Chicken Family Planning 101

It's a story we hear more often than you'd think. Someone picks up a few chicks at the feed store or takes in a small flock, and a year or two later they're overwhelmed. What start...

The Dark Side of Feedstore Chicks

By Sherstin Rosenberg, DVM.Sherstin is the executive director at Happy Hen Animal Sanctuary, a non-profit 501(c)(3) animal sanctuary located in San Luis Obispo, CA.THE PROBLEMEvery...

Coccidia

If you've done a fecal test on your chickens (and if you haven't, you should!), you may have seen the word "coccidia" on your results. It's one of the most common findings in backy...

Quarantine

Updated on January 19, 2026.We’ve been talking a lot about quarantine lately due the covid-19 pandemic. The word originates from the Venetian “quarantena” meaning "forty days". It...

Predator proofing

Updated on April 17, 2025.I often hear horror stories involving a raccoon or a dog entering a chicken coop and massacring all the birds. Too many well-meaning chicken keepers set u...

Coop upkeep

Updated on April 7, 2025.It’s spring cleaning time! Pick a nice sunny day and thoroughly clean your coop. Scrub the roosts, remove all bedding, sweep the floor, and disinfect the h...

Happy chickens

Updated on March 29, 2025.A chicken who doesn’t get adequate enrichment and mental stimulation will be more inclined towards problem behaviors. Feather pecking, being noisy, bully...

dust-bathing

Updated on March 16, 2025.If you've ever watched chickens joyfully rolling in the dirt, wings flapping and legs kicking up dust, you’ve witnessed one of their most essential natura...

Welcoming New Chickens to the Flock

Last month, we welcomed two new hens: Rose and Blanche, 12-year-old Ameraucanas from a sister sanctuary. Integrating new chickens into an established flock can be stressful for all...

diatomaceous earth

Diatomaceous earth (DE) is a naturally occurring, fine powder made from the fossilized remains of tiny aquatic organisms called diatoms. It's commonly used as a non-toxic method to...

Do chickens like attention?

Do chickens like attention or would they rather be left alone?This is an interesting question I was asked during one of my recent chicken care classes. The short answer is “It depe...

preening

Preening is the grooming behavior in chickens. Chickens smooth their feathers by running them through their beaks so they perform better at insulating and waterproofing. Chickens...

encapsulating pills

Chickens don't really like to be pilled, but they dislike it even more when the pill leaves a bad taste. Unfortunately many medicines taste bitter, and if you need to pill a chicke...

Sweetie and frostbite

Chickens Just Want to Be WarmBy Melanie Moonstone.Melanie is the founder of Rooster Redemption, a non-profit 501(c)(3) animal sanctuary located in Skagit County, WA. You can follow...

Not a Nugget

We are honored to be featured in Not a Nugget, a short film made in summer 2022 by our friend Mark Middleton. It is about a chicken named Iann who he took care of for a while in 20...

Avian Influenza

Updated on April 1, 2025.Since last fall, HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza, aka H5N1) has continued to affect northern California, with confirmed cases in Riverside, Merced,...

parthenogenesis

Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction where an egg develops into an individual without being fertilized by a sperm. This means that the offspring is genetically identic...

The birds and the bees

Let’s talk about how baby chicks are made. Chickens reproduce sexually, meaning that they need a male and a female who combine their genetic material to create a genetically unique...

both asleep and awake

Chickens possess an intriguing ability that we humans don’t (one more!). They have a sleep phase called unihemispheric slow-wave sleep, during which one side of the brain is asleep...

The fabulous vision of chickens

We’ve recently welcomed 3 hens who each have an eye injury. Athos’ right eye was cloudy, Porthos’ left cornea and eyelid were damaged, and Aramis’ left eye was bulging out. Our avi...

Prolapse

Earlier this month, I happened to be at Rancho Compasión & Blackberry Creek sanctuary when Opal had great difficulty laying an egg. Her egg was positioned askew and while straining...

hormone implant

There exist hormone implants that pause the egg laying in birds. The drug is called Deslorelin (brand name Suprelorin) and is implanted subcutaneously similar to a dog’s microchip....

The Coop Life: A Chicken Keeping Story

By Carina DeVeraCarina DeVera (she/her) is an animal advocate, outdoor enthusiast, and writer. She has been a dedicated champion for animals since she was a child, when — to the ch...

Vegan in the New Year?

At Clorofil, we’ve been vegan for almost a decade. I grew up in France where eating meat, dairy, and eggs was the norm. And although I made at a young age the connection between th...

