and straw for my girls in their coop, pen cleared from the little snow that blew in. Pop door open and some goodies in the pen for the girls. The temperature is not 2 bad at all so they have been outside already, carefully tip toe so they don't touch the little bit of snow I didn't get from the ground...

Goat Yoga – HenBlog – Monday, October 8, 2012

I’ve been told that yoga will help my bad back. I’m not a yoga sort of person. I’ve tried classes before and I have to say that so-called calming meditation makes me tense. However, slow yoga stretches do help. I’ve signed up for another class starting in November. I’m hoping that the instructor doesn’t ring chimes and talk in a monotone. If that class doesn’t work out, maybe I have a yogi right in my backyard?...

Who’s To Blame? – HenBlog – Friday, February 25, 2011

petoskystone bad mommy! *bad* joyce Renshaw We have light flurries this morning too. It stuck to our iron table on deck outside the bedroom. Amazing for us! Cambria, CA joyce Kathleen Horrible, nasty weather here in New Hampshire, too. Cocker Spaniel has given up on going out and is burrowed into sheepskin bed like a hibernating bear. Maybe my Egg Cookbook will come today, I can't wait! Melissa Poor Lily! On a side note...what happened to the temp gauge on the cams? Ken At least Lilly has someone to blame. Magic Cochin Cats are so very different! They know that...

A Scary Day – HenBlog – Friday, August 14, 2015

...the wrappers :) Too bad some of the things that are bad for them still get eaten! Robin SO GLAD Pip is okay. I saw rhododendron and didn't want to read anymore. I just had to put my hamster down and didn't want more death. But I also 'had' to know, so like Deanne, I had to skip to the ending. Whew! {{{HUGS}}} to you and yours and Pip. Tori McKee Oh my goodness - I'm so sorry you all went through that! So very glad to hear Pip came through it okay! judy n. thank goodness, I was going...

Coop Cleaning Routine – HenBlog – Monday, October 21, 2013

...  I’m careful to keep Phoebe in. She checks where everyone has gone to.   Buffy gets carried onto the lawn and set into a warm patch of sun.   The goats get closed out of their stall, otherwise they will “help.” Have you ever tried to wield a shovel and bucket around a goat? Unless you’re a comedienne developing a slapstick routine, I suggest you don’t.   Although the goat stall doesn’t look too bad,   it does need shoveling up and airing out.   I also sweep and shovel up the manure that piles up in their outdoor...

Thank Yous – HenBlog – Sunday, May 1, 2011

lauren scheuer So fun to read the story of the BFF's! Lis Lovely story about BFFs. (Total shot in the dark, but camp TW? Me, too, three years in the late 70s.) Jen Sounds like a great two days.... it's so wonderful that spring/summer are beginning which means a plethora of events like Green Fair! I appreciate four distinct seasons, but I love the growing/harvest time the best. I never realized you were a horse person (or I forgot). Anyway, I had the great pleasure recently of working on a documentary about the real-life horse whisperer Buck Brannaman and I...

The Best Scrambled Eggs – HenBlog – Monday, February 17, 2014

...a splash of milk and a pinch of kosher salt. The eggs went into the pan (Lily got the bowl to lick) where they cooked over medium heat. As the egg set, I moved them gently about with a spatula.   In about three minutes, just as my hands were thawing out from the barn chores, I had perfect scrambled eggs.   If I thought I’d have to separate eggs for yolks, and then find a use for the extra whites, I would have had cereal instead. That said, sometimes even I embellish scrambled eggs with cheese and/or sautéed vegetables....

Feather Picking – HenBlog – Wednesday, February 5, 2014

...she is also an overly assertive hen who had become too pushy. She’s now in with the Gems, who I’m hoping won’t let her near them to get a feather or peck at a comb. (I’ve been watching, and she’s tried to feather pick. It’s too early to know how this will play out.) I’ve fortunate to have the Gems, a sensible and calm flock of hens who don’t put up with nonsense. They reformed Edwina, who was a bully, and would have killed Buffy if she could have, but in with the Gems she is a polite old lady....

Storm Preparation for Chicken Coops – HenBlog – Friday, January 23, 2015

...be inside for at least a day, and I want to make sure that their coops are dry and fully stocked.   Water is more essential than food. We don’t have running water in the barns in the winter (the pipes would burst, and so they’re drained and turned off in November.) But, there is electricity. So, instead of hauling water out daily, I’ve installed a Auto Amazon Links: No products found. http_request_failed: A valid URL was not provided. URL: https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?SearchIndex=All&multipageStart=0&multipageCount=20&Operation=GetResults&Keywords=B000HHQ2YY&InstanceId=0&TemplateId=MobileSearchResults&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US Cache: AAL_87f82f0d9878a2d9f728e0ea29b4d1c4 for a water source. It’s so much more convenient to fill the waterers from this than to...

Onyx’s Egg – HenBlog – Thursday, June 13, 2013

...I haven’t found many of Onyx’s eggs. She’s laying infrequently, and when she does produce an egg, it could easily be broken. Making fewer, and less than sturdy eggs, is not unusual for hens in their second full year of lay. Even with an excellent diet, shells thin and production drops. (I’ll be writing about this more in a future post.) The danger to the hen is when the shells thin out so much that they break inside of her before laying. The trouble for the henkeeper is when chickens find broken eggs, they get into the bad habit of...

