Bird Flu and Backyard Chickens: How to Protect Your Flock
Bird flu risk for backyard chickens peaks during fall and spring migration. Cover the run, lock down water, quarantine new birds 30 days, and know who to call.
Poultry
Molting Chickens: How Long It Lasts and What to Feed
Why chickens molt, how long it lasts, the order feathers drop, and what to feed molting hens so the eggs come back.
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Backyard chickens and the rest of the flock. Coops and incubators, hatching, biosecurity and bird flu, predator-proofing, and what a laying flock actually costs to run.
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Backyard Flock Biosecurity: Why the Case Count Is the Wrong Alarm
Backyard flock biosecurity works on the fall migration calendar, not the USDA case count. Here is the September checklist, the warning signs, and who to call.
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Best Egg Incubator: The 2026 Homestead Hatching Guide
Four egg incubators from Brinsea, GQF, and Incubator Warehouse ranked for homestead hatching — automation, capacity, and hatch-rate features compared.
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Best Chicken Coop: The 2026 Homestead Buyer’s Guide
Four chicken coops from OverEZ, Carolina Coops, Nestera, and Omlet ranked for homestead flocks — capacity, predator protection, cleaning, and durability compared.
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Thermal Scope for Coyote Hunting: Protect Your Flock at Night
A thermal scope for coyote hunting stops predators you cannot see. Here is how thermal protects the coop at night, plus our top homestead pick.
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Predator-Proofing Your Chicken Coop: A May Pre-Summer Checklist
12 things to check on your coop before peak summer predator season — hardware cloth specs, latch types, what fails first, and the fixes that hold.
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Bird Flu in Backyard Flocks: A 48-Hour Biosecurity Checklist for Spring 2026
HPAI is hitting backyard flocks in Georgia, Iowa, and Kentucky this April. Here’s the 48-hour biosecurity checklist that closes the gaps before the virus finds your coop.
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Broody Chicken Hens
As a longtime poultry farmer, I’ve seen quite a few surprises, but this one caught me off guard. I have this determined hen who was so set on hatching eggs, she just couldn’t let go
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Shell-Abrate Diversity: Cracking the Colorful World of Egg Variety!
Going to the store and buying eggs is so passé, backyard micro farms is where it’s at. Those living out in the country have always known the benefits of raising your own brood for the freshest of eggs. Due to current economic circumstances the practice of micro farming is gaining momentum, even among people that…
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How To Introduce a New Generation to an Established Chicken Flock
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been tempted to turn your backyard into a clucking chicken party! It’s not as feathery (err…I mean crazy) as it sounds. We’ve been at it for over a year now, and let me tell you, our 17 hens are egg-cracking good at their jobs. We’re swimming in the freshest…
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How To Be a Chick Magnet
by James the “XDMAN” Nicholas, Mr UnPewFessional Himself Chickens seem to be all the rage right now. With everything that is going on in the world, even basic commodities like eggs are skyrocketing in price. The result is you have everything from companies renting egg-laying birds for the summer, to hordes of people interested in…
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Homegrown Eggs: Are They Safe?
Amidst the nationwide egg “crisis,” I’ve begun to notice two distinct trends among folks. The first, and the more heartening, are those who are (albeit belatedly) using the situation as an excuse to jump into poultry ownership, so they are better prepared for whatever comes next. The other, more worryingly, are those who seem to…