Lessons from the lockdown

The highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has been decimating birds across the whole country since the beginning of the year. It hit California in mid-July and is still active i...

Bursting lockdown boredom

By Jenni MorrisJenni Morris is the Social Media Manager and Adoptions Coordinator at Goatlandia Farm Animal Sanctuary, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit helping animals, people, and the planet...

The faces of the egg industry

Meet Fennel, Sweetie, and Curry, three of our hens who have been rescued respectively from a caged, cage-free, and a pasture egg farm.Fennel was a very loving hen. She adored being...

Summer and scaly leg mites

Summer is our newest resident. She is a red hen who was found as a stray. She was in rough shape: missing lots of feathers, bright red spots on her skin, thick scabby and crusty fe...

Where does the chicken come from?

Yes, chickens descend from the jungle fowl who themselves descend from the Tyrannosaurus rex (see "Her great-great-...-great-grandma was a T-rex"). But closer in their family tree,...

Egg replacements

There are many ways to replace eggs when baking and cooking. Here are our favorite ways to substitute 1 egg in a recipe: • 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds + 3 tablespoons water It...

Queen of Diamonds

Chickens are smarter than we think! If you’ve been following our social media, you’ve seen Sweetie taking on the Queen of Diamonds' challenge at the beginning of the holiday and th...

blackhead disease

Blackhead disease (histomoniasis) is a disease that affects turkeys, chickens, pheasants, quail, and some other birds. It is caused by the protozoa Histomonas meleagridis that are...

Personalized care

While it is convenient to treat all our chickens the same, sometimes their individual needs lead us to create specialized setups and personalized care. With our first 3 chickens, w...

Flystrike

We’ve been talking about flystrike and the need to keep chickens’ butts clean in our chicken care classes but we didn’t expect to get a hands-on experience last month! Sweetie, our...

butt cleaning

Updated on June 1, 2022.Chickens are usually really good at preening themselves and don’t need our intervention to stay clean and fluffy. But sometimes some may need a little help,...

Salpingitis and lash eggs

I remember the first time we found a weird little rubbery egg in the nestbox. It clearly wasn’t an egg, but it took us a while to identify it as a lash egg and learn what it was. W...

how many eggs does a hen lay?

A commercial layer hen lays about 300 eggs a year, and there is nothing natural in this. We have been breeding them for maximum egg production, and we still are. In the US, the pro...

Buttercup the Cornish Cross

By Abbie Hubbard.Abbie is a dog behaviorist with Humane Society International, and lives with 2 dogs, 3 parrots, 4 budgies, 4 chickens, 2 pheasants and a turkey. You can follow her...

3rd eyelid

Chickens have a third eyelid called the nictitating membrane that slides horizontally over the eye to protect it from dust and debris.

Parasitic worms

Last month, we discussed external parasites. Today, we are going to look at the worms who live inside our chickens.There are 3 groups of worms: roundworms, flatworms, and thorny-he...

External parasites

A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterized parasites as "predators t...

acariasis & pediculosis

An infestation with mites is called acariasis.And an infestation with lice is called pediculosis.

Palliative care and CBD

Fleur is a little white leghorn rescued from a battery cage farm at the end of 2017. She joined our sanctuary in the following spring. She was in poor shape with her broken foot an...

necropsy

When one of your chickens dies and you don’t know why, do a necropsy. It will not only explain the cause of her death, but also detect things like viruses, bacteria, and parasites....

Fat chickens

Chai ran through the yard to greet me, her limping seemed heavier. I picked her up and checked if something was stuck under her feet, but I didn’t see anything. She has been slight...

when hens have teeth

The French idiom "Quand les poules auront des dents!" which translates literally to "When hens have teeth!" is used when something is never, ever going to happen. The corresponding...

Adopt, don't shop

With spring around the corner, we are starting to see lots of ads to buy baby chicks. Please resist the temptation of buying these fuzzy balls of cuteness and adopt instead.This is...

Bedding materials

Bedding is an important part of keeping your chickens happy and healthy. In the hen house, the bedding provides a soft surface for the chickens to walk on, jump from the roost, and...

aromatherapy

Instead of using aromatic wood shavings like cedar and pine that are toxic to chickens, you can add certain herbs to the bedding in the hen house for a pleasant smell. Some herbs a...

Thinking about having chickens?

