Recent content by Mark Park

They "work" harder if there are 2 of them. The dominant one jumps on and off of the hens continuously all day.

The most aggressive rooster I ever had was a Copper and Black Marans. My kids had to take a rake with them for defense when they went to collect the eggs.

They're noisy and some breeds are aggressive. Your barred rocks would be fine. Rhode Island reds are fine. Even the ones that are tame to you may be hard on each other -- if one of them is much stronger than the other he might kill the weaker one. If you aren't looking for chicks it's just a...

If your neighbors are okay with the crowing, get 1 for every 10 or 12 plus one more. They work better if they compete with each other. If you like barred rocks, why not get all barred rocks? Your chickens will be purebreds that way, and deliver whatever traits you were looking for.

Good Article. When I lived in England, the common wisdom was that grass makes the egg yolks more orange, and I have found this to be true. They always warned about long and very thick grass as it can lead to an impacted crop. The chickens certainly didn't seem worries about it as the sucked up...

Good article. It is nice to see people gping back to the way things were. People can get pretty silly about giving their animals exactly the right "balanced" nutrition -- as though a factory manufactured feed with only a few ingredients is better for their health, just because it says so on...

Get him a Barahman or a Cochin. They behabe pretty well.

Peacocks

No

Yeah, rodents seem to like to get out of the cold too, unfortunately.

Excellent article. I agree totally. I would only add that chickens go to bed at night dreaming of spending the winter in a polytunnel or hoop house. They can eat what's left of the vegetable crop, weed seeds, bugs, etc., processing the contents of the compost pile and getting the ground ready...

Rhode Island Reds make good cockerels. Why not get one or two of those? In general one cockerel per ten hens plus one or two extra works well. You will also get purebred chicks instead of a random hybrid that may or may not be a desirable cross.

There is a tradeoff between good temperament and self reliance. At one end we have modern hybrid meat chickens like the Ross, Cobb, etc. and at the other we have fighting chickens like the Aseel, etc. I have had good luck with Marans chickens. The Cuckoo Marans are tamer than the Copper Black...

If you want proof that they are descended from dinosaurs, cut some beef, pork, or lamb liver into wormlike strips and watch them turn into little veloceraptors as they go into a feeding frenzy.

There's an easier way to keep the predators out than digging in wire. Just lay a 2 foot wide strip of chicken wire or some other mesh flat on top of the ground outside the run. Attach it firmly to the fence -- you can do this with zip ties or tie-wire. Now scatter some dirt and seed it to match...