This morning I went out to do my farm chores, stopping by the coop to check on the chickens and top off the feeder. I opened the door and my heart sank. Lukka, my sweet blue Icelandic hen was sitting in a nest box, dead. Isi, her lifelong partner, ...
Tweaking the Brinsea Incubator
I bought a Brinsea 190 cabinet incubator ($1,000.00) about three years ago to replace the small tabletop models I had used. I sold the tabletops models. From the start, I was less than impressed with the Brinsea cabinet model. I found early on that ...
Chickens…Heritage or Imported?
In the world of chicken keeping, a debate exists between those who raise heritage breeds and those who raise imported breeds. The heritage breed advocates tend to be more vocal than those who prefer imports. I am one of the import ...
The Russians are crowing…
The Russians are crowing! Well, one of them anyway. My first Pavlovskaja started crowing on Monday at only five and a half weeks old! I have tried to get him to do it on video but when he sees me with the camera he stops crowing. Today he ...
The Family Dustbath
Icelandic Supermom Lukka was out with her brood today. She is raising two Cuckoo Marans, and three Brabanter chicks, all five weeks old. Lukka is what I like to call a super-broody, a chicken that lives to hatch and raise baby chicks. I cannot tell ...
Why we don’t free range our chickens
Our property is situated on the side of a hill with a long row of pines and redwoods along the property line. Cooper's hawks inhabit these trees where they sit and watch, just waiting for their next meal. I don't want their next meal to be one of my ...
From Russia with Love
The Pavlovskaja chicken is one of the oldest Russian breeds. The ancestors of Pavlovskaja hens came to the territory of Russia supposedly from Persia more than 300 years ago. In 1895 it was mentioned in the literature as "an extreme rarity." In the ...
The Old Egg Swap Trick
We have a Black Copper Marans hen who has been broody for several weeks. If you are here for the recipes and don't know chickens, being broody means sitting on eggs for the purpose of hatching baby chicks. This hen lives in a coop without a rooster ...
Candling Hatching Eggs (with video)
I have Isbar chicken eggs in my incubator, set over the last few days. I candled the eggs (shining a bright light through the shell) to check for viability. There were a few good examples that I thought I would share. This egg is not fertile. It ...
Chicken Coop Rehab Addict
Do you watch Rehab Addict on the DIY channel? It's a show about a young woman who rehabilitates old homes to their former glory. Except for the fact that she is young, tiny, cute, and rehabs houses, we are like twins! I am old, not tiny nor cute, and ...
Cute Chicks and Curled Toes (Update)
We just finished the first round of a staggered hatch a couple of days ago. Three black copper Marans chicks hatched along with four Icelandics. As usual, the Icelandics are running around, eating and drinking, while the Marans (from now on ...
Shipped Egg Mayhem (Graphic Pics)
I was excited this morning to be receiving a box of shipped hatching eggs. My postal carrier delivered the box and I anxiously opened it, only to be horrified by what I saw. These were the eggs I received. I'll start with the obvious problem. Some ...
The adoption process…as it applies to chicks.
Some hens make horrible broodies but great Moms, meaning they can't hatch an egg to save their life, but the can sure love one from the incubator. This girl is a perfect example. She has been broody about three times this summer and has yet to hatch ...
Time Lapse Chick Hatching Video!
Last night we had eggs hatching. I am addicted to the time lapse camera I bought recently, so I put it in the incubator with the chicken eggs. A complete hatch from pip to out of the shell was captured. If you are unfamiliar with the process of ...
Egg without a shell!
Today I found this egg on the floor of the Cream Legbar coop. I have three pullets in that coop who just turned 22 weeks old. This egg has no shell, just the white (albumen), yolk and membrane. Eggs laid without shells are not ...
Egg Candling
I have Icelandic and Isbar eggs incubating. They are on Day 10 of a 21 Day incubation period. This point is a good time to candle the eggs to pull out any non developing eggs or early quitters before they begin spooling. These eggs can later explode ...
Orthopedically Challenged Chicks (Update!)
My recent hatch of chicks have put me through the wringer. Last night when I checked on them before going to bed I found them standing in water! They had somehow managed to flip the paper towel up from the corner and into the waterer. All of the ...
Chick Resuscitation (Video!)
Yesterday I received a shipment of Cream Legbar chicks from Florida. They had been in transit for less than 24 hours. I always open boxes of chicks in the presence of a postal employee. Many sellers require confirmation from the post office of chicks ...
Is my egg fertile?
People often wonder if an egg is fertile or not. The only way to tell without cracking it open is to begin incubating the egg and check for veining by candling in the first week. You can tell if an egg is fertile by cracking it into a bowl and ...
The wind egg.
Chickens can be strange little creatures when it comes to laying eggs. All kinds of odd anomalies exist in the realm of abnormal chicken eggs. Most of them are sort of gross to be perfectly honest. The exception to the "gross" rule are the cute ...