Posts Tagged ‘chicken’
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Our fun, lively and informative chicken afternoons provide you with all you need to know about keeping your poultry healthy and happy.
Ideal for first time chicken owners, or those thinking about taking up chicken keeping.
We give you practical advice, tips and support in all aspects of poultry husbandry.
For those already well versed in the art of chicken maintenance, we also offer more advanced courses.
However, we like to encourage a mixed range of ability on course, so you not only learn from us, you learn from each other.
We love daft questions and are committed to making these days as fun and helpful as possible. A definite afternoon out with a difference, for all the family, in a beautiful and rural South Yorkshire location.
Once we’ve done all the chicken schmoozing, the Hen Party will begin.
We have an informal chat, with a question and answer session in our teepee with traditional tea, cake and sandwiches. (Don’t worry, there’ll be no chicken sandwiches on offer!)
And of course, nobody walks away empty handed. They’ll be a goody bag for every guest full of handy hints and hen treats!
Come along to one of our courses, there’s so much more to chicken keeping than meets the eye.
Duration : 0:2:19
tips on how to build a chicken coup out of recycled materials that is self cleaning. Great for people living in warmer climates.
Duration : 0:3:13
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Tuesday May 17 2011 10:18 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken
Chicken : or Rooster (m), Hen (f)The chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird. Humans keep chickens primarily as a source of food, consuming both their meat and their eggs. The traditional poultry farming view of the domestication of the chicken is stated in Encyclopaedia Britannica (2007): ‘Humans first domesticated chickens of Indian origin for the purpose of cockfighting in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Very little formal attention was given to egg or meat production. . .’ Recent genetic studies have pointed to multiple maternal origins in Southeast, East, and South Asia, but with the clade found in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa originating in the Indian subcontinent. From India the domesticated fowl made its way to the Persianized kingdom of Lydia in western Asia Minor, and domestic fowl were imported to Greece by the fifth century BC. Fowl had been known in Egypt since the 18th Dynasty, with the ‘bird that lays every day’ having come to Egypt from the land between Syria and Shinar, Babylonia, according to the annals of Tutmose III. In the UK and Ireland adult male chickens are primarily known as cocks, whereas in America, Canada and Australia they are more commonly called roosters. Males under a year old are cockerels. Castrated roosters are called capons (surgical and chemical castration are now illegal in some parts of the world). Females over a year old are known as hens, and younger females are pullets. In Australia and New Zealand (also sometimes in Britain), there is a generic term chook ( /ˈtʃʊk/) to describe all ages and both sexes. Babies are called chicks, and the meat is called chicken.’Chicken’ originally referred to chicks, not the species itself. The species as a whole was then called domestic fowl, or just fowl. This use of ‘chicken’ survives in the phrase ‘Hen and Chickens’, sometimes used as a British public house or theatre name, and to name groups of one large and many small rocks or islands in the sea (see for example Hen and Chicken Islands). Chickens are omnivores. In the wild, they often scratch at the soil to search for seeds, insects and even larger animals such as lizards or young mice. Chickens may live for five to ten years, depending on the breed. In commercial intensive farming, a meat chicken generally lives six weeks before slaughter. A free range or organic meat chicken will usually be slaughtered at about 14 weeks. Hens of special laying breeds may produce as many as 300 eggs a year. After 12 months, the hen’s egg-laying ability starts to decline, and commercial laying hens are then slaughtered and used in processed foods, or sold as ‘soup hens’. The world’s oldest chicken, a hen, died of heart failure at the age of 16 according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Roosters can usually be differentiated from hens by their striking plumage of long flowing tails and shiny, pointed feathers on their necks (hackles) and backs (saddle) which are typically of brighter, bolder colors than those of females of the same species. However, in some breeds, such as the Sebright, the rooster has only slightly pointed neck feathers, the same color as the hen’s. The identification must be made by looking at the comb, or eventually from the development of spurs on the male’s legs (in a few breeds and in certain hybrids the male and female chicks may be differentiated by color). Adult chickens have a fleshy crest on their heads called a comb or cockscomb, and hanging flaps of skin either side under their beaks called wattles. Both the adult male and female have wattles and combs, but in most breeds these are more prominent in males. A muff or beard is a mutation found in several chicken breeds which causes extra feathering under the chicken’s face, gi
Duration : 0:3:12
In Chapter 13 of 19 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview with Erik Michielsen, author, food writer, and rooftop gardener Cathy Erway shares the emotional and physical benefits gained by raising three egg laying hens on her rooftop garden. She gets her hens from Heritage Farms. The first, Beaker, is a BB red bantam hen; the second, Yoko, is a Silver-Spangled Hamburg hen; the third, Mama, is an Aracauna hen; and the fourth, MeiMei, is a Cochin hen. Over time, the hens teach Erway about social behavior and resiliency during winter while creating a more positive mood. Erway is the author of “The Art of Eating In: How I learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove.” She writes two blogs, “Not Eating Out in New York” (http://www.noteatingoutinny.com ) and “Lunch at Six Point” (http://www.lunchatsixpoint.com ). Erway earned her B.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College.
