Hey Ernesto! You’re doing a great job! They look really healthy and it’s great to see how many eggs they’re laying for you. We’re really happy you’re enjoying them and taking such great care of them. One recommendation I have for the eggs and making collection easier is to create 2 or 3 nesting boxes for them to lay in instead of laying their eggs on the ground. They should be approximately one cubic foot and placed in a dark protected corner that’s easy for you to access for collection. Good luck!!!

Oh, Yum! Straight from Italy! I'm certainly going to try this. I love one pan recipes I can use to feed the farm family!

Hey Roland! I'm so sorry you had that experience! You can try adding some boredom busters in the coop like pecking blocks (seeds held together by molasses) which they love, or hanging heads of lettuce or cabbage for them to peck at. You could add swings, little playthings that make noise when they interact with them. Hopefully this helps!

Hey Brenda! Thanks for sharing a picture - that's helpful! It looks like your little lady may have the beginning of Favus, a fungal infection more commonly known as ringworm. It should be very easy to treat with miconazole, which is found in Lotrimin, or athlete's foot spray; or any other basic over-the-counter fungicidal medications.

Hi Catherine, We purchase all sexed female chicks from NPIP certified hatcheries to ensure that urban chicken keepers don't end up with roosters that are not legally allowed in most cities and urban areas. We don't do the hatching or sexing here, so I can't tell you the answer to that specific question. However, any chickens that are sexed incorrectly that are accidentally males are returned to our farm and quarantined until they can be re-homed, or integrated into our laying flock to protect our hens. It sounds like your side yard would be a fine place for chickens with some modifications. Concrete isn't ideal, but you can essentially create a litter box for them by covering the ground with sand, or you could use straw or other bedding that would be cleaned regularly. Shade cloth draped over their protected run space would give you enough protection against afternoon heat to help them stay cool.

Sorry for your loss Kathy. I know you did a whole lot to keep her comfortable and happy the last six months, and I'm sure spending all that time with her really bonded her to you. I'm glad she's at peace, now, and that there's a sweet picture to remember her by.

Hey Claudia! Welcome 🙏🏼 That’s not an uncommon problem to have when you’re just getting started! Know you are not alone! For chickens that are not heavily feathered so that they will do well in an intensive heat location, and also not noisy, I would recommend black Australorps, golden sexlinks, and barred rocks

That's incredible she's producing eggs in the state she is in, and I'm happy to hear that you find evidence she's content with her outdoor visits, and still interested in food. I am curious to know what a necropsy reports, but ultimately it's your decision whether it's important to find out what she's suffering from. The good news is that it's not spread to the rest of the flock, which means either you're doing an excellent job of biosecurity, it's not contagious, or they're already immune or carriers for any disease she might have. Thanks for the update! Be well :)

What a perfect project for the kids to help with! Are you looking for baby chicks just hatched or older chicks ready to go outside into your new coop? I would say, Orpingtons, Australorps, Plymouth Rocks, Golden Sexlinks, New Hampshires would be great breeds for friendliness, quiet, kid-friendly and would handle Ventura temps with a breeze!

Wow - that looks awesome! Did you use your own pizza oven? We love having pizza night here on the farm. A crew of us built a pizza oven from scratch, and we have big pizza parties. All our WWOOFers harvest fresh toppings from the garden they'd like to try out, and then everyone makes a personal-sized pizza to share. We were given a recipe from our dear friends who run a pizza place in Portugal. It's a large batch recipe, but perfect for parties or you could divide it to make smaller portions. We make the balls in advance, let them rise, and then freeze them. Dough recipe for 55 pizzas: 250 gr per pizza 8 kilos of flour 00, 5-liter water, 10 gr yeast, 225 gr salt, 125 ml olive oil, 20 gr sugar. Mix flour yeast sugar altogether and mix for 1 minute, then all the water (it should be cold water) and mix for 3 minutes, put the salt and mix 1 minute and add the oil and mix 1 minute.

So happy it’s helpful! Search your local nurseries for starts. Our go-to is Windmill Nursery in Buellton. But there are quite a few in this area. Call ahead and make sure they have what you’re looking for: seeds and seedlings are among the panic buys like TP and baby chickens 🐣😜

So happy it’s helpful! Search your local nurseries for starts. Our go-to is Windmill Nursery in Buellton. But there are quite a few in this area. Call ahead and make sure they have what you’re looking for: seeds and seedlings are among the panic buys like TP and baby chickens 🐣😜

Hey Rebecca! Great idea! Just after the last frost is the best time to plant a salsa garden and that should be anytime now. Pick a sunny spot in the garden and install a trellis. Fertilize the soil with compost, or other natural fertilizers such as fish. Then plant tomatoes along the trellis. Our favorite tomatoes are San Marzano, but Roma tomatoes or beefsteaks will also do well. Plan for about 3 to 4 plants, and you’ll have tomatoes not just for salsa but also for use in other recipes in the kitchen. Next add about 4-5 pepper plants: jalapeños are most popular. The more heat and full sun the pepper plants receive, the hotter the peppers will be. Try to plant the cilantro in the shade of the tomato plants, as the hotter they get, the faster they will go to seed. You’ll need quite a few onions, about 20-30, but luckily they last a long time in the soil and in storage. Garlic is the tricky one, as it should be planted in October so that it overwinters. It usually takes 10 months before harvest time, but if you plant it now you can still use green garlic in your recipes! 🍅 🌶 🧄 🧅 🌱