Digging Dandelions – HenBlog – Wednesday, April 18, 2012

I have a large lawn. I don’t need it to be perfect, but I do try to keep the lawn free of dandelions. The problem with dandelions is that although they’re pretty from a distance, their leaves spread out and kill grass. Eventually you have lumpy, dull greens and bare patches of dirt instead of lawn. I don’t use chemicals to control the weeds. I know someone who did, and all of the fish in his pond died. Other things, important things, like bugs and microbes, die, too. Besides, even though I don’t want yellow dandelions in my lawn, I...

Spa Treatment Update – HenBlog – Monday, December 15, 2014

...for the backyard chicken keeper. I’ve written why here. Instead, you have to be able to observe your birds and make decisions on your own. The honest truth is that most of the time hens show signs of illness only when they are suffering from something fatal – cancer, peritonitis, internal laying, ascites, etc. In those cases, euthanasia is a kindness. But, once in awhile, the hen has a problem that can be alleviated, and almost always, the cure is my Spa Treatment. Simply put, it is a warm epsom salt soak and a dose of olive oil. Read why...

Old Hen Update – HenBlog – Tuesday, December 4, 2012

...is incurable and is letting it run its course. Siouxsie continues to eat and seems oblivious to her ailment. She could keep on like this for quite awhile. I’ll be trimming her top knot back again. It wouldn’t hurt for her to be able to see where she’s going. Her sister, Tina, is breathing fine, but the bumblefoot is back. It’s not as bad as when it first appeared, and today I’ll soak her foot in epsom salts and see if I can alleviate some of the swelling. But, it doesn’t seem to be bothering her. Here Tina is standing...

Black Bean Soup – The Vintage Hen – Friday, January 10, 2014

...I knew that no rocks were lurking. However, I did immerse the beans in a bowl of water. Bad beans, and bits of husk, floated to the surface, which I skimmed off. I then gave the beans a quick drain in a colander and tossed them into the slow cooker. I poured in two boxes of organic chicken broth, stirred in two teaspoons of ground cumin and a touch of a hot pepper flakes (grown by my friends at Sweet Autumn Farm) and tucked in the ham hock. I didn’t add salt because I didn’t know how salty the hock...

A Rainy Day – HenBlog – Thursday, September 8, 2011

...and will ring it to get attention and tell us that her food bowl is empty. Also, note Twinkydink under the hutch. She did have to walk through the rain to get there, but it’s a dry spot out of the hubbub of the coop. Inside the HenCam coop, the hens are eating and milling about. Often the Polish don’t have the sense to get in out of the rain, but today it’s bad enough that both Siouxsie and Tina are indoors. Siouxsie looks like a poster child for the expression, “mad as a wet hen”, but that’s how she...

Black Gnat Season – HenBlog – Wednesday, April 30, 2014

...can rub his ears. He’s not a show horse, and so I leave his ears fuzzy. Still, a few gnats manage to bite and make him itchy and bloody.   The gnats aren’t too bad in his paddock, but when I take Tonka out to graze, those insects swarm. To protect his ears, Tonka wears a little crocheted cap.   I think that he looks quite dashing in it. When we go for trail rides, he wears it under his bridle. I’ve seen photographs from a hundred years ago, when carriage horses wore hand-crocheted fly protectors, draped from ears to...

Lily is on Bed Rest – HenBlog – Monday, May 18, 2015

...tire the mind and thus calm the body. It will be interesting to see if the deer and predator situation changes now that Lily is not patrolling the backyard. Scooter is confused by all of this – instead of Lily protecting him from hawks outside, one of us hovers over him. He can’t play zoomies with his best friend, and the mealtime routine has changed. Yesterday he sat on the steps and yowled. (This video is from a previous howling session, but it’s what it was like.) Have you had a dog on extended bed rest? What did you do?...

Beauty All Around – The Vintage Hen – Friday, October 18, 2013

...no one could get out of their houses to go trick or treating. This year, though, the beauty is here, and instead of being fleeting, it gets more and more stunning as the days pass. This is a tree in my front yard.   Here it is a week later.   What makes this so gorgeous are the layers of color. Look closely and you see patterns in bright green, shocks of orange, and that glowing yellow. All against a dark trunk and blue sky. I mean, really. Really. Even those of us who have lived in New England for...

Love, Chickens and the Ikea Effect – HenBlog – Thursday, February 14, 2013

Last week I heard a piece on the radio about the Ikea Effect. Basically, the Ikea Effect says that labor done by the purchaser adds to a higher valuation of the product. Food manufacturers could easily make cake mixes that require only the stirring in of water, but instead, they formulate the product to require eggs: cracking an egg and mixing it into the batter makes the consumer feel that she has baked a better cake. When we work to build a bookshelf (however crooked it turns out) we value it more than a similar shelf that we haven’t made....

B is for Bantam – The Vintage Hen – Saturday, December 20, 2014

  In all of my years of chicken keeping, I’ve only kept two types of bantams – silkies and white leghorns. Any Sebright owners out there? Does the poem ring true?   Note the typo – lav instead of lay. Please share this series with your hen-loving friends! The icons down to the right make it easy....