Updated on February 21, 2024.It’s the New Year and one of your resolutions may be to get chickens. So, let’s discuss the pros and cons of keeping chickens so you can make the right...

opossum

On Christmas Eve, we got the visit of an opossum and I started to learn more about these fascinating creatures.Opossums are opportunistic omnivores. They eat a diet of insects, wor...

food storage container

When you buy a 50-pound bag of chicken feed, you don’t use it all right away and need to find a place to store it. Although sturdy, the bag will not protect its content from the el...

Gearing up checklist

So, you decided to bring chickens into your family. You have weighed the pros and cons of sharing your life with chickens, read everything you could put your hands on about chicken...

torpedo feeding

Torpedo feeding is an alternative to tube feeding a sick chicken or a chicken who cannot eat on their own.In this video, my friend Kim Kunst is showing how to prepare torpedoes and...

Larissa and fowl pox

By Darcy Smith.Darcy is the co-founder of the Funky Chicken Rescue, a non-profit 501(c)3 all animal rescue / sanctuary located in Vacaville, CA. You can follow Funky Chicken on soc...

Egg shells as calcium supplement

Egg shells as calcium supplementDon't throw egg shells away. Give them back to your chickens as calcium supplement in 4 simple steps: rinse, dry, crush, offer.

wildfire smoke

I have a light headache, my sinuses are congested, and my throat is itchy. No, it’s not covid nor the flu. It’s the smoke I have been inhaling for the last few weeks. With wildfire...

respiratory system

The birds’ respiratory system is very different from the one of mammals.Their lungs are rigid and are not able to expand, but they have several air sacs that expand and contract wi...

Chicken cooling techniques

Here are all the ways we are keeping our chickens and turkeys cook during hot summer days.Thermometers to know how really hot it is in the chicken yard.Plenty fresh water to keep e...

chicken ID

Dogs and cats usually have a collar with their name and their guardians' contact info so they can be reunited with their family. During emergency evacuations, numbers are being pai...

Fire evacuation preparedness

After an unusually hot week, a thunderstorm broke out and lightnings sparked many fires here in California. These wildfires have been devouring many thousands of acres displacing p...

disinfectants

Disinfecting the coop is not something that is required on a regular basis. A good cleaning of the coop and equipment is enough to keep potential pathogens under control. However,...

virulent Newcastle Disease last update

California is now free of the virulent Newcastle disease, and the quarantine is Southern California has been lifted!Since May 2018 when the disease was first detected, over 1.2 mil...

Vaccination

In farms, chickens are usually vaccinated against a variety of diseases including Marek's disease, Newcastle disease, infectious bronchitis, infectious laryngotracheitis, fowl pox,...

chickens and dog trainers

Dog trainers learn to clicker train chickens to improve their skills. They use chickens as a model for learning the theories and mechanics of animal training. Chickens are quite un...

Dogs and birds

By Abbie Hubbard.Abbie is a dog behaviorist with Humane Society International, and lives with one dog, 2 African Grey parrots, 3 turkeys, and 6 budgies. You can follow her on Insta...

pasture predation

In pasture raised egg operations, 10% mortality due to predation is common. Pastures are not a natural habitat for chickens. Their ancestors, the jungle fowl, live in forests where...

Wing lice

Wing liceDuring her regular health check, we found some lice on Fleur. The treatment is easy: Apply 0.01cc Frontline Plus (9.8% Fipronil) per pound to the skin on the neck. She wei...

Bumblefoot

Bumblefoot is a term used to describe a staph infection on a chicken’s foot. It comes from the old British word “bumble” meaning “to walk unsteadily”. Staph is the shorthand for th...

chicken feet

Healthy chicken feet are mostly smooth and soft with a rubbery feel with scales covering the tops of a chicken’s toes. A chicken’s foot is made up of sixteen bones that work togeth...

How to trim chicken's nails

How to trim chicken's nailsA chicken's nail is very similar to a cat or dog's nail. There are blood vessels and nerves in it, called the quick. You can see the pinkish quick in whi...

chicken adoption

This spring, consider adopting chickens instead of buying them. • You save a life. Like dogs and cats, too many chickens come into shelters and too few people consider adoption wh...

My ideal coop

During a decade of keeping chickens, we have modified, fixed and extended our original coop. We also added a few extra coops and structures in the yard to fit all the needs that ca...

Biosecurity

: security from exposure to harmful biological agents Merriam-WebsterBiosecurity is a big word that may sound a bit scary. It may invoke images of isolation tents guarded by milit...

fecal test

Updated on June 1, 2022.Fecal tests are part of a thorough chicken health check. It allows you to detect any internal parasites before you see any external symptoms.We do fecal tes...

