It is broody hen time in our coop. That’s when something flips in a hen's brain that lets her know now is the time to become a mama. The switch doesn't flip in all hens, but when it does, I know it can be contagious. I've had as many as three broody hens at one time....

I used to say that my dogs were five for five in catching a rogue chicken, while my chickens were zero for five in surviving. It made sense. I had two bird hunting dogs trained to retrieve birds. Yes, I hated losing a chicken, but who can blame me or the dogs for...

Dogs are creatures of habit. They like routines. In our house, the highlight of my dogs’ morning, other than breakfast, is going to see the chickens. But before that happens, they have to wait on me. After getting up, I work out. The dogs will lie on their beds,...

With the rising prices of eggs and shortage of chickens, I have enjoyed special treatment from my neighbors and friends. Just last week, I received a meme of me looking like royalty. But all this notoriety has also come with some challenges. Due to the risk of chicken...

The dark days of winter. This time of year is hard, especially with all the Christmas lights down. I know we are gaining on the sunlight, but we still have more than five months until the summer solstice. This season also means my hens aren’t laying many eggs. It has...

Our “Little Gray” hen hatched out five peeps in late June. Unfortunately, one of them had a bad leg, and while she could hop around, she couldn’t roost. After about eight weeks, we had to move her on to greener pastures. Of the remaining youngsters, it appears we have at least three roosters. About four weeks ago, I headed up to the coop for the weekly cleaning, and I found one of those cockerels (young roosters) hanging out in the coop. I kicked him out so I could clean, and as he ran down the ramp, all the other chickens started chasing him and pecking at him. When I intervened, he was crammed up in the corner of the run. I picked him up and found that he was pecked raw and nearly lifeless.

At this point, I decided he needed to be moved to the smaller coop just 20 feet from where I stood. All I needed to do was open the coop gate, walk the 20 feet to the other coop, open that gate, and put him inside. But this simple journey became a bit of an obstacle course, because I had two very interested retrievers who wanted to help. Now, if I had expected to be handling chickens and moving them from one coop to another, I wouldn’t have brought the dogs, but this was the situation I found myself in.

So, I stood there, contemplated the situation, and did what anyone would: I took a selfie. No, I did. But then I realized I was stuck. There was no way I would be able to handle this situation alone. I could either set the cockerel down and take the dogs up to the house, risking further attacks on the cockerel, or I could phone a friend. So I called Mike and asked for his help. He came up and was able to pull the dogs away so I could move the injured cockerel to the other coop.