Snoring Horse – HenBlog – Monday, November 16, 2015

...leaf blower. Or maybe a horse in pain. Or a piece of machinery inadvertently left on. The other thing about wearing CIs is that I have minimal directional hearing. Especially with an unknown sound, I don’t have a clue where it’s coming from. I walked down the aisle, on alert. That’s when I saw Lano, sprawled out. His eyes were open and he was making the most awful noise. I didn’t panic. I let my brain make sense of the scene. Instead of finding a disaster, I had come across a totally ridiculous and hilarious horse. He was snoring. Enjoy....

Pecking Order – HenBlog – Thursday, July 19, 2012

Everyone has heard of the term pecking order, and we all knew, when starting out, that our own flocks will be party to that most basic of chicken behaviors. Still, the beginning chicken keeper is often taken aback at what goes on. Chest thumping, feather pulling, blood letting! It’s not pretty and it doesn’t look nice. In the worst case scenario, a picked on hen will be killed by the others. This happens. Some people ascribe all sorts of bad intentions to the offending “bullies” but in truth the animals are not at fault, for their behavior is due to...

A Busy Week – HenBlog – Monday, November 23, 2015

Across America, people are getting ready for Thanksgiving. In my house we don’t do the big family meal, with turkey and the fixings. Instead, on the weekend following Thanksgiving we have the Pie Party. It’s an event that I invented, and for my family and friends it has become a much looked forward to tradition. (If you type Pie Party into the HenBlog search bar, you can read about all of the parties from past years.) The party is all pies. That’s it. A lot of pie. This year I’ll have more than 30 guests, and each one eats half...

Rewards, Not Threats – HenBlog – Friday, February 5, 2016

...But it’s not simplistic! A horse can’t go happily with a rider on his back unless what he wears fits and is kept clean and supple. A saddle is strapped onto the horse with a band called a girth. The girth sits behind the horse’s elbows. All parts of a horse are sensitive, but this belly area is especially so. Saddles and girths need to fit the individual horse. A bad fit is comparable to you walking around in stiff shoes of the wrong size. Pretty soon you wouldn’t want to move. Also, some horses are fussier than others. Just...

Cuckoo Marans Egg – HenBlog – Thursday, March 19, 2015

...white egg laid by Twiggy, and it’s not the smoothly beige eggs laid by the two Red Stars. Hers is the odd brown one. What a surprise, then, that the other day she laid a dark brown egg! I’ve put it in this bowl so that you can see it in comparison to other eggs. The white one is from the Andalusian, Misty. The spotted one is from Jasper, the Welsummer. The light brown eggs are from Nancy Drew and Beulah. The dark egg – that’s Veronica’s!   It’s dappled instead of being uniformly brown. But that’s okay. Thanks, Veronica!...

Trimming The Goats’ Hooves – HenBlog – Wednesday, September 18, 2013

...reward. In this case, cut up pieces of apple.     I’d be lying if I said that all goes according to plan. They are goats. Pip would rather sit in my lap than stand, and Caper would rather turn sideways. But, it’s a lot easier than trying to wrestle the boys immobile while plying sharp shears. In any event, with Steve clicking the goats for standing properly, and with me fearlessly wielding the cutters, the job gets done fairly quickly. Too quickly for the boys. That’s the thing about using training instead of restraint, it’s enjoyable for the animals....

The Broody Hen – HenBlog – Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Those of us with only a few backyard hens appreciate each and every egg that our girls lay. As daylight lengthens and the weather warms, our younger hens lay an egg a day. For a while we bask in the riches. And then it stops. One hen, or two, or more go broody. They huff up, they sit in their nesting boxes, in bad temper and they stop laying eggs. Instead of having cartons of eggs in the fridge, and the resulting “problem” of what to do with them, (will it be a custard? bread pudding? frittata?) there is an...

Nesting Box Drama – HenBlog – Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Three of the Literary Ladies (the pullets in the LIttle Barn) are regularly laying: Twiggy, Owly and Beatrix. I’ve also found, on a few mornings, a light brown egg. I’ve been surprised not to see more of those. Perhaps something was keeping the chickens from laying. Perhaps it was a very small, very determined, very bad-tempered bantam White Leghorn. Betsy has been ensconced in the nesting box for two weeks. She hisses at anyone who comes near. There are three nesting boxes, so I figured that she couldn’t keep the hens out. But, she is intimidating. I was deciding what...

Worms – HenBlog – Thursday, January 21, 2010

...probably around 1890. It was unlikely that the soil harbored parasites. But, every time I bring in a new animal, or visit a friend’s farm and then wear the same clothes in my backyard (I should disinfect, but don’t, it all seems so benign at the time), I run the risk of introducing harmful pathogens and parasites. My first line of defense is that I’m fanatical about keeping my coop runs and paddock clean. There’s no manure build-up to host eggs and larvae. I provide the flock with food-grade diatomaceous earth (see the blog archives for more about this.) Instead...

First Snow – HenBlog – Friday, October 28, 2011

The first snowfall around here usually occurs right around my birthday mid-November. This year it came last night. Rain changed to snow, which turned into a crunchy crust this morning. We don’t often see snow when the trees are still clothed in their orange attire. The steps were pretty but dangerously icy. The freezing temperatures will soften up these pumpkins. It’s time to put them in with the hens before they rot on the deck. We knew that bad weather was on its way, so Steve went out in the dark last night and attached the winter siding onto Candy’s...

