poultry
Raising Backyard Turkeys for Meat
Of all homestead poultry projects, raising backyard turkeys seems to appeal to the least number of people. Turkeys are amazingly stupid — from the newly hatched poults who can starve to death while trampling in their feed because they haven’t learned where to find it, to the hens who lay their eggs standing up.
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Broad-breasted Vs. Heritage Turkeys
Though frozen turkeys reside in your grocery store all year, they become the main attraction during the final two months. Many like the idea of heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving
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The Pros & Cons of Coop Heating: Do Chickens Need Heat in Winter?
Recently, I’ve been writing about safely heating backyard chicken coops and addressing the question: Do chickens need heat in winter? In New England, we get buried under heaps of snow and experience temperatures in the negatives.
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Simple Turkey Brine Techniques
We love our turkey dinners, especially toward the end of the year, but we’ve all suffered from dry, tasteless white meat that must be smothered in gravy to be palatable.
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Toxins in the Environment
Poisoning is relatively unusual in backyard poultry, especially if you use common sense in keeping your flock away from pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicide-treated seed (intended for planting), wood preservatives, rock salt, and antifreeze.
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Chicken Tractor Designs to Inspire Your Creativity
Chicken tractor designs are becoming more popular as more and more homesteaders and folks who keep backyard chickens are looking for flexibility and the ability to move their flock around the backyard or the homestead. Here are three great chicken tractor designs that you can build at home for your flock.
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How Long Do Chicks Need a Heat Lamp?
Do chickens need heat in winter? Only the babies, and only for a short time. But how long do chicks need a heat lamp?
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The Phantom Chicken of London: Tastes Like Spooky!
What has feathers, a British accent and goes cluck in the night?
When we booked a trip to England this past summer, I wasn’t thinking, “Hey, let’s check out some ghost poultry while we’re gallivanting in jolly ol’!”
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3 Tips to Help Molting Chickens
Add to Favorites It’s autumn. Time for comfy sweaters, pumpkin-flavored everything and … vacation? For backyard chickens across the country, shorter days often signal time for a break. Molting chickens …
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A Guide to Recognizing and Treating Chicken Foot Problems
Two common chicken foot problems and leg ailments are leg mites and bumblefoot, both of which are easy to treat. Less common, but sometimes mistaken for either leg mites or bumblefoot, is a type of arthritis known as gout, which is far easier to prevent than to treat.
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