Triumph (and sometimes trouble) at the henhouse
When I wrote about caring for chickens in winter weather, I mentioned the struggles of sweet Snoopy, a California White hen who has combs and wattles to match many roosters and the stiffer feathers that tend not to pack quite as much padding under the primary layers. These physical traits are indicative of breeds more…
Sure, right now we’re savoring autumn in east Tennessee (and many other places), but the balmy temps will soon drop. Maybe your first chicks are big girls now and you’re thinking What do we do when it gets really cold? Maybe, like our first brood, it hasn’t crossed your mind just yet. In either case,…
This story begins with some bad, sad, hard news: in early December we lost one of our two sweet tiny twins to an in-coop hawk attack. More about “coop maintenance (super hard) lessons learned” to come. This left our sweet Renata a tiny gal without a tiny pal. Chicken body language can be ambivalent at…
I have written quite a bit about the triumphs and near losses of raising chickens, but friends, it all exists. The subtitle of this website is “Triumph (and sometimes Trouble) at the Henhouse.” I chose this for two reasons: My favourite Canadian band, The Tragically Hip, released an album in the 90’s called Trouble at…
It was a late August afternoon. I was on the phone with a friend when I heard a wild cacophony of clucking and bah-gawking circling the house. I looked out the side porch and saw the silver blur of Lang dart by, and then what my eye-brain synapses decided was (taking in a big fluffy…
It was late on a Monday afternoon in mid-July in east Tennessee. A real warm day, by local standards. I was about to corral the chickie girls into their run for snacks, preens, and drinks before bed. They had been out most of the afternoon and were lolling about in the corner of the yard…
The amazing technicolour egg palette that can be part of a backyard flock is, at the very least, enchanting. When you pick out your babies or pullets or hens, part of what you might consider is the egg colour they will offer. And—happy news!—hens that lay beautiful coloured eggs can be just as prolific (or…
It’s been a very challenging few weeks. We’ve definitely had some trouble at the hen house. There’s lots of tricky stuff to process and write about, but it needs time to settle. Right now I’d rather share some happiness and joy. Which means, it’s time to share the story of bringing home and getting to…
The first thing you’ll probably notice after a predator threatens your chickens—they all disappear. I mean absolutely all of them and I mean absolutely disappeared. Still and silent—not a cluck, feather, or a shadow to be seen. This was what we found on an afternoon in October 2021. Where the girls had all just been…
Chickens are tiny rototillers. Chickens are lightly domesticated velociraptors. Chickens are annihilators of insecta and annelida—annihilators with hyper-focused intensity. Chickens are not gardeners. Gardening with chickens? Before you read more, may I suggest Metallica’s Seek and Destroy. A chicken’s mission is to gobble up every bug, worm, grub, leaf, fruit, and whatever other nourishment it…