More About Roosting – HenBlog – Tuesday, June 18, 2013

...night. When the infestation is bad you’ll see them crawling on the roosts and on your birds. They can make your chickens’ lives miserable. I haven’t experienced it here, so I don’t have a FAQ for you, but I can tell you that you’ll have to thoroughly disinfect the coop, use chemicals on your birds, paint to seal the wood, and possibly redesign the coop to rid it of these pests. But, I think that for most of you, if your pullets are showing normal roosting behavior outside of the coop, and yet you’re still not seeing them roost at...

Egg Stomping – HenBlog – Wednesday, September 1, 2010

...in pieces, a yolky mess in the shavings. She doesn’t eat the egg. If she was an egg-eater, she’d be gone. That sort of bad habit is picked up by the other hens, until you have broken shells and not much else for your chicken-keeping efforts. Sometimes, hens lay thin-shelled eggs that break easily – then the hens learn to eat them. However, that doesn’t appear to be the cause. The smashed eggs that I’m finding look normal. I wish that I had a camera in that coop to spy on the hens. I’d like to know the culprit and...

Asparagus Season – HenBlog – Thursday, May 5, 2011

...was eating the spears for mid-afternoon snacks. Then, one October, I made the mistake of letting Candy into the vegetable patch. I let her in the garden to have an outing with the hens, while they did the autumn bad bug clean-up. I thought she’d like a hop-around. I wasn’t paying attention. She dug a tunnel under the asparagus and ate the roots. All of them. My asparagus patch was felled by one bunny. I’ve started another asparagus bed. Rabbits are banned. For now, though, I have to buy local asparagus. It’s just coming into the market. This is my...

Feather Picking – HenBlog – Friday, October 21, 2011

...her tail, and ate it. So, what I had was not just a case of dominance, but had become the very bad habit of feather eating. It can start from hunger or lack of nutrients, but that wasn’t the case here. It can start because an aggressive hen pecked at a subordinate and discovered that feathers are edible. That was likely what happened. Or, it can start from boredom and closed quarters, which, with the rain and being kept in, probably contributed to Ruby seeing Jasper’s tail feathers as an addition to her diet. I need to break this habit....

Compost Bins and Chicken Manure – HenBlog – Wednesday, February 22, 2012

...might contain bits of internal parasites, and it might harbor the intermediary hosts of those parasites. It also smells. Bad. That pile of poo is about 75 % water. It will eventually shrink, but it while it is dehydrating and breaking down it has to go somewhere. I keep compost piles in my chicken runs. It keeps them busy with things to shred, scratch and eat. Much of my kitchen and garden scraps go there. But, that’s not where I put the manure. I don’t want the hens mucking about in their own waste and possibly ingesting parasites. I want...

Alfalfa For Hens – HenBlog – Monday, January 7, 2013

...So, for now, without the chaff-cutting tool to make all of the alfalfa plant useful, there will be some waste and they’ll just eat the leaves. Which might not be so bad, since that’s the most nutritious part.   I think that it will take a week before I know if the alfalfa encourages laying, but if it doesn’t this won’t be for naught. I do think that alfalfa will replenish their mineral and protein stores lost after a year of laying and molting. I expect my hens to primed and ready for spring egg laying by the end of...

Animal Update – HenBlog – Monday, May 30, 2011

...I don’t feel too bad about the trade. (And he’s still talking to me, so I think all is settled.) Meanwhile, the little blue chick (who will likely be named Little Blue because that’s what everyone calls her) is still weak and still half the size of the others. She walks funny, too, and I think it’s her cochin feet feathers tripping her up, so I trimmed them. It seems to help. I know Little Blue is okay, though, because no one picks on her and she has no trouble being with the others. See? I still don’t know what...

Hungry Goats – HenBlog – Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The goats stopped eating their hay. If you recall, they didn’t like the coarse first cutting hay that I had, and so I bought four bales of second cutting. They liked the first few flakes, but then they turned up their noses at it. The hay looked okay, it was green and leafy, but when I shook it, dark dust flew. Mold? If so, it didn’t smell bad yet. However, Pip and Caper, the goat gourmands, pulled the hay out of the rack and piled the rejections on the floor. Look at the deep bedding. Expensive deep bedding. Also notice...

Egg Smashing, Egg Eating, Broody Hen – HenBlog – Friday, June 10, 2011

...hot and I wanted to make sure there was enough water. Betsy, in her bad, shove everyone out of her box mood, had stomped on eggs (that other hens laid that day) smashing them. Once broken, she recognized the eggs for what they are, food. By the time I looked in, her white breast was shellacked bright yellow with dried-up yolk. It looked like half of her had been coated with a thick coat of paint. On a humid, very hot day, this could be lethal. I scooped her up and hurried over to the outside faucet. I held her...

Darth Vader’s Hens – HenBlog – Tuesday, January 11, 2011

My cochlear implant was turned on yesterday. From now on, I will be hearing via electronic stimulation of my auditory nerve. I was told that at first, everyone would sound like Donald Duck. My audiologist was wrong. It’s more like voices have gone through one of those voice-changing machines that the bad guys use when they leave ransom messages. My chickens sound like I imagine chickens would sound like if Darth Vader raised them. Does this look like a hen from the evil empire?...

