Fun with ... CHICKEN
6 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (25)
6 years ago
6 years agoRelated Discussions
chickens & ducks
Comments (15)Back to Ducks and chickens - we have 4 Indian Runners (2 M's, 2 F's as it happened) and 2 buff orpington pullets. They're all about the same age - (5 mos.) and were raised near each other since chicks/ducklings. We always used to think of those fuzzy little ducklings as passive and happy. No more. They're okay togethr in the caged pen, though the buffies have learned to give the ducks a wide berth, and while there's ample space in the coop at night, from the beginning the ducks would peck at the hens trying to roost (they're perches were only a few feet high since we clipped the pullet's wings at first). We finally had to build a 3 foot high partition to separate the space and discourage the ducks from bothering the buffies. Eventually the buffies wings grew in enough so that they could roost higher. In response, the ducks felt threatened and in collaborative mutiny, refused to go into the coop at night. We had a heck of a time herding them in. Finally, we resorted to clipping the buffies again just enough to keep them roosting lower. Like second graders, sheesh! We have our own version of "Archi", too! No sooner than Rudy developed his drake feathers, then he became quite 'sure of himself' as well. We keep our 4 African geese in the pen during the day. They have GOT to be 2 -3 times the size of Rudy, but that didn't stop him. He got his dander up toward one of the geese one day, latched on to her posterior in a death grip, and off she spun, waddling and wailing to the top of her lungs with Rudy half waving-half dragging behind her like a loose diaper. We watched in amazement until Lincoln (the gander) intervened. Was quite the scene! The farm gal we got our ducks from had both chickens and ducks living harmoniously. When we wrote to her about the predicament, she was quite puzzled. Perhaps if you had only ducks and hens (all females) things would be better. This is only our experience of course. ItÂs manageable, but doubtful we'll underestimate the nerve of a duck again. Sure makes us think twice about adding a rooster....See MoreChickens in the garden
Comments (19)Well, I'm glad my pics have earned me a Bloody Mary. Thanks Kathy!! GB - Tamarisk would be really nice but those are actually the pinkish flowers of Karl Foerster grass. Marian - the chickens all stay out at night now, but in their covered henhouses. Our lowest temp has been 48F and their feathers and roosting together keep them plenty warm. Their garden could be a real mess by the time Autumn comes, but it was a spot I rarely visited up close. In fact, before the chickens I just let the invasives battle it out and from a distance the effect was pleasing. I now love digging and weeding in there as the chicks follow my every move, dashing off with a worm if I uncover one. It is so much fun:0) Ei - Big Bertha is the white one - she is supposed to grow 1/3 larger than the others but is of modest size right now. In no way are those dumb questions - I asked the very same ones myself. In fact, until this morning I didn't fully understand the anatomy of a rooster and couldn't answer the children's questions as to whether he has a male appendage or not. As the article below explains, roosters are only needed to fertilize eggs to breed. It is interesting that they only mate when daylight and temperature are right, which occurs in Spring. A hen will lay eggs without any help from the rooster, in the same way we have our cycle regardeless of male presence. Knowing our town does not allow roosters I brought our chicks from a local farmer who sexes the day old peeps so that buyers are assured a female. They are a little more expensive but it was a much better alterative than raising a chick only to find we had to give it away when it started crowing. Apparently roosters will crow at any time of the day or night if disturbed. Roosters can be magnificent and if we lived on a farm I'd have one in a second, but would house it away from our bedrooms. Mary Here is a link that might be useful: Reproduction of chooks...See Morechicken-proof plants?
