My Chirpy Chicken Coop

       5 Tips For Safer Free Ranging June 27, 2021 (A snap of Eliza roaming the garden!) The sad fact of the matter is that free ranging your chickens and ducks always carries risks with it and eventually is probably going to end badly (more than likely very badly) if you raise them long enough. As someone once said, "you only have to lose once... and the predator only has to win once". The odds are definitely stacked against the chickens and ducks. So, here are my 5 tips for safer free ranging: 1. Supervise, Supervise, Supervise Obviously one of the easiest things you can do is stay outside with your chickens and watch them while they free range. Having a dog outside with you is a huge benefit also. Not only is even a pet dog's scent a big deterrent to predators, dogs senses are so much more attuned to potential threats than ours are and even our corgi could be at the treeline chasing off a fox before I likely even realized it was there. Raising other livestock on y...

  Beat The Heat June 20, 2021 (A shot of Hamilton taking a peck at the ice treats!) Fresh clean water is the most important thing you can provide your flock - especially in the summer. Eggs contain mostly water and keeping your chickens hydrated not only is crucial to their health but assures good egg production. But why not get creative and make some ice cube treats for your flock? Mint, an anti-inflammatory, has natural cooling properties and acts to lower the body temperature of humans and animals by drawing body heat to the skin surface and also inducing perspiration when rubbed on the skin. When you eat or drink something with mint in it, you immediately feel cooler. That's due to the menthol in members of the mint family. Keeping that in mind, I created these fun frozen ice pops for the chickens to enjoy in the heat of the summer.  Even if the chickens don't "get the sensation" of the mint, it's also calming, and staying calm when it's hot can help them ...

       The Egg Float Test June 13, 2021 (A really old store-bought egg vs a really fresh backyard egg in the Egg Float Test!) In a perfect world, your chickens would lay eggs in their nesting boxes each morning, you would collect them, bring them into the house and prepare them to eat. Mmmm, fresh eggs every day like clockwork. Of course, real life doesn't work quite like that. It seems it's either feast or famine around here - too many eggs or not enough. When you have extra eggs and they start to pile up, unless you mark or otherwise keep track of how old the eggs are, it's easy to lose track. If you let your chickens free range, you might stumble across a nest of eggs that a sneaky broody hen has hidden and have no idea when they were laid. These are affectionately called 'yard eggs' and normally perfectly fine to eat as long as they aren't cracked. (Of course if you have a rooster, they could be fertile and if the hen has been consistently sitting on them, ...

      HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY!!! June 6, 2021 (A collage of the chickens' special day!) This day one year ago...four tiny beaks pushed their way out into a world of warmth. One beak belonged to a French Copper Maran, two beaks belonged to two Buff Orpingtons, and another belonged to a bantam Rhode Island Red. They took their first breath of air and studied the world around them. And ever since then, they have been living happily ever after... Sound familiar?... HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, DEAR FLOCK!!! Happy birthday to Lafayette, happy birthday to Hamilton, happy birthday to Angelica, and happy birthday to Eliza!!! We spoiled our flock quite a bit on this special day. We baked them a cake, (chicken-style), sang "Happy Birthday" to them, and threw quite the party for our dear chickens! (Although it took them a few minutes to gather up their courage and venture into the cake!) In case you wanted to try this chicken-birthday-cake-recipe for your own flock's birthday, (I highly sugge...