Frozen Combs and Small Coops – HenBlog – Thursday, February 28, 2013

...But, I wasn’t being asked about roosters. I was hearing about bad cases of frostbite in winter hardy hens that have modest-sized combs. That simply shouldn’t happen. Over the years I’ve kept a range of hens with combs of various sizes. Temperatures here can stay well below freezing for weeks. As you’ve seen this winter, we’ve had snow, freezing rain, sleet and even a blizzard. I don’t use heat. My hens, and their combs, are fine. So, why were other people having problems with their flocks? The culprit is the housing. I have been railing against small, poorly ventilated coops...

Where To Put The Brooder – HenBlog – Sunday, March 24, 2013

Fluffy little baby chicks need to be kept warm in a safe container. This housing is called a brooder. The first week of their life that brooder needs to be at about 95 degrees F. Each week thereafter, as the chicks grow, the temperature is dropped by 5 degrees. Many people, especially those who get only a handful of chicks, like the idea of keeping the chicks in the kitchen where they can keep an eye on them, and get the full dose of their adorableness. For several reasons this is a bad idea. First of all, although those chicks...

Why I Don’t Use Deep Litter – HenBlog – Thursday, December 5, 2013

...from respiratory ailments due to breathing bad air. Another issue that I have with deep litter is that its success depends on active hens foraging and turning over the bedding. If your chickens spend most of their days outside and only roost in the coop at night, the poop will build up, especially under the roosting bars. The barn floor will simply turn into a big, stinky manure pile. If you have old hens that stand around more than scratch, then they won’t be able to keep the deep litter working properly. If you have too few hens, the deep...

1916 Eggs – HenBlog – Thursday, January 6, 2011

...says they can't anyway! Other laws are stifling backyard growers or limit numbers to two or four hens in favor of "silent factories" housing birds that are driven to lay to death, forced into molt, or "all in all out" situations as if they were sprockets instead of living creatures.Farms are never found at fault until someone gets sick, then the blame goes to the chicken instead of the METHOD of abuse. Profit wins and the rest of us are bleeding heart chicken huggers. The customer needs to know the truth, informed through a mindful and direct program. Terry Golson...

Where's the Tail? – HenBlog – Tuesday, November 21, 2006

...growers try to control the molt. They want their hens to all start and stop at the same time, and they want it to happen as quickly as possible. They practice “controlled starvation” to bring this about. But that’s still iffy, so they’re working on chemical means to initiate the molt. Enough said. That’s not happening with our girls. Instead, I look at the molt as nature’s way of giving the hens a break from the resource-depleting job of egg laying. And isn’t it nice to know that even the beauties among us have a bad hair (feather) day? :)...

Early Summer Blooms – HenBlog – Monday, May 31, 2010

So far it’s been a lush summer. Lots of rain, but it’s not been the sort of cold drenches that kills off tender plants.Instead, we’ve had gentle rain and then sunny heat. The peonies bloomed, and without driving rain or high winds, they’ve stayed upright and full-petaled. The daisies are in bloom under the one peach tree. The goats look longingly at these plants. That’s the electric goat fence, which is effective in keeping them out. The lily in the pond bloomed. The Beast lurks under it, in the lily pad’s shade. This old-fashioned climbing hydrangea shares the trellis on...

Goats Gambol – HenBlog – Friday, February 26, 2010

My bedroom window looks out into the backyard. When I woke this morning, delighted to see the sun (a brief respite before more snow and rain) I lucked out and saw Pip at the very moment that my husband opened his stall door to let him out. I think that Pip was as surprised to see the sun as I was. Instead of a inch of standing water on top of ice, there was bare ground underfoot. Pip leapt. He ran. He bounced. In short, he gamboled. I grinned. And I thought, how often does a person get to use...

Hungry (but fussy) Goats – HenBlog – Monday, January 25, 2010

It’s raining. The chickens have heads of cabbage to keep them busy and full. The goats hate to get wet. They’re stuck inside and bored. I have one of their favorite foods in my fridge’s vegetable bin – Italian flat leaf parsley. I thought I’d be nice to them and feed it to them instead of cooking with it. I carefully made my way out to the barn. I have to stomp through the snow because the shoveled path is too slippery. The boys look delighted to see me. I offer the parsley. They sniff, but, they don’t even nibble....

Waiting… – HenBlog – Thursday, January 14, 2010

...already de-wormed. Their paddock is virgin goat territory. So, instead of hitting them with a wormer, I’ll pay for a fecal, find out exactly what is (or isn’t) inside of them, and only treat for that. At least, that was the plan. Yesterday I pulled on my boots and my coat and grabbed a plastic bag. It was cold, but I didn’t bother with gloves. After all, how long would I have to wait? The boys are pooping machines. They were very happy to see me. They were out of hay, and let me know it. I gave them a...

Who Was Here? – HenBlog – Thursday, January 7, 2010

...been there since before the Revolutionary War. In fact, the Minute Men marched down it to the infamous bridge in Concord where some say the war started. It’s name comes from the fact that it is two rods wide. The stone walls are still there. But now, instead of fields on either side, there are woods. Perfect places for little animals to live. Someone besides us was also out and about yesterday. I imagine the pitter-pattering tiny feet, the furry belly dragging in the snow, the tail marking a fine line behind. I’m not a tracker, and my Guide to...