Comments (31)No chicken proof plants really, but you can control the amount of time on lawn or pasture. Scratching combined with their droppings will destruct anything growing if kept on the same ground for more than a few days depending on size of area & density of chickens. When the kids were young we let the chickens and ducks free range in our fenced... part grass part woodland backyard with mostly native plantings with a few hardy perennials around a fir tree. No cultivated beds or precious plants. Containers on the deck & we disliked stepping on droppings, so we blocked access with a piece of plywood. I didn't attempt to grow plants for chickens or keep chickens from plants as they couldn't do much damage to forest underbrush and actually kept the weeds down where now I hand pull them. Length of time varied from 30-60 min. prior to sunset to all day depending on the weather conditions & seasons. Wet weather & winter meant no ranging. Dry weather & spring growing grass meant longer times. If the grass wasn't growing back fast enough to keep up with their scratching ways we would reduce time, reseed, & rake smooth. Chickens loved the swingset worn areas for dust baths, so that became mud in rain. Duration also dependent on the breeds kept & numbers of chickens. Featherlegged bantams scratched less than the clean legged production hens. Now, ten + years later still raising chickens, ducks, rabbits, & doves, but they stay in their pens most of the time. The outside chicken run has about 6" of pea gravel to control drainage, but does build up some mud over time in wet weather as they have tilled the pea gravel with their droppings. Our rainy climate washes away a lot of the manure from the gravel, so it's not really used in our gardens other than when we remove some of the muddy parts. Ducks are in raised pens to keep raccoons out. Young chicks have a separate chick pen with outside run some years & other years are inside their own coop, but herded outside to a movable 6x6 net covered chain link dog kennel during part of the day. Frequency determined by grass durability & weather dependent. Wet weather = mud on our soils in part sun conditions. Swingset & free ranging are long gone now as I've taken over the backyard now. Paver patio, 3 portable fountains, large containers, one raised bed, 6x8 greenhouse wood chip paths, large mixed island beds & a much smaller lawn. Not really permaculture because we bring in purchased feed & bedding and then when soiled haul the bedding + manure from pens to the garden for composting....See MoreFun with chickens - OR - Can you guess, who's who?
Comments (8)Parma .. well they are producing eggs yet, other wise I could send you some eggs. Let's see .. I could send you a big bag of Three Cool Chicks Gardening Gold .. otherwise known as a big bag of chicken poop. :D *LOL* Or .. you could hold out for eggs. ;) Most people think Clover is the prettiest. I think my favorite looks wise is Olive, I love her dark head and fuzzy face. I think Hazel has the nicest personality, she's very sweet. Clover just cracks me up, she's a total nut .. she comes out with some of the strangest sounds you've ever heard and is such a drama queen! I'll hear her out there griping about something and I always have to go see .. she makes a huge fuss out of nothing, but it's pretty amusing! Pam .. chickens are fairly easy to raise. When they are babies they have a greater chance of disease and it's not all that uncommon to lose a couple. We started out with four and lost one on Easter morning, not a great way to start the day! Most people feed them medicated feed to start off with to help stave off infection or disease, then switch them over to non-medicated about 8 weeks in once they have a better immune system. Basically when they are small chicks you keep them warm with a heat lamp, feed them good chick grower feed, keep their brooder ( ours was made out of a cardboard box ) very clean and make sure they have fresh water. We started ours out in the house since it was spring and still chilly .. they need to be kept very warm for several weeks until their feathers come in, you decrease the temp by each week as they grow. We moved ours out into their hen house at 10 weeks old with their heat lamp for nights, but we live in NC and it had warmed up a lot by then. You continue to feed them grower feed and baby grit until they start to lay eggs. Grit is ground stone bought at the feed store, since chickens don't have teeth they need this to help digest/grind their food. Then you switch them over to layer formula food and adult grit. The layer formula has more calcium in it and helps them form their eggs. Other than that they can have most fresh fruit and veggies as treat, they also like plain yogurt a lot .. mine love clipping from my herbs garden too. There are guidelines on the internet for how much room the chickens actually need, but most of the time the guidelines run too small. Ideally they need a fair amount of room for their coop, but not huge .. the girls coop ( house ) is 6' x 8' .. that's pretty large by most standards for three chickens. Their run ( yard ) is 8' x 10' and they are pretty comfortable in that. They have the full run of both during the day, at night they go into their coop when it start to get dusky out. I shut the door between the coop and the run when they go to bed, just for extra protection against predators although their run is built like fort knox. *LOL* We have dogs, so we can't let them free range, but if you can .. that's the best for them as long as the are protected from predators. Since we live in NC we don't get into the 20's but a handful of times a year, 10 F is maybe a once a year thing. So at night to start off with I'll leave their heat lamp on, if it's going to dip colder .. I'll probably plug in an electric heater for them, but that will only be a few times a year here. An adult bird fully feathered can do 30's - 40's no problem, but I'll still probably supplment their heat some. In the summer they can over heat in our climate, if it's going to get above 90F .. I plug in a fan for them just to move the air and make sure they have lots of fresh, cold water. I clean their whole coop and run once a week, with a quick, couple second spot scoop under the roost every day ( the poopiest part ). I then put down new wood shavings. Also before putting down new bedding I put down stall dry, which is made out of demetrius earth. It helps keep the fly population down and makes their run and coop fresh .. it doesn't stink out there and chickens poop can be very smelly, the stuff is great. When I clean out their run/coop and bring the wood shaving poop mixture over to my composting bins and chuck it right in. :) All in all it's not very hard to take care of them .. much easier than dogs and cat .. I have five dogs and one cat....See More- 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years ago
'Can you get fresh albahaca? Or do you sub basil?'
