Posts Tagged ‘chickens’

25 Jul

Helping Your Chickens Survive the Dog Days of Summer

Posted by chickenwoman in Chicken care. Tagged: , , , , , .


Help your chickens beat this crazy hot and humid weather!

As the temperatures and humidity soar, you’ll want to help your hens keep cool. A few tips for helping your hens beat the heat. When temperatures reach the mid-80s, your birds will probably start panting. In temperatures above 100, your birds may suffer heatstroke. Here are some tips, excerpted from my class on chickens and heat, to prevent that.

1) Provide fresh, clean water – and lots of it.

2) Freeze 2-liter bottles and put them in the coop to cool it down.

3) Remove excess bedding, which traps heat.

4) Feed a crumble feed, rather than a whole-grain food. Grains generate heat as they are metabolized.

5) Provide shade.

If you notice that the birds are listless and lethargic (signs of heat stress), consider bringing them into a cool basement or to an air-conditioned mudroom (in a dog crate or portable cage).

As always, keep an eye on your birds and know what’s normal for them. This will help you catch problems before they become life threatening.

12 Jan

Chickens and Cold Temperatures

Posted by chickenwoman in Chicken care. Tagged: , , , , , .


We’re due for some VERY cold temps here in Chicago (in the negative degrees F, and windchills even lower), and a number of questions have come up about chickens and cold temps.

Here’s a list of ideas I’ve compiled. If you have suggestions, feel free to post.

Bedding

  • Keep bedding loose and dry. Deep bedding helps trap heat.
  • Clear snow from bedding.

 Coop

013

  • Cover the coop and wire-covered areas (such as the run) on three sides with a plastic tarp, heavy plastic, or plywood.
  • Fill in cracks and crevices in the coop with newspaper or cardboard.
  • The coop should not be completely airtight; allow some air circulation to prevent frostbite.

Roosts

  • Make sure roosts are in the least drafty place in the coop.
  • Use wide roosts for toe coverage (2-4 inches in width)

 Supplemental heat

  • If you have cold-hardy birds, they should be ok if the temperatures drop slowly.
  • Any source of heat is a fire hazard.
  • If ceiling is higher than 2 feet above the chickens, you may want to install a heat lamp above the roost that will turn on when the temp is in the single digits.
  • Be sure that the lamp cannot be damaged by a flying bird.
  • If you choose to heat, I’d suggest doing so only if the temperatures are in the single digits or below zero for several days raising the temperature by no more than 10 degrees higher than the outside temperature.
  • If you bring the birds indoors, make a gradual transition to warmer temps – e.g., from 0 degrees to 20 degrees to 45 degrees, NOT from 0 degrees directly to 45 degrees.
  • Note that providing too much can lead to obese birds. It also can be difficult for them to adjust to drastic changes in temperature.

Frostbite

  • Watch toes and combs/wattles for signs of frostbite. A little petroleum jelly on combs and wattles can prevent frostbite *however* be careful not to overapply – petroleum products can coat the feathers, reducing their insulating properties.
  • Do not allow them to be out in the snow for extended periods of time to avoid freezing their toes.
  • Clear snow out of sections of the run so they don’t have to walk in it.
  • If chickens do get frostbite, treat with aloe vera, can use aspirin solution for pain (three 325 mg tabs per 1 gal water), don’t massage, don’t heat up rapidly. Allow tissue to die/fall off naturally.

Food and Water

s5IMG_6513

  • Check water several times a day to be sure it’s not frozen.
  • Feed mash mixed with warm milk or water.
  • Provide a few handfuls of scratch grains in the evening before the hens go to roost. Can also feed a handful or two of scratch in the AM.

Laying

  • Extreme temperatures can stress the birds and cause hens to go out of lay.
  • Collect eggs so they do not freeze and lead to egg eating.

12 Jan

Winterizing Your Chickens

Posted by chickenwoman in Chicken care. Tagged: , , , , , .


If you got chicks this spring, you probably asked the question, “How do I take care of the hens over the winter?” Bringing them into the house is not a great idea, and unlike dogs, chickens generally aren’t given to wearing sweaters and booties. Nor are they given to fluid replacement.

Here are some tips for helping your chickens ride out the winter.

Coop Environment

  • Move your coop to an area out of the wind.
  • Cover the run with tarps or heavy-duty plastic to prevent drafts.
  • Ensure that the coop is well ventilated but not drafty. Moisture buildup leads to frostbite.
  • Clean poop from the coop often. Chicken feces add to the moisture content of the air in the coop.
  • Stack strawbales around the run to hold in the heat and prevent snow from blowing in.
  • Minimize moisture in the coop. Moisture leads to frostbite. It’s more important to have a dry coop than a warm coop.
  • Provide lots of bedding or straw. Bedding should be dry and fluffy so that it traps the heat.
  • A heat lamp is optional. Beware of fire hazards, especially with the dry bedding, and use a red, rather than white, bulb. A reptile heat emitter can also help.
  • If you want your hens to continue laying during the winter, supplement white light in the morning (not evening) so that the hens get 14 hours of light. You can also let their bodies rest and give them the winter off from laying.
  • Provide wide roosts that allow the down feathers on their bellies to cover their feet.

Food and Water

  • Provide fresh, unfrozen water and be sure they have continuous access to food – their bodies need it to stay warm. You can keep two waterers – one in the house and one outside – and swap them out as the outside one freezes.
  • Provide extra protein for the birds during the winter months. A handful of dry cat (not dog) food will give an extra protein boost.
  • You can provide a handful of scratch grain in the evening, before they head to the roost for the night. This will help keep their metabolism going during the night.
  • Provide a head of cabbage, hung from a string or chain to keep them engaged and prevent pecking.
  • Use a bird suet basket as a treat box.