Chickens in the rain

This is a rerun of January 2017 newsletter. It’s the rainy season here in California, and our beautiful hills are green again. While the chickens love the fresh new growths, how mu...

pineal gland

The pineal gland is a small endocrine gland in the brain of most vertebrates. It produces melatonin, a hormone which modulates sleep patterns. The shape of the gland resembles a pi...

Scout and scissor beak

We love heartwarming stories like Sweetpea's incredible luck and recovery, or The Special Ones at Blackberry Creek Farm animal sanctuary. Today we are bringing Scout's story to yo...

Thanksgiving alternatives

The best way to celebrate turkeys at Thanksgiving is to keep them off our plate. Here are some of the many yummy alternatives for the holiday dinners: • Tofurky Roast • Field R...

Turkeys

As birds raised for meat, their bodies have been engineered to grow big muscles extremely fast, so they reach slaughter weight at 4-5 months of age. Their heart and skeleton can ba...

Sweetpea

By Danielle Hanosh. Danielle is the co-founder of Blackberry Creek Farm Animal Sanctuary. In June we received a phone call about a chicken who had been the victim of a dog attack....

vets

Lots of chicken illnesses and injuries are treatable if caught in time and properly cared for. Don't hesitate and go see your vet when your chicken is not doing well. Find a local...

Hanging cabbage

Hanging CabbageKeep your turkeys (or chickens) entertained by hanging a cabbage in their yard .

Feathers

A chicken’s feathers do not cover her entire body. There are featherless areas that help with cooling when a chicken holds out her wings in hot weather. Feathers grow from follicl...

Molting

It was like they had a pillow fight in the hen house! Poppy started molting overnight. Molting, moulting, sloughing, shedding, or ecdysis is the manner in which animals routinely...

Diseases from chickens

Can chickens make people sick? This is a question I get asked often, and for good reason. We keep hearing alarming news about a worldwide epidemic of bird flu (aka avian influenza)...

virulent Newcastle Disease update

The virulent Newcastle Disease outbreak is considered over in Northern California, however it is still going on in Southern California. Continue to practice good biosecurity aroun...

oldest chicken (2)

Last month, we featured Matilda as the oldest chicken, but it seems that Muffy beat her by quite a few years. According to Guinness World records, she was a Red Quilled Muffed Ame...

Dealing with death

Sharing your life with chickens is quite fun and full of delights. Unfortunately their life is more temporary than ours, and we can’t help feeling heartbroken when they leave this...

oldest chicken

The oldest chicken ever to have lived was called Matilda (at least she was the first chicken to receive the title of World's Oldest Living Chicken from Guinness World Records). Sh...

My chicken ain't doing right

Updated on July 7th, 2021.My hen was acting strange. Instead of foraging with her sisters, she came and sat next to me while I was in the garden. The others in my little 3-hen floc...

easter chicks

Cute bunnies, fluffy chicks and ducklings are popular in Easter baskets. They are delightful, fuzzy, and irresistible, but are not appropriate gifts. They are not toys, they are li...

Gardens for chickens

It’s springtime! Time to take your trowel and spade out of the shed, and plant your garden! While selecting new ornamental and edible plants to add to your backyard, think about yo...

Biosecurity

BiosecurityPracticing good biosecurity, such as wearing specific shoes and washing your hands, has always been important when visiting your chickens. But with the threat of the Vir...

How to tube feed a chicken

How to tube feed a chickenWhen a chicken doesn't or cannot eat by herself, we may need to intervene. The safest way to feed her is to put food directly in her crop. Tube feeding is...

Bird brains

By Rhianna Axon Rhianna is the Animal Care Director at Charlie’s Acres Farm Animal Sanctuary. I bet you’ve heard the phrase “bird brain” used as an insult before, but it’s actuall...

Egg labels

There are so many labels on an egg carton nowadays that it’s easy to be both overwhelmed and confused. What do all these labels mean? And what do they not?Let’s start with the labe...

forced molting

Forced molting (aka induced molting) is a practice in the egg industry to boost the laying cycle. At the end of their first laying cycle, the hens are starved for 7-14 days to arti...

Peppa's coop

Peppa came to our micro-sanctuary last summer. She is a 6-year-old Brahma bantam who lost her vision and started to be bullied by her flock mates. Being tiny and blind in the chick...

sickles

Sickle feathers are the elongated, sickle-shaped feathers in the tail of a rooster. They are usually very flamboyant. Hens don't have sickles in their tails. Their tails are short...

saddle

Saddle feathers are the feathers in front of the tail of a chicken. They look different based on the sex of the chicken. Similarly to the hackle feathers, hens have rounder saddles...

