New chicken keeper James Gibbon and one of his hens on his Montana farm.
Are you thinking about getting your first chickens this spring? Meet Counting My Chickens reader and aspiring blogger James Gibbon. James recently returned to his family farm in Montana and started raising his first flock of chickens. He says he has learned a lot about keeping chickens over… Continue reading
Image by Alec Salter Design
As a backyard chicken
keeper, there likely will come a day when you realize you have a sick chicken
on your hands. You may notice that your pet chicken isn’t eating or that she
seems lethargic. Or you may notice physical signs of illness, such as a pale
comb or a drooping tail. So… Continue reading
Winter in Iowa
There’s nothing like an extreme weather event to get you rethinking your chicken-keeping practices.
The polar vortex event that hit the Midwest in late January sure had me rethinking mine. I spent a week trying to keep my small flock of chickens alive during record low temperatures and insanely wicked wind chills. Fortunately, we all survived. And I learned a… Continue reading
Petunia taking a dust bath.
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Everybody loves a spa day. But for chickens, a dust bath… Continue reading
So you want to get some backyard chickens. Or maybe add new chickens to an existing flock.
You may be thinking of those cute, cuddly baby chicks you see each spring at the farm supply store. Or an exotic heritage breed you saw in a hatchery catalog.
But have you considered adopting… Continue reading
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In Part I of a two-part series, I took a look at the controversy around what to feed backyard chickens and provided advice on how to evaluate the conflicting information you
In Part I of a two-part series, I am taking a look at the controversy around what to feed backyard chickens and providing some advice on how to evaluate the conflicting information you may find out there.
In these times of #BlackLivesMatter vs. #AllLivesMatter, Hillary… Continue reading
Getting your first backyard chickens is to embark on a fun new adventure. You will learn a lot along the way. And you will encounter some surprises.
I get a lot of questions from new chicken keepers about things they didn’t know or… Continue reading
You can call me Deborah Neyens, CCK.
Or maybe Deborah Neyens, CCCL.
Whether you regard me as a crazy chicken lady (CCL) or merely a chicken keeper (CK), I am now certified by the City of Cedar Rapids to do what I’m doing. I’ve completed a city-approved training course… Continue reading
It’s the time of year when going to Tractor Supply or Theisen’s can be an exercise in self discipline.
As you walk through the store on your way to the dog food, you hear the peeping. You can’t resist taking a peek into the tubs… Continue reading