They're one and the same. Get creative with your choice of fresh herbs, but definitely include basil.
The amount of garlic may shock some folks, but roasting the garlic mellows out its pungency considerably. I posted this here, and on the blog, over 10 years ago.
Lemon Garlic Chicken
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons chopped fresh herbs, such as thyme, rosemary, parsley, sweet basil and/or oregano
S & P to taste
1 3½ pound fryer chicken, cut up
25 garlic cloves
¾ cup chicken broth
In a small bowl, stir to combine, the lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, ¼ cup of the herbs, and salt and pepper.
Preheat
oven to 425ºF. Arrange the chicken pieces in a roasting pan, and pour
the lemon-herb mixture over. Arrange the garlic cloves all around the
chicken, stirring them to coat with the mixture. Roast for about 45
minutes, or until the chicken pieces are golden brown.
Remove chicken from the oven. Add the broth to the pan and place on top of
the stove over medium-high heat. Stir to scrape up the browned bits from
the bottom of the pan, while smooshing the soft, roasted garlic with a
fork to thicken the sauce. I like to transfer the chicken to a platter,
pour the sauce over the chicken and then, garnish with the remaining 2
tablespoons of herbs and lemon wedges.
Sol - 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
6 years ago- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
chicken a la maryland is tough to beat.
panned fried in bacon flavored fat , after
dredged in seasoned flour. then covered with
cream gravy and chopped bacon.
full recipe:
- 6 years ago
6 years agoBragu, I make a point of buying drumsticks for .99/lb and use them whenever wings are used.
I love, love Chicken Marbella. But quick and easy is also good! Chicken quarters sprinkled liberally with seasonings and baked.
- 6 years ago
Related Stories
FARM YOUR YARDHouzz Call: Show Us Your One-of-a-Kind Chicken Coops
Do you have a fun or stylish backyard shelter for your feathered friends? Post your pictures and stories in the Comments!
Full Story
GARDENING AND LANDSCAPINGBackyard Living: The Scoop on Chicken Coops
Perk up your morning with fresh eggs and chickadee clucks when you build a chicken coop in your own yard
Full Story
GREAT HOME PROJECTSIs a Backyard Chicken Coop Right for You?
Find out the features to include in a backyard chicken coop, and see how to build or buy one
Full Story
PETSSee a Deluxe 'Catio' Built for Feline Fun
Sixteen lucky cats get the run of a protected outdoor patio with ramps, steps and even a koi pond
Full Story
KITCHEN DESIGNNot a Big Cook? These Fun Kitchen Ideas Are for You
Would you rather sip wine and read than cook every night? Consider these kitchen amenities
Full Story
OUTBUILDINGSQuirky Meets Practical in a Dallas Chicken Coop
These hens have a stylish backyard coop built from recycled materials
Full Story
FARM YOUR YARDHello, Honey: Beekeeping Anywhere for Fun, Food and Good Deeds
We need pollinators, and they increasingly need us too. Here, why and how to be a bee friend
Full Story
HOMES AROUND THE WORLDMy Houzz: Dinosaurs and Fun Collectibles in a Cotswolds Farmhouse
A creative English couple have jazzed up their cozy Oxfordshire home with cool and colorful toys and collectibles
Full Story
FARM YOUR YARDShe Built a Chicken Coop and Was Surprised by What Happened Next
A Southern California homeowner and animal lover shares her building tips and advice on raising happy backyard hens
Full Story
FARM YOUR YARD4 Farm-Fresh Chicken Coops in Urban Backyards
These Atlanta henhouses are worth crowing about for their charming, practical designs
Full Story
annie1992