Bird Shots - Portraits of Chickens

One thing that many non-chicken people don't know is that every chicken has its own personality. Right from the start that personality is evident. Not only that, but chickens are expressive! It is not hard to tell what mood your chickens are in just by watching their faces and body language.

Look at the expressions in each of the faces or in the body language of the chickens below. How do you think these birds are feeling? What are they thinking?

 shy?

Processing My Meat Birds (Heads are Going to Roll!)

Let me start by saying that if you are an animal rights activist or don't believe that animals should be killed for meat, this post is not for you. Further, if you fit into the above description and are here to leave harassing comments about MY choice to eat meat, the following articles will be considered Required Reading before you leave any comments...

An Open Letter To Angry Vegetarians
Just Chillin' (with) My Meat Birds

Oh - and if you still choose to leave a hateful comment, I will delete it... because I am the Blog Goddess and I can do that.

And with that out of the way...

This blog is for anyone interested in raising and processing their own chickens for food. There are lots of different right ways of processing chickens, and the way I'm going to share is just one of them. I don't own any fancy processing equipment, and you don't need to either (though if you do, that's great).

Writing about killing and death is almost as difficult as writing about sex, so I'm going to do it my way and try to lighten it up for all of us with a bit of humor.

The Broody Bunch

Here's the story,
Of a lovely lady,
Who was sitting on 2 very lovely eggs.
both of them were Swedish Flower,
Like their mother,
Though they resembled tiny kegs.

Here's the story,
Of another lady,
Who was busy with two eggs of her own,
They were three chooks,
Living all together,
Yet they were all alone.

'Till this one day when this lady met this lady,
And they knew that it was much more than a hunch,
That this flock would somehow form a family...
And that's the way they all became the Broody Bunch!

Raising Ducklings and Chicks Together & Aspergillosis in Chickens

*** Warning - this blog post contains graphic materials. ***

Yesterday as my husband and I were working on a new run for our young flock of guinea fowl, my phone rang. It was my dear friend Linda. She was in tears and she needed me to walk her through her first necropsy over the phone. Over the next hour, Linda and I were able to solve a mystery and offer Linda some peace of mind for the health of the rest of her flock.

Let me start with some background...

Linda keeps her chickens and other livestock as organically as possible and recently decided that she should get some young chickens as her current flock is aging. Most of us might assume that Lida's birds might perhaps be 4 or 5 years old. Maybe even a little older. Well... Linda's oldest flock members are currently 13 years old! (No - that's not a typo.) And she even has the receipts from the purchase of those chickens to prove it!

Wry Neck - Using Turmeric to Treat Wry Neck in a Chicken

~ By: Christine Myers

Just last week, I was standing in my yard, looking at my favorite pullet, feeling sure I’d have to euthanize her. Hope (an Easter Egger) had suddenly developed a case of wry neck which had gotten progressively worse over the course of the day. I ended up treating her condition not with the recommended regimen of vitamins, but with a spice that is a medicinal powerhouse in the human world. Here is her story.

Day 1. I opened the main coop and stepped aside for the stampede of chickens to their morning rations. As always, Hope did her cute half-run, half-fly thing that often gets her to the food dishes first. She seemed fine.