The blog posts Raising Chickens First Steps and 7 Rules for Keeping Chickens can be a good place to start if you are thinking of keeping chickens. Rules about Keeping Chickens can vary from place to place. If you keep chickens in an area where chickens are not allowed you are at risk of being ordered to get rid of your chickens if the local authorities find out (which most often happens if a neighbour complains about them). Some people have been successful in convincing their local authorities to allow chickens. Chickens In The Yard is a documentary which follows people in their campaign to get chickens allowed in Salem's residential areas.
Blog posts on Chicks & Hatching, Chicken Housing, and Chicken Health are listed on their respective pages.
If you have other pets you may be interested to see how your Chickens and Your Other Pets interact with each other. Although many dogs and cats get on well with the new chickens in their family it can sometimes be your own pets which turn out to be the biggest predator risk to your chickens. There is a video clip on my blog of Cesar Millan Dog Training With A Chicken to Reduce Prey Drive but it may be that keeping them seperate is the only reliable way.
House chicken Carlotta and dog Bruin get on well.
There are also some Winter Keeping Chickens Tips on the blog for improving your coop conditions in colder weather - and a Winter Mash Recipe which you may like to try if you make your own feeds. The tip of sprinkling a little black pepper in with a warm mash in the coldest weather has been taken up by several keeping chickens newsletter subscribers who are convinced that it has helped them get more eggs in winter. So if you have trouble getting eggs in winter try a warm mash with pepper and see if that helps - even if you use a commercial feed it can be made into a warm mash by adding hot water. Some subscribers have also found that greenhouses can make a good temporary scratching area when there is snow on the ground. Cold winters can be a cause of concern to chicken keepers in many areas, but hot summers can also be also be very worrying, particularly if the humidity is high as well so hopefully these Tips To Keep Your Chickens Cool will help.
Other General Keeping Chickens Blog Posts
