A tip from one of my clients!
Check out Sloggers’ supercute gardening shoes and rain boots!
8 Jan
I found this lovely chicken quilt online today! It’s stunning. If anyone wants to get me a birthday gift, this would be a good one! Of course, at this price, you’d have to like me a lot!
15 Jun
Contact Jim Kakavas for planer shavings. jkakavas@yahoo.com, 773.746.8001 (m)
I have a good supply of planer shavings. Species vary but they’re all very soft and “fluffy” and from natural, untreated lumber. An organic poultry farmer in Indiana who’s my customer says his birds love them.
25 Sep
I’m tooting my own horn here, but my “other” job – as if chicken consulting weren’t enough of a vocation – is editing, writing, and translating. I got a email a few months back, stating that someone was looking for someone to convert a book by a British writer to American English and practices. The topic: Chicken keeping.
Here is the result, hot off the press: Wisdom for Hen Keepers. I got my smart-looking little comp copies today.
It’s a nice little book, chock-full of chook wisdom. While I can’t take credit for the bulk of the content (I’ll leave that to Chris Graham), it was a fun little project that I’m proud to have had a hand in!
21 Aug
Chickens are messy eaters. Food on the ground, dirt in the feeder, food in the water, bedding in the feeder, poop in the feeder… and then opportunists like mice, rats, and wild birds may come calling, bringing diseases along with them. Not to mention the wasted food.
What’s a good solution?
If you’re having trouble with food spillage, you can place the feeders on bricks or cinderblocks so they are about at the height of the hens’ backs. This forces the birds to eat up high, and prevents them from scratching the feed out with the feet, or “beaking out” the feed with their beaks. In the image below, the waterers have been blocked up off the floor. The same can be done with feeders. Feeders can also hang from the ceiling to keep them at an appropriate height off the floor.
A second solution is to place the feeders in the coop. This will make it more difficult for visitors to find the food, especially if they are nocturnal visitors who come around to a closed-up coop.
A third option is to switch from mash, which is finely ground and messy, to pellets, which are easily snatched up one at a time by the hens. The down side of pellets is that some nutrition is lost in the processing.
Another option is to purchase a specialized feeder that opens only when a certain weight hits the trip pedal. One of my clients is delighted with the Grandpa’s Feeder she purchased. While it was expensive, she says it was well worth it.
26 Feb
From Lidia at Belmont Feed and Seed:
We are totally sold out on our last hatch of chicks, so we have new ones coming in the week of Feb. 25.
2 Feb
Lidia at Belmont Feed and Seed will have chicks the beginning of next week.
Just an update on our chick shipment:
Our first hatch of chicks are to come in the first week of February. They will be shipped on February 4th, due to arrive on the 5th or the 6th of February.We have: Araucana/Americauna, Rhode Island Reds, New Hampshire Reds, Barred Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, Black Austrolorps, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Golden Laced Wyandottes, Isa Browns (Red Stars), all Pullets and all vaccinated for Mareks. All supplies are in. Plan to come in and make your selection.
All supplies are in.
Plan to come in and make your selection.
19 Jun
June 19, Chicks @ Belmont Feed & Seed
We have all these breeds on our order:
Black & Buff Silkies, Bantam Partridge Rocks, Bantam Araucana
Contact:
(773) 588-1144
1 Jun
Home to Roost has partnered with Dabble to offer a chicken-keeping class in Lincoln Park at Topics on Thursday, June 21, from 6-8 PM. You can sign up on the Dabble site.
You say you’ve always thought about raising your own coop of chickens. But the laws concerning such things are too complicated and you don’t know where to begin, so you’ve never really given it a try.
We say, bock bock. What are you … chicken?
Keeping a city coop of chickens is legal in Chicago, and lots of do-it-yourselfers are already adding feathered friends to the backyard. This Dabble class is designed for folks who are considering getting chickens, or who just want to know why this urban trend is growing … as well as for those who already have their own birds and who want to learn more. It’s also a good way to introduce city officials to best practices of urban chicken farming. Come learn how to raise chicks, care for adult birds, and keep your neighbors happy!
Prepare to leave armed with information about raising a happy, healthy bunch of chicks and be well on your way to reaping the reward of freshly laid eggs!
31 May
May 22, Chicks @ Belmont Feed & Seed
We have all these breeds on our order:
-Rhode Island Reds
-Black Astralorps
-Buff Orpingtons
-Araucanas / Americanas
-Barred Rocks
-Silver Laced Wyandottes
-Golden Laced Wyandottes.
Contact:
(773) 588-1144