 Winter brings challenges beyond cold temperatures for backyard chickens. Rodents, mites, and lice can all threaten your flock’s health during the colder months. Keeping chickens pest-free in winter requires a combination of prevention, vigilance, and practical treatments: secure feed storage, dust baths, regular coop cleaning, homemade sprays, and careful monitoring of your birds. Implementing these strategies will help your flock stay healthy, stress-free, and productive all winter long.
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 Winterizing your chicken coop is essential to keep your flock safe, healthy, and comfortable during cold months. Proper winterization includes the right-sized coop, draft-free ventilation, insulation, bedding, predator protection, and snow-proofing your run. Here’s a complete guide on how to winterize your chicken coop for maximum warmth and safety.
 In this post, I'll show you how to make a DIY chicken waterer. This is the exact design we use on our farm. These waterers are easy to make, inexpensive, and will keep your flock's water fresh and clean.
Many years ago, in another life, I had my first flock of chickens: six buff Orpingtons I’d ordered through my local feed and seed. They were sweet as heck, and not quite legal, but adored my neighbors. I loved those birds, but since they were my first, there was definitely a steep learning curve for me. I had dutifully purchased everything they needed, including a large plastic poultry waterer. It was pricey (something similar would set you back about $50 now) and had an open trough that made it hard to keep their water clean. I suspect that this design, along with my inexperience, contributed to one of my birds falling ill. After that experience, I wanted a way to both save money and keep our birds’ water as clean as possible. The solution? Making our own DIY waterers at home. It’s incredibly easy, and in this post I’m going to show you exactly how to do it! All you need is a few minutes and a few simple tools.  Here in Western MA, where our farm is located, winters are often tough and unpredictable. We can experience everything from sudden spring-like temperatures to blizzards in the same week. There is one constant, though: a lack of greenery, with no pasture or forage available to our flocks.
When winter has killed off everything but the pines, we pamper our chickens with sprouts. Nutrient dense sprouts are great for our birds all year round, and they are the perfect way to give our chickens the greens they are craving during the coldest months of the year. The best part? Sprouts are INCREDIBLY easy to make yourself, and in this post I'll show you how.  Using medical tape to treat a crooked toe. Have you ever wondered what medical supplies you need on hand in a chicken first aid kit? You want to be ready for everything from emergencies to common ailments, but it can be hard to sort through all the supplements and medications out there to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what you actually need.
In this post, I’m going to go over everything I keep on hand to take care of our birds. Putting together a medical kit for your chickens is an investment of both time and money. I hope this peek into our medical supplies will help you save both, and be a starting point for you to put together your own chicken first aid kit.  One of our breeding coops and a Marans hen saying hello! We are on the cusp of spring. If you’re a new chicken keeper, you might be putting the finishing touches on your first coop. Or you might be adding an addition to your hen house (because, chicken math) or reinforcing what you have.
My wife Sarah and I have built eleven coops together on our farm, where we have a combination of stationary coops, movable tractors, and two small prefab coops. (Why so many? To maintain our clan mating programs). Over the years of building together, we’ve learned a lot about coop construction and what our chickens’ need--and we are still learning, even now. Our coops might not make the cover of Martha Stewart Magazine, but we built them ourselves, our birds are happy, AND not a single predator has ever breached our chicken castles! Wherever you are in your chicken journey, having a coop that meets your flock’s needs is a vital part of poultry care. Whether you are building a coop for the first time, purchasing a prefab coop, or already have your housing set, there are a few fundamental features that every coop should have. I’m going to go over them in this post, so that you can incorporate them into your build plans or make adjustments to an existing coop. |
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