Hi Henri! Congratulations on the chicken coop! We have a lot of breeds available right now, but they’re all baby chicks and not quite ready to go into your coop yet. If you purchased nearly feathered chicks, you wouldn’t have to wait through the entire brooder process inside the house, and you could just run a heat lamp on an extension cord out to the coop as long as it’s secured well enough to prevent fire hazard. My favorite chicken breed is the Barred Plymouth Rock, but some of the other favorites are Easter Eggers, Golden Sexlinks, black Australorps, Buff Orpington, and Rhode Island Reds. A lot of these standard breeds will be available again next week. I love your question about retrospective tips that I might give myself or others that are keeping chickens for the first time! I think my biggest tip is that free range for your chickens is easier than it sounds! Free ranging means you have to clean the chicken coop and run less often because the droppings are spread over a larger area and get baked in the sun and broken down into the soil naturally without you having to clean them. Plus,it makes your girls happier, and they are able to forage for more raw nutrients in their diet which makes their eggs healthier, and if you do it right, they put themselves to bed and all you have to do is close the door!

Treat her for a Vitamin B deficiency for 1-2 weeks to see improvement; however a vitamin B deficiency is not as common as it's made out to be, especially for birds grown on litter or fed a formulated feed. Unfortunately, I don't know what happens if it is a Vitamin B deficiency and she doesn't improve. She's going to need a diet high in protein to put weight back on, so I would switch her to an 18-20% protein feed, such as chick starter, non-medicated. If her condition is caused by a Vitamin B deficiency, and you're treating her, she should be able to metabolize the proteins again.

That's great she can still stand on her own, and balance, and isn't showing any other symptoms listed! Regrettably, it doesn't give me much to go on. I imagine we'll have to think about this in a different way. I was assuming this was lameness, which can be caused by: Bacterial infections (Staph or Pasteurella) but would cause swelling/abscesses Marek's or other neurological illnesses (Newcastle disease) would cause instability/imbalance from paralysis on one or both sides, and she probably wouldn't be able to stand on her own or grip your finger. Potentially leg spraddled one forward, one backward. Nutritional deficiencies (rickets or cage layer fatigue) which would present much like Marek's disease Mycoplasmal infections which are respiratory illnesses. I recommend you keep an eye out for any of the above symptoms to present themselves, but in the meantime let's look at some other possibilities. Does she have: Swollen abdomen Evidence of diarrhea (pasty butt) Discolored (green or foamy yellow), or watery droppings Feather loss Weight loss

Hi Kathy, I'm sorry to hear about Goldie! Gosh, lameness is a hard one to pinpoint. I wish your vet had been able to help more. It's harder when we can't see her. Adding Vitamins & Electrolytes is always a great place to start to rule out rickets or vitamin deficiencies. But there are countless other causes of lameness of this sort. Generally at her age, it's safe to rule out Marek's. I have a few questions so I might be able to point you in the right direction. If you have pictures, that might also be helpful. 1. Can you detail what happens if you stand her up on her feet? Does she stand on her own, balanced? Or does she fall to one side, or plop right down without strength? 2. Have you checked to see if she can grip your finger with her feet? 3. Does she have an abscess on the bottom of either of her feet? 4. Does she have any symptoms that might indicate respiratory distress: coughing, sneezing, wheezing, gasping, nasal discharge? 5. Are her legs swollen at all, discolored, or do the scales seem lifted with debris? 6. Are her feet pointed forwards? Or spraddled out to either side of her?

Welcome to the Central Coast! What city are you in? Your coop can comfortably fit about 12 hens. In warmer climates we recommend avoiding heavily feathered chickens like Cochins or Orpingtons, but if you're along the coast where it stays cooler, those breeds are okay. Right now, there's an outbreak of Newcastle Disease in Southern California, so I would recommend a good focus on biosecurity for your chickens, and avoid sourcing your chickens from private parties. To get started, read our article: Exercise 5 Mandatory Biosecurity Rules to Prevent Illness in your Chickens. Lemos Feed & Pet Supply are great for getting chicken feed - they have locations all over the Central Coast and offer King Feed, excellent quality feed sourced locally from King City, California. It's the feed we use on the farm. Lemos staff are also all trained well and are knowledgeable about chickens.

Aw! What a good mama! Their little mama behaviors to protect their babies are so cute. I would give her a couple weeks of seclusion with her baby ... because it's also up to the baby to be cautious and not wander away from their mama. :)

Aw what a good mama. They try so hard to be tough! LOL. I would give them a few weeks before you open them up to the rest of the flock, because sometimes it's not about the mama being protective, but about the baby not being cautious enough. After a bit though the girls will get used to her being around.