Frostbite

  • Use Vaseline on combs and wattles to keep them from freezing.
  • Watch feet, combs, and wattles signs of frostbite – they will look swollen and puffy at first. They will eventually turn black and fall off. Infection is a possible risk of a bad case of frostbite.

Contact Home to Roost if you’d like an in-home winterizing consultation.

29 Apr

Chicago Tonight Covers Urban Agriculture

Posted by chickenwoman in Food concerns in the news, Local food, Media coverage, Urban agriculture. Tagged: , , , , , .


Chicago Tonight covered urban ag in this fun piece. They focused on goats and touched on bees and (of course!) chickens!

3 Nov

Kids, Dirt, and Allergies

Posted by chickenwoman in My chicken stories. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .


I grew up in a rural, agrarian community, and my mom has stories to tell about not being able to keep me clean: I was always in the dirt. We have a picture of my one-year-old self sitting at the base of the washline pole in my diaper, with dirt all over me! My next-door neighbor and I used to slide under the electric fence and go play in the cow pasture. I’d dig around in streambeds, looking for tadpoles, hellgrammites, planaria, and anything else of interest; rescue toads from window wells; go visit my grandfather’s steers and hogs… and then there was the night when my cousin and I got up at midnight to run around in the chicken coop in our bare feet…

Yeah, there were a lot of germs, parasites, creepy-crawlies, and other stuff involved in my childhood. I didn’t get ragingly ill or die of any bacterial infections — just the ordinary childhood stuff: chicken pox, colds, and the like.

Many parents today are afraid that their kids will get sick from contact with animals, and I think this is the child’s loss, from a life-experience perspective and from an overall health perspective. A little healthy inoculation of our bodies with germs every now and then serves to strengthen our immune systems, making our bodies more resistant to disease.

A 2012 study on Amish children raised on farms shows a much lower incidence of asthma and allergies, strengthening the idea that a little dirt won’t kill you; in fact, it’s a good thing! NBC covered the story and the original article in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology can be found here.

So let your kids run around in the chicken coop and handle the birds! It’s good for body and soul!

16 Jul

Chickens and Hot, Humid Weather

Posted by chickenwoman in Chicken care. Tagged: , , , , , .


As the temperatures and humidity soar, you’ll want to help your hens keep cool. A few tips for helping your hens beat the heat!

As the temperatures hit the mid-80s, your birds will probably start panting. If temperatures hit above 100, your birds may suffer heatstroke. Here are some tips, excerpted from my class on chickens and heat, to prevent that.

1) Provide fresh, clean water – and lots of it.

2) Freeze 2-liter bottles and put them in the coop to cool it down.

3) Remove excess bedding, which traps heat.

4) Feed a crumble feed, rather than a whole-grain food. Grains generate heat as they are metabolized.

5) Provide shade.

6) Mist their favorite dustbath areas so that the soil is damp (but not muddy).

7) Provide shallow pans of cool water that they can stand in.

8) Create air movement.

If you notice that the birds are listless and lethargic (signs of heat stress), consider bringing them into a cool basement or to an airconditioned mudroom (in a dog crate or portable cage). Make the transition gradually (don’t bring them directly in to a room that is 20 degrees cooler). Help cool birds down by applying cool (not cold) compresses to comb, wattles, and feet.

As always, keep an eye on your birds and know what’s normal for them. This will help you catch problems before they become life threatening.

28 Jan

Canton, NY, considers chickens

Posted by chickenwoman in Laws, Local food, Urban agriculture. Tagged: , , , , .


A legal clause prohibits people in Canton, NY, from raising chickens. But the townspeople are interested in changing that. For more on this story, check out this article.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

8 Jan

8 January, 2013: Home to Roost on the Turi Ryder show

Posted by chickenwoman in Events, Media coverage. Tagged: , , , .


Tune in to the Turi Ryder show on Chicago-based WGN radio 720 between midnight and 12:15 for a live interview featuring chickens, Home to Roost, and relocating a flock from California to Chicago!

15 Nov

Iowa City One Step Closer to Legalizing Chickens

Posted by chickenwoman in Laws, Media coverage. Tagged: , , , , , .


Home to Roost was interviewed this week for this article on the quest to legalize chickens in Iowa City.

The Iowa City City Council voted 5-2 on the first consideration of an amendment to the city’s zoning code on establishing a permit process, which would allow residents to keep chickens at single-family detached residences. Councilors Michelle Payne and Terry Dickens voted against the measure.

Good luck, Iowa City chicken enthusiasts!

20 Sep

4 Nov., 2012: Home to Roost speaks at Bioneers conference

Posted by chickenwoman in Events, Local food, Urban agriculture. Tagged: , , , , .


I’ll be at the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference at UIC, 750 S. Halsted in Chicago, on Sunday, 11/4. For details on the event, go to the Bioneers Chicago website. 

Workshop
3:30 pm to 4:30 pm

The Charm of Chickens: Reasons for Raising Backyard Birds
Jennifer Murtoff

A fun, interactive look at why people in the city are raising chickens. Jennifer will engage the audience with Q&A about their opinions/ideas about raising chickens, especially in the areas of gardening and composting. Meet some of her hens and experience the difference between backyard vs. battery eggs!

Jennifer Murtoff, Home to RoostThe MidWest’s only chicken consultant, Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area. She offers information and resources on chicken care and leads workshops and classes on backyard chickens.

 

« Older Entries