Odds and Ends – HenBlog – Monday, October 26, 2009

...if I got close enough, I bet I could have heard her snore. Chickens were scratching nearby, but even chickens know not to wake a sleeping bunny, especially one that is on the top of the pecking order. Eventually, Candy roused herself, shook and hopped up. She looked quite refreshed after her nap. By the way, we’ve removed the shade tarp that hung over her hutch in the summer. Now she can sunbathe in the doorway. We’ve also tacked black plastic to the sides of the the hutch, so her home is winterized. After a false start of trying to...

Links – HenBlog – Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Every morning I get a report listing what internet searches have led people to HenCam. A lot of you are looking for information about building coops, some like animal webcams, others are researching chicken breeds. Then there are the folks who find my hen house when they’ve actually been trolling for something else. In England, bachelorette parties are called “hen parties.” Personally, I’d rather hang out with my chickens than get silly drunk at a bar, however I doubt that the soon-to-be married are going to watch HenCam instead of have an embarrassing night on the town. (Too bad…) Yesterday,...

Kindergarten – HenBlog – Friday, May 4, 2007

Sometimes I think that having a flock of hens is like having a bunch of kindergartners in my backyard. Hens are gregarious, endlessly curious, and vocal. They have friends but don’t want to share. They fuss about status and who has what. They like to play in the dirt. And there are always social situations to be resolved. Snowball has a bad habit of plucking feathers off of other hens. She is sneaky about it – she’ll maneuver next to a hen that is sunbathing and peck as if she is mutually grooming, so at first the other chicken doesn’t...

Broody Hens – HenBlog – Monday, June 18, 2007

It’s that time of year when half of my emails are about broody hens. A broody hen is one that stops laying. Instead, she is fixated on sitting on the nest as if she is going to hatch a clutch of eggs. A broody hen will sit whether there are eggs under her or not. Her feathers will fluff up and she might pluck a few out, all so that her body temperature rises, so if there were eggs there, they’d be the right temperature to develop into chicks. Broodiness varies by the hen and the breed, but it can...

Phoebe’s Day – HenBlog – Tuesday, November 5, 2013

...Phoebe away. They’re being chickens, and use chicken body language to defend their turf and bit of food. At best the Ladies get a beak full of fur. Phoebe is usually unimpressed and simply hops away.   Sometimes I put greens into the suet feeder hanging on the roosting bar which keeps the vegetable clean, and allows Phoebe to take her time nibbling.   Once in awhile, the chickens eat Phoebe’s rabbit food.   It’s not bad for them, but I’d rather that they eat their own pellets. My solution is to block it off. Phoebe can see out, but...

HenCam Technical FAQ – HenBlog – Saturday, March 7, 2009

...web camera and attach it directly to your computer using a USB cable. These cameras are generally used for video conferencing and video instant messaging, but instead of pointing the camera at you, just point it out the window. Unfortunately the camera has to remain indoors and close to the computer (maximum length of a USB cable is 5 meters). Also typically you can only watch the video from that computer. For more information see this tutorial at HowStuffWorks. Network camera If the camera has to be far away from your computer then you need a network camera. These self-contained...

Win a Book! – HenBlog – Sunday, January 25, 2009

I have been thrilled to get emails from librarians telling me how much they love Tillie. My book is being used for story hours! HenCam is seen on library computer screens. People are talking about their favorite chickens (which is just the subject matter that I think librarians should be sharing with their public!) Instead of a “chicken in every pot” I’d like to see Tillie Lays an Egg in every library. To that end, I’m going to donate a copy of Tillie to a library (school or public) of the winner’s choice. All you have to do to enter...

Egg Laying in Winter – HenBlog – Monday, January 19, 2009

...before there was cheap refrigerated transport to ship eggs, eggs were seasonal. I have brochures from the turn of the last century talking about how to make money on “winter eggs.” Those of us with backyard hens, go from having an abundance of eggs to having a few precious ones a week. Sometime around December I buy a dozen eggs at the store. It feels wrong, but I do it. This year, I’ve tried an experiment. I have a light on a timer in the big barn. Hens need 14 hours of light to lay. I’m giving them that with...

Coco Joins the Flock – HenBlog – Tuesday, November 11, 2008

...been my plan, since that barn has a lot more space.) So, instead, Ginger, who used to live with some of these hens in the big barn was switched over. I felt bad for her, kind of like when the teacher in school makes the good kid sit near the bullies, “to be a good influence.” Anyway, Ginger can hold her own, and didn’t even get a feather mussed in the transition. Yesterday I put all the chickens out on the lawn again, but this time I put Coco in the Hencam barn run. I made sure that she knew...

Perrie – HenBlog – Friday, August 1, 2008

...she was molting, as hens stop laying when they molt. She lost some tail feathers, but nothing else. She was eating and acting normal. Then, two days ago, I noticed that Perrie had minor diarrhea. Yesterday I noticed that she was sitting on a roost instead of going out on the lawn with the other girls. Although Perrie didn’t show any respiratory distress, the runny poo and the quiet behavior was enough for me to isolate her in a dog crate. I wiped her butt with a paper towel, but didn’t see anything amiss. Decided I’d give her a bath...