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Duration : 0:2:53
Discover How To Easily Build An Attractive And Affordable
Backyard Chicken Coop…
Click This Link: http://tiny.cc/ChickenCoops
Duration : 0:0:33
iChicken is a great new App for chicken keepers, written and created exclusively for iOS devices such as the iPod Touch, iPhone 3, iPhone 3gs and iPhone 4. It will run happily on your iPad too, and an iPad specific version is already in the pipe line.
This App is crammed with great information about keeping chickens, with sections dedicated to the Health of your hens and even how to care for them on a day to day basis.
iChicken is the perfect companion for those of us who already have chickens, and also as a great guide to assist and inspire others who are considering keeping chickens in the future. Take a look into our features section, to see just how much detailed information is included. There are even some great fun extras that help you make the most of this App, and let you share your images with the built in gallery feature.
Duration : 0:3:45
http://howtobuildachickencoopfast.com -Following the easy instructions in this book will get you started raising chickens.
Duration : 0:2:30
As part of the growing trend toward locally grown food and self-sufficiency, people living in towns and suburbs are choosing to keep chickens in their backyards. This hobby combines the enjoyment of caring for lively birds with the satisfaction of producing fresh, healthy eggs. If you’ve decided to keep poultry, you may wish purchase one of the many flat-packed chicken coops for sale online. These vary in terms of design, size and materials with some models providing better ventilation and lighting.
Certain design features can help keep your chickens happy and healthy. Look for coops with a hen house that is raised off the ground with an attached ramp to allow the birds access. This will help keep the nesting area dry and free of vermin. A pull-out tray beneath the hen house will make it easy to keep clean. A nesting box that can be accessed from outside the coop via a pull-up lid will allow you to collect eggs without disturbing the hens.
The size of coop you will need depends on how many chickens you intend to keep in it. In a coop consisting of an enclosed nesting area and a covered run, each laying hen requires about 6 square feet of space. A coop that is 6 foot long by 4 foot wide is 24 square feet and can comfortably house 4 chickens.
Pay attention to the materials description when considering a coop to purchase. Wood should be treated with a preserver to make it water-repellent and rot-resistant. Panels should have a thickness of half an inch or more to ensure that the coop is sturdy enough to withstand wind and weather. The sides of the chicken run should be covered in galvanized steel mesh to protect the birds from predators.
Adequate ventilation is very important for the health of your chickens. It allows moisture to evaporate and gases and odors to dissipate. Vents located near the roof of the nesting area will allow air to circulate without subjecting the birds to drafts.
Exposing the nesting area to light will encourage the hens to lay more and better eggs. The coop should have at least one glass or Perspex window which will provide the chickens with sunlight all year round. Ideally this should be on hinges so that it can be opened in summer for extra ventilation.
When comparing prices of chicken coops for sale, the general rule is that you get what you pay for. More expensive coops tend to be made of better materials and incorporate more features. A cheap coop that will put the health of your chickens at risk, be damaged by the weather or be invaded by vermin and predators is not a bargain. Remember that you will have to clean your coop, care for your chickens and collect eggs on a regular basis, so a coop designed with your convenience in mind is generally worth its price in the long run.
http://top-3-products.info/diy-coops/ – READ MY REVIEWS BEFORE YOU BUY ANY PRODUCTS ON DIY CHICKEN COOP BUILDING.
Many individuals do have a tendency to think you need a lot of expensive materials to successfully build a chicken coop, however this is not the case at all. Chicken coops can be made from a variety of different materials including such things as an old shed, scrap lumber, PVC pipes, 50 gallon barrels, or other recycled materials you may have around the house already.
Duration : 0:3:0
http://bit.ly/gR8sNs . Building a Chicken Coop – The Easy Way
Duration : 0:3:40
