Chicken Care Archives - Summers Acres

Keeping Chickens Alive During Cold Weather

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Chickens are pretty easy creatures to raise. That is, until the cold season comes. Jordan Walker, the lead content curator of Coops and Cages, shares tips to improve the survivability of chickens during winter.

Chicken owners who live in mild climate regions are a bit luckier than most. Those who live in harsh weather conditions have to keep their chickens closely monitored especially during winter season. Find out how to prepare for such circumstance beforehand to avoid any untoward incidens when the time comes. Continue reading “Keeping Chickens Alive During Cold Weather” →

Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs Chicken - Feed

Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 4 – Feed

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So you are wondering what to feed your chickens? There are a lot of options and misconceptions about chicken feed. Organic, medicated, vegetarian, all natural, scratch and cracked corn just to name a few. I will try to clear up some of the confusion by passing along what I have learned over the years we have been chicken owners.

In order to sort through all of the confusion, first lets start by clearing up industry standard terms (adding some of my own commentary on each).
Continue reading “Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 4 – Feed” →

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Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 3 – The Coop

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Your chickens have grown and thrived in the brooder and it is time for them to go out to their permanent home. By this point they have gotten too big for the brooder box, your spouse is tired of the smell and constant dust from all the flapping, and luckily they can tolerate the outside temps. So its time to move your chickens outside. Continue reading “Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 3 – The Coop” →

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Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 2 – The Brooder

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Before your baby chicks arrive, you need a brooder for them. The brooder is simply a box or blocked off area that will house the baby chicks for the first several weeks of their life. It can be something more permanent if you think you will reuse it often, but if you don’t plan on getting more baby chicks in the near future, a cardboard box works wonderfully.
Continue reading “Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 2 – The Brooder” →

Getting Baby Chicks - Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs

Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 1 – Getting Baby Chicks

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Raising backyard chickens to gather your own healthy eggs is rewarding and rather easy. As long as you have a few basics taken care of, the chickens will do the rest. You don’t need to be an expert, and there’s no reason to be afraid. Take care of these basics and you will be gathering healthy, antibiotic and growth hormone free, pastured chicken eggs in no time. Continue reading “Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 1 – Getting Baby Chicks” →

Proper Rooster to Hen Ratio and Chicken Saddles

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Our rooster to hen ratio is really off. The ideal ratio is 1 rooster for 10-12 hens. This advised ratio is to protect your hens from too much “rooster love”. Currently, we have 1 rooster and 5 hens. There is just too much of our roo a.k.a The Hoff to go around and our poor gals are receiving a lot of attention. Roosters dig their nails and spurs into the hen’s back and their beaks hold the hen’s head for stabilization while mating. 3 of the hens have complete bare spots with no feathers on their back. Luckily, none of them show signs of blood, raw, or broken skin.

We ordered hen saddles to cover the bare area for protection to allow the feathers to grow back.