Thank You Birds and Bugs – HenBlog – Monday, June 23, 2008

...of them had over wintered in our window casings. Some were confused and came indoors instead of finding their way outside. Yuck! But, it was worth it. My birch tree in the front, which always has terrible infestations of absolutely disgusting sawfly larvae (that even the chickens refuse to eat) is so far free of them this year. The only bugs crawling all over the branches have been ladybugs. It’ll be interesting to see how the veg garden fares. In the past, the cucumber beetles have been a scourge. As have the squash borers. I hope the birds like them....

Huffy Hen – HenBlog – Thursday, June 12, 2008

...feathers stick out. She looks twice her size. Instead of a gentle happy cluck when you come into the barn, she rasps an angry greeting. A hen who has always been pleasant to the others will go out of her way to chase them. Unless you want to hatch chicks under your hen, when she goes broody it is a big pain. Not to mention that she stops laying eggs. If you have only a few hens, you’ll certainly miss that egg at your table. What to do? Try to break up the broody spell by unceremoniously kicking her out...

What I Do for My Hens… – HenBlog – Wednesday, May 21, 2008

I gave Buffy a bath today. I’ve got a dog grooming sink (4 foot x 1 1/2 feet) in my laundry room (instead of a utility sink, clever, huh?) See April 9th’s blog for a photo of Buffy in a bath. This time the tub was filled with sudsy warm water. The lice leave a crusty white crud at the base of vent feathers. I wanted to get that off. It took three changes of water and quite a bit of time. Then it took 45 minutes to blow dry her! She rather liked that part. Buff Orpingtons have a...

Rooster Tea Kettle – The Vintage Hen – Thursday, August 16, 2012

...collection of chicken items. Keep sharing. I love to see what you have. Terry Golson In all of my years of collecting, I've never seen another or anything else close to this kettle. Glad you liked seeing it! karen robinson Hi Terry, here's one similar (don't know how to make the link "blue up") http://www.etsy.com/listing/98919061/vintage-kamenstein-rooster-chicken?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_includes%5B0%5D=tags&ga_search_query=rooster+kettle&ga_ref=related&ga_page=1&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=rooster+kettle&ga_view_type=gallery I should like to own it but it is in the US and I think shipping it to me (UK) will cost more than the kettle! Also, I am spoilt with an electric one: I am bound to forget and be up the garden or...

Essential Coop Equipment – HenBlog – Thursday, October 17, 2013

...the morning, and he spends his day in the coop and run, eating the girls' food and snuggling with Peaches, my big Welsummer and his beloved BFF. One night I went in to close up shop and found him on the poop board, snugged up under her roosting fanny. He's ridiculous. And very happy, if somewhat grubby. Terry Golson How charming! If a bunny were to have a BFF chicken, it'd be a Welsummer. Such nice birds. Neither Candy nor Phoebe have that type of hen friendship, but my rabbits have enjoyed the company and the melee in the barn....

Gail Damerow Visits The HenCam (and a giveaway!) – HenBlog – Thursday, March 15, 2012

...Do I need to seperate them from the rest of the flock? If I don't, will the other hens (or rooster) try to kill the chicks? Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy of the book! Terry Golson I'm a huge advocate of getting a clod of dirt and greens (dandelions are perfect) into the brooder by the second week. The chicks will learn to peck the ground and not each other, they'll get small doses of grit, they'll be exposed to a small amount of good and bad germs and get natural immunity. AND they'll have a lot...

Pushmi-Pullyu Hen – HenBlog – Friday, May 24, 2013

...Doctor Dolittle", are free through Kindle. If anyone is interested. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=doctor+dolittle#/ref=sr_st?keywords=doctor+dolittle&qid=1369426536&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adoctor+dolittle&sort=price jonathan Lol I thought it was conjoin twins.. at closer look I can see its two sepetate birds LOL I can be a fool sometimes!!! Cindy B Yes, revisit your early library bookshelf. The more time goes by, the more early memories remain perfect. Do settle in with a copy of Dr. Doolittle on this cool, misty weekend. You won't regret it. P.S. I am enjoying the energy and activity of the pullets in the Little Barn run. Cindy B Yes, Sue ~ I, too, still have and enjoy...

Nothing Goes To Waste – HenBlog – Wednesday, December 12, 2012

...sometimes when I go to lunch with my BFF and we have stuff left over. I tell the server to put it all in one container and it doesn't have to be pretty! Jean Ginger, my Golden, gets the stuff that falls on the kitchen floor. Terry Golson When I've told waiters what the leftovers are for, I've had them offer to give me all of the stale rolls in the back! Lesley S My next question is do Chickens ever get Obese? Terry Golson Oh yes, and it's a serious problem, especially with backyard keepers feeding too much corn....

Pearl Gets A Bath – HenBlog – Tuesday, November 29, 2011

...pies, I picked up Pearl and realized that she had poop all across her back. You can see the discoloration of her feathers in this photo. What you can’t see is the mess underneath. (Yet another reason to handle and inspect your birds!) Disgusting, and not at all healthy for her. I didn’t have time to give her a full bath. I had pies to bake. Bathing a regular chicken (video here) can take a half hour, but double that for a Cochin. Instead, I hosed Pearl’s back end off in my laundry room sink, then soaped up the offending...

Horse Friendships – HenBlog – Friday, October 24, 2014

...a smile on my face! So glad that you've found a better place for Tonka. Looks like Maggie thinks so too! jaye Great idea! Cheryl How sweet. Love your stories. Thanks for sharing. Tori I don't know why, but I am a little choked up reading that. I'm so happy Tonka has an "everyday" friend, especially one who is so sweet and smitten! But you are definitely still his BFF. :-) Love the pictures of Tonka trying to say hello. Amy Rhodes I always love reading your posts on animal behavior - so personal and insightful. I would imagine most...