The Special Ones

By Danielle Hanosh. Danielle is the co-founder of Blackberry Creek Farm Animal Sanctuary. Dashing through the door of the feedstore and out of the downpour, I rushed over to the c...

Chicken health check

Chicken Health CheckHow to do a health check on a chicken. By performing regular health checks on your flock, you can catch things earlier, and prevent minor problems from becomin...

Bachelor flocks

By Lauren Cole. Lauren is an Animal Care Technician at Marin Humane where she loves socializing with all the feathered friends who arrive at the shelter. Bachelor flocks – flocks...

hackles

Hackles are the feathers around the neck of a chicken. They look different based on the sex of the chicken. Hens have rounder hackles, whereas roosters have longer, thinner, and po...

California Prop 12

Last month we talked about the many different chicken breeds. Let’s have a closer look at the lives of the 7.7 billion egg laying hens living in the world today. 90% of them live i...

crows

Crows are awesome chicken allies. They are the smartest birds: some scientists think that crows may be as intelligent as the great apes. They are loud and very territorial, and tha...

alektorophobia

Alektorophobia is the fear of chickens. The word comes from the Greek words “alektor” which means rooster, and “phobos” which means fear.

Chicken breeds

Like dogs, chickens come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. There are more than 400 breeds of chickens. Some have fancy feathers and big combs, some lay blue eggs, some are tiny, an...

ice cube treats

Chickens don't do well in hot weather and can actually die of heat stress. One way to keep them cool during hot summer days is by offering them frozen treats. Watch the short vide...

Waterers

Chickens drink more than they eat (see did-you-know card on drinking water), so it’s very important that they always have access to fresh water. Let’s see the different ways to que...

Feeders

We talked about what to feed chickens a few months ago (see newsletters “What to feed chickens?” part 1 and part 2). Today we are going to discuss how to feed them. There is a gre...

treadle feeder

Using a treadle feeder needs some learning. Watch our foster girls figuring out how to use it.

old hen new tricks

You can teach an old hen new tricks. Watch Luna "pecking out" the Queen of Spades from a deck of cards.It's quite amazing, isn't it? Chickens are smarter than we think. They reco...

Best home for an older hen

How old is an old hen? Well it depends on whom you ask... For the egg factory farmer, it’s 18 months just after she reaches peak production. For the smaller farmer, it’s around 3 y...

international respect for chickens month

May is the International Respect for Chickens Month!Learn something new about chickens: • Baby chicks start talking to their moms while still in the egg. • There are 23 billion...

Second coop

Having an extra coop can become very handy in many situations. Here are the multiple roles a second coop can fill: The hospital coop to separate a sick or injured chicken from the...

clipping wings

Clipping the wings of your chicken may be needed if she is a good flyer and a 6ft fence doesn’t deter her from exploring the neighborhood. You should not clip her wings as a workar...

Adopt, don't shop

We bought our first chickens. We selected Ameraucanas based on their breed traits: docile, not broody, bears confinement well, and the fact that they were good layers. We bought th...

hatcheries

99% of all eggs and chicks come from hatcheries, and they are no better than puppy mills. The parents and grandparents are bred and the less desirable offspring are killed in orde...

Ice cube treats

Ice Cube TreatsOn hot summer days, keep your chickens cool by offering them frozen treats.

A second life for ex-commercial hens

We welcomed Luna and Maya to our micro-sanctuary on New Year’s Eve. They are two adorable 2-year-old White Leghorns coming from an egg factory. The first time we adopted hens rescu...

tidbitting

When a rooster comes across a tasty morsel of food, he does a little dance and song to let the hens know about his discovery. This behavior is called tidbitting. It’s fascinating t...

poisonous food

Avocado, citrus, and uncooked beans are poisonous to chickens. Chickens rarely eat toxic plants. When they do eat something poisonous, it's usually because someone fed it to them...

What to feed chickens? - part 2

The complete feeds we discussed in part 1 make up the bulk of your chickens’ diet. However it is good to add these other foodstuffs. Calcium Laying hens require lots of calcium t...

moldy food

Molds produce mycotoxins which can be harmful or even deadly to chickens. So make sure the grain is carefully stored and mold free when feeding it to your chickens. The image bel...

What to feed chickens? - part 1

The variety of choices found in feed stores can be overwhelming: pellets or grains, conventional or organic, soy or not... And it becomes even more difficult when you start researc...

It's our 1-year anniversary!

♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ chicken dance music♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ One year ago, Clorofil became an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit.♩ ♫ ♬ That same month, we published our first newsletter.♩ ♫ ♬ In spring, we went o...

pumpkins

Chickens love pumpkins! Pumpkins are super nutritious, they are full of fibers, minerals, and vitamins. And now is the season to get cheap or even free pumpkins! People will happ...

roosting

Roosting is another basic behavior in chickens. They get together to sleep at night. And because they are quite vulnerable when they sleep, chickens prefer to perch (roost) as hig...

Introducing new chickens

Updated on May 18th, 2025.Chickens are like potato chips... You can never just have one... or even two. But adding new chickens to an existing flock is not as easy as it may sound....

Visual introduction

Introducing new chickens: Visual Introduction.Introducing new chickens. After a quarantine period to ensure that the new chickens are healthy, and before putting the new and old ch...

Pecking order

Ever seen your chickens bickering with each other?It usually happens around a valuable resource like the feeder, the favorite nest box, the higher roost. The aggressor is reminding...

DIY coop

We would like to thank our friend Dan for his help with this newsletter. Chickens don’t require much gear, but they do need a coop. A big and safe coop. A chicken coop usually ref...

Cool chickens

When temperatures reach the 80s, we slow down. We put on our shorts and flip flops, sit by the pool, and sip on a margarita. We need to help our chickens to do the same. They don’t...

sun-bathing

Sun-bathing is one of the essential chicken behaviors. You will see them laying on their sides in a warm and sunny spot with a leg and a wing stretched out. At first, you may thin...

Her great-great-...-great-grandma was a T-rex

Birds descended from a group of two-legged dinosaurs whose members include the Tyrannosaurus rex and the velociraptors. And no bird is more closely related on the genetic level to...

eating food

A bantam eats an average of 0.5lb of feed during a week, a light breed eats 2lb, and a heavy breed 4lb. Of course, it depends on the quality of the food, its energy and protein co...

Gardening with chickens

Chickens are foragers. They spend many hours scratching the soil in search of food. With proper management (that is by fencing off your vegetable garden and your beautifully manicu...

drinking water

Under normal condition (70°F), chickens drink twice as much as they eat by weight. This is typically 1 to 2 cups water per day. This ratio of water to feed goes up dramatically wi...

My chicken ain't doing right - part 2

Last month, we talked about how to identify a sick chicken. And we discussed how chickens hide their illness so well that by the time you notice it, you may only have couple of day...

CAFHS

The California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System (CAHFS) offers relatively cheap medical tests and diagnosis for chickens. A fecal test costs about $10 and a necrops...

My chicken ain't doing right - part 1

My hen was acting strange. Instead of foraging with her sisters, she came and sat next to me while I was in the garden. The others in my little 3-hen flock started to be aggressive...

body temperature

The body temperature of birds has more variability than mammals. The normal temperature of an adult chicken ranges between 105°F and 107°F, whereas the one of a hatchling is lower....

Roosters

On January 28th, we entered the year of the rooster! It is said that people born in this year are hard-working, talented, punctual, kind, capable and adventurous.Roosters are aweso...

sense of hearing

Chickens hear well. They begin hearing while still in the egg after 12 days of incubation, and their hearing doesn’t degrade with age as it does for humans. Their ears aren’t visi...

How to clip a chicken's wings

How to clip a chicken's wingsClipping the wings of your chicken may be needed if she is a good flyer and a 6ft fence doesn’t deter her from exploring the neighborhood. You should n...

Chickens in the rain

It’s the rainy season here in California, and our beautiful hills are green again. While the chickens love the fresh new growths, how much do they enjoy the rain? Is it okay to let...

sense of touch

Chickens sense of touch is very similar to ours. They have sensory nerve cells that enable them to feel pressure, touch, pain, heat and cold. Their nervous system tells them also a...

Baking without eggs

Around this time of year, when the days are getting shorter, most hens stop laying. They take a break until spring, which is a more favorable season for raising chicks. It’s also t...

senses of taste and smell

Chickens have only 350 to 500 taste buds, while we have 3,000 to 10,000 of them. They dislike strong flavors rather than having strong preferences. Their food choice may be more ba...

Chickens are smarter than we think

As chicken keepers we know our birds are smart individuals, but new studies show that we may be underestimated how smart they are. Research from the University of Bristol has demon...

sense of sight

Chickens have a very well developed vision. They have double the sensitive visual cells on the retina compared to people which allow them to see colors and shades of grey in dim l...