Egg eating can become a real bahviour problem once a hen aquires a taste for her own eggs. While egg eating shouldn’t be too big of a problem in the homestead flock, you should know about some management practices you can use to prevent egg eating in your flock. It...

I love diving into a new poultry book and seeing what helpful nuggets I can dig out to apply to my homestead flock. Reading about other chicken keepers’ experiences and learning the general facts about poultry will help you raise your homestead flock better. I have acquired many different chicken...

An imbalance in a chicken’s diet can cause the chicken to not receive the proper nutrition it needs, either by having an excess of a dietary element or a deficiency in a dietary element. Dietary imbalances can occur when a chicken’s diet is not balanced or when a chicken’s dietary...

Learn how to make a DIY chicken saddle so you can protect the hens in your homestead flock who receive the most attention from the homestead rooster! The natural process of mating can be rough on a hen’s neck and back feathers. I have made many chicken saddles for my...

A nutritionally complete and balanced diet for your flock should help prevent a majority of dietary issues, however, sometimes dietary imbalances can be caused by factors that we can’t control or are unaware of. Dietary imbalances can result in a chicken not getting the nutrition it needs to stay healthy....

All chickens who are over a year old molt at least once every year, usually in the late summer and fall months. Molting is when a chicken replaces its old feathers with new feathers, which will help keep it warm and stay healthy. Molting can be stressful for chickens and it...

We’ve reached that time of the year where you get no fresh eggs from your homestead flock and it looks like someone plucked all your hens: welcome to molting season. All birds molt, both wild and domestic. It is a natural occurrence that is often triggered by weather patterns. Molting...

Bullying is a behavior issue in the homestead flock. Sometimes bullying can be the result of the dominant personality characteristic of certain breeds. However, more often than not bullying is usually a sign of boredom, stress, a pecking order change, or overcrowding of the flock. The good news is that...

Chickens and dust bathing go together like peanut butter and jelly. If you don’t provide a dust bath spot, your flock will make their own. Even if you do make a DIY dust bath for your chickens, they may still choose their own location! Whether you make your flock a...

While chickens may be the gateway animal to homesteading, there are also plenty of other poultry species to consider adding to your homestead! Raising poultry on the homestead can be fun, educational, challenging, and even rewarding. My goal is to raise every species of domesticated poultry, and so far I...

Why do chickens dust bathe? Chickens dust bathe for several reasons. The primary ones being because it seems to be enjoyable for them and it provides natural health benefits that would be important for a flock’s survival in the wild. It seems contradictory, but dust bathing is one way that...

Living sustainably is one of the goals on the homestead, and one way to do that is to be wise with your money. However, I have also learned that the two go hand-in-hand. Living sustainably is one way to save money. Now this is not a lesson on how to...

Whether you have one rooster on the homestead or multiple roosters in the homestead flock, knowing how to care for a rooster is important for the health and happiness of your homestead flock! Roosters have different dietary needs than hens. They exhibit different behaviors and play specific roles within the...

Chicks need supplemental heat to stay warm, healthy, and to mature into strong adults. Supplemental heat is most crucial for the first 4 weeks of a chick’s life. However, the supplemental heat will need to be weaned off starting at 1 week of age. Once the chicks are old enough,...

Chickens are on their feet all day. Even when they roost, perch or relax, they are still on their feet! Consequently, foot and toes injuries can occur no matter how many preventatives you implement. Bumblefoot is one such ailment that is caused when an infection develops in the foot pad...

I know you have probably heard me say this over and over in my articles, or at least something like this: your flock’s diet is their life blood. It’s what gives them energy and keeps them healthy. And it must change and adapt based on the seasons. What your flock...

A chicken’s diet is essential for keeping it healthy and productive. Sudden diet changes can be hard for your homestead flock to adjust to, and feed switches can even cause health problems if they are not done properly. While complete diet changes should be avoided as much as possible, there...

There is nothing I like better than seeing my homestead flock happily pecking around in the yard, garden, and surrounding woods with the warm sun on their backs and the lush grass (or dried leaves) under their feet. I know they are doing what instinctually comes natural for them, and...

The crop is the gateway to a chicken’s stomach. Ensuring that the crop is functioning properly is essential for keeping your flock healthy and productive! There are two common ailments that affect the crop: sour crop and impacted crop. Learning to tell the difference between sour crop vs impacted crop...

Why is my chicken losing feathers? A chicken’s feathers are what protect its skin and helps keep the chicken warm. There are two main reasons why a chicken would lose its feathers. Usually feather loss is caused by molting or the feathers being pulled out by other flock members. Feather...