Pies! – HenBlog – Monday, November 30, 2015

...quiche! I haven't made quiche in a bit. Hmmm... maybe for dinner one night this week... I made your quiche recipe for Christmas last year. My BFF is a vegetarian so I always cook something she can eat. She liked it! Do you think the recipe will hold up if I use mushrooms in place of the herbs? Terry Golson Mushrooms weep water, so saute them first and drain before putting in the egg mixture. Enjoy! Robin Thanks! I may have to make one of these before Christmas just to make sure it isn't 'bad', ya know? :D Tracy A...

For the Birds – HenBlog – Thursday, August 19, 2010

...my cooking skills and making me feel like a slacker of a cook. Then, it’d be hidden away in the refrigerator, where it would take up valuable space, go soft and eventually get thrown out. But, because I have a flock of chickens I don’t have to go through all of that. Instead, I get the immediate gratification of seeing the hens eat it. As they peck away, they cluck their thanks and make me feel like the best gardener, ever. Some things in the garden are too beautiful pick. I’m leaving these sunflowers for the wild birds to harvest....

Steamed Eggs – HenBlog – Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Laura B I totally want that exact egg steamer! CUUUUTE! Ken Terry, Is that the male plug I see in the photo on the bottom? just like the old waffle irons. Scott THANK YOU! I have searched and searched the internet to the answer to this problem. I tested it today and it totally worked with one of today's eggs. Not that I didn't trust you Terry. I would maybe steam for 18 minutes instead and see how that is. I'm making potato salad for a party this weekend and was dreading boiling up the eggs. Not anymore. Now I'll...

Good Things – HenBlog – Wednesday, June 15, 2011

petoskystone yea for popcorn! Nicole Makes me want to take a stroll through your garden! ;) Paulette Yes, I do feel better. I am always reassured when I read your posts and applaud you for sharing your life with us. Kathleen You brightened my day. It's the way you look at things, I think. I love Agatha Agate. What about the blue one? How is she doing? Sunday you definitely brightened my day :) i LOVE Agatha Agate; too sweet! Terry Golson And I get cheered looking at your Etsy site! Check it out, readers. http://www.etsy.com/shop/ButtonsAndSocks?ref=seller_info Little Blue Sapphire all...

Blowing Out Eggs – HenBlog – Monday, January 28, 2013

...the white and yolk out? Jaye Re: hanging eggs, how about using ornament findings? You can buy them here: http://www.amazon.com/25-Ornaments-Findings-Supplies-Decorating/dp/B006E924WS/ref=pd_sim_k_4 I think you could use a glue gun to apply them to your eggs. M.E. We used to do this when we made pysanki (sp?)--Ukrainian Easter Eggs. That's a great gadget, btw. Blowing out those eggs is TIRING. Our jaws used to ache... Missing the bunny. Suzanne The egg-blowing kit comes with an egg holder? Or is that another find? Can you make a larger hole, so that the yolk comes out whole? Suzanne Oops, I took a second look...

The Best Winter Barn Boots – HenBlog – Wednesday, December 18, 2013

...The Muck Boot Company brand, that are warm, and most of our farm supply stores seem to have them on sale quite often. Mine aren't as tall....But I was able to get pink and black checked ones! Laura Terry, nice feet togs! I just wanted to say that Tonka does indeed have a beautiful, kind eye, just like you said. What a gem. Jaimie These cost more than yours, but they have so many cool patterns and fun colors! http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Classic-High-Print-Color/dp/B0071COO6Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1387404736&sr=1-1&keywords=bogs Lee Ann Those are a great find. My husband and I live on a small farm/ranch and got boots this...

The Complaint Line – HenBlog – Friday, February 14, 2014

...outside today in a covered coop but are cackling so loud, I wish they would stop because here in Plainville, CT. chickens aren't allowed...I hope no one hears them. :( Deborah Pruden How funny! Reminds me of this children's story, one of my all time favorites. Tell the ladies the kids and I check in on them daily. We hear them! Deborah http://www.amazon.com/Agathas-Feather-Bed-Another-Goose/dp/1561450960/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392397897&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=agatha%27a+feathered+bed Robin Ooookay. Just finished reading about Freezing Fog and Ice Fog. I'll pass, thank you very much. Stay safe! Beatrix is on the top of the roost poofed up like a ball, raising up and down on...

Dandelion Control – HenBlog – Thursday, May 14, 2015

...before! Terry Golson I'm glad that you mentioned this. My hens don't eat the entire plant either - but the activity of finding things in the attached soil, the shredding of the leaves, etc. keeps them busy and healthy. The ear cover on Tonka is to keep the flies off. Not a new idea. People have used crocheted fly sheets for hundreds of years. He's fussy about anything tickling/biting his ears, and that little cover protects him. Terry Golson Not as much as other plants, which has surprised me, but they're all individuals! Charlie Hey Terry, check this out. http://www.amazon.com/Fiskars-Uproot-Weed-Root-Remover/dp/B0030MIHAU/ref=pd_sim_86_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=05RCQ6TN84MFGVSGMD68...