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The Deep Litter Method of Winter Chicken Coop Maintenance

The Deep Litter Method of Winter Chicken Coop Maintenance

Using the Deep Litter Method of coop litter management through the winter not only produces a bit of natural heat, is easy and economical, it results in nice soil for your garden come spring. If you're not familiar with it, The Deep Litter Method is a brilliant old-timers method to manage your coop litter through the winter. It's easy, economical and results in beautifully composted chicken manure and bedding (whether it be straw, shavings, leaves, pine needles etc.) for your garden come spring.


Blueberry Maple Bread Pudding with Sticky Blueberry Sauce

Bread pudding is a great way to use up stale bread. This version combines maple syrup and blueberries for true Maine flavor. My husband and I love Maine. We would move there in a heartbeat if he could find a job there.  [Update, we DID move there in 2015!] Anyway, we love the cold snowy winters and the crisp fall days with the beautiful foliage. We love the warm summer days and cool summer nights. We love New England fall foliage and we love snow.


Weeds 101 | A Nutritious, FREE Treat for your Backyard Chickens

When you raise chickens, regular yard weeds become nutritious, free treats for them. Chickens love weeds....so do ducks.


Sour and Impacted Crop in Backyard Chickens

Sour crop and impacted crop in backyard chickens are two slightly different issues, both of which can be fairly easily remedied as long as you now how to identify that there's something wrong.   As some of you know, my friend Yvette lost her beloved hen Lily to sour crop this past January. Even with the help of her vet, she was not able to save Lily.  This prompted her to research sour crop in an effort to try and prevent it from happening again - or to be able to successfully treat it the next time if it does happen.


Gardening with Chickens

Put your chickens to work for you in the garden for healthier chickens and a more bountiful garden. Gardening with chickens is a win-win. Chickens and gardening go hand in hand. It's all part of being more self-sufficient and sustaining your family from what you can produce with your own hands on your own land.


Converting a Dog House for Ducks

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Converting a dog house into a duck house is an easy, inexpensive way to house your ducks safely. When we had only two ducks, they happily slept in the chicken coop with the chickens in a wooden box on the floor.   But when we got 5 more ducklings last spring, I decided it was time for the ducks to have their own house.  


Beginners Guide to Raising Ducklings

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Raising ducks is a bit different than raising chickens. Here's a handy guide on how to raise ducks in your backyard for eggs. Congratulations! So you have decided to raise some ducklings! If you have brooded chicks before, you'll find that it's basically the same. But a little different.... My very first batch of chicks included two ducklings that we raised in the brooder box along with the chicks and all thrived and grew up to be happy and healthy.


Mini Valentine Heart Shortbread Cookies

These bite-sized shortbread cookies will be a big hit with your Valentine sweetie. This post isn't about chickens and the recipe doesn't even use eggs, but these little cookies are so good, they're a perfect way to grease the skids, so to speak, if you need help talking your significant other into agreeing to more chickens in the spring.


Tips for Building (or Buying) a Chicken Coop

Thinking about building or buying a chicken coop for your backyard? Here's what you need to consider before you make your decision and get started. Back in 2009 when on sort of a whim we decided to start raising chickens (I wanted goats, my husband suggested chickens instead, so I ended up 'settling' for six baby chicks!), I knew that our chicks would eventually grow out of their little brooder box and need a coop. So I started looking at pre-made coops, coop kits and coop plans, but couldn't find exactly what I wanted. I researched the different elements that good coop designs encompassed and I decided to design and build my own, using the different aspects from a few different coops.


Which Chicken Breeds Lay Colored Eggs?

Have you seen photos of colored chicken eggs and wondered what breed of chicken lays which color egg? Here is your answer! When we first decided to try raising chickens, the breeds we chose were based solely on what types of chicks the local feed store had that spring. We just said "we'll take two of whatever you have" and ended up coming home with two Buff Orpingtons, two Silver Laced Wyandottes and two Rhode Island Reds. Cute chicks, beautiful chickens, wonderful layers...and they all laid brown eggs.  Which was fine with me.


Crushed Eggshells for your Chickens

Crushing eggshells and feeding them back to your chickens will provide them the extra calcium they need to lay eggs with strong shells. Like anything else relating to raising backyard chickens, there seem to be lots of different opinions about feeding eggshells back your chickens. But what everyone does agree on is that laying chickens need a lot of calcium to ensure strong eggshells.