I wanted to share our most recent project because I frequently get questions through my Rooster Hooch blog about the best way to raise chicks. This projects is a travel brooder for our purposes, but it would work just fine as a standard brooder box for a couple of chicks or a transport cage for a larger bird. I won’t get into too many details about who Baby Maggie is, that is a story for another time, suffice to say she is a single little chick that does not have a momma hen or any siblings. Maggie is now my little companion. She has never known the company of anyone but humans, so when we decided to take a long weekend trip to visit family a few hundred miles away, there was no choice but to bring Maggie with us. Up to this point in her life, Maggie had lived […]
Many of my followers know that we have a unique, but oddly functional family unit her at the farm. But I’m sure other of you have not heard about the unusual structure that we have at work here. There is of course me. Solidly backing me up in all life’s aspects is my steadfast husband who we refer to as the Bald Eagle, and it’s not because he has an impressive wingspread. 😉 Then this is where is gets a little weird…my ex-husband also lives here. No, he’s not just a roommate, he is an integral part of the family dynamic. It literally takes all 3 of us to run this place and we simply could not do it without him. He’s quirky and a little eccentric, but he is kind and loyal as the day is long. So, why am I telling you this? Well, he recently joined the […]
I am happy to announce that I now have a Steemit account! Because of the potential to generate some much needed revenue for our sanctuary, I will be posting most of my new content there first. Similar to when I wrote for Backyard Poultry Magazine, content with appear there first and then eventually be migrated over to our websites. So, please head on over to Steemit and be the first to see our new postings! @elsbeth-upton on Steemit
We have a chicken barn that has 16 state-of-the-art suites inside. Outside there are 9 high security runs so that the different clans of chickens can go in an out during the day as they please. Then all of the run doors open into a 2000 square foot fenced and covered play area. Only one clan of chickens in allowed out in the pay run at a time because each group has at least one rooster. This set up keeps the peace among the clans. We try to ensure each group equal play time. Hopefully that paints a picture of our general setup. The turkey barn, which only has 2 suites and 2 high security runs (all of which are much larger to accommodate the larger birds) also opens into the play run. This year we found our selves with insufficient space in the chicken barn, but an extra suite […]
You know at Rooster Hooch, we’re all about the eggs…how could I not try this cute owl egg mold? Click HERE and you will be redirected to our sister page, Suburban-DIY to see how well I did!
With spring approaching and our birds getting more active, I thought now was a good time to put out information on how to clip wings to keep them from wandering too far afield. Check out our page on How to Safely Clip Wings. There’s even a video showing you how to do it!
Okay, so maybe the “World’s Largest is an exaggeration, but who knows…it could be! Click Here to see the whole collection.
The first image that comes to mind is the front cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy because it has the words “DON’T PANIC” in large, friendly letters. That’s truly the bottom line when it comes to Avian Influenza, there is no need to panic. Still, I believe that being armed with good information and including some logical sanitation practices can make our poultry happier and healthier. Back in 2006, when there was an outbreak of the Highly Pathenogenic H5N1 strain of the Avian Flu, I wrote and delivered a lecture to some groups in my local medical community. While there are MANY important differences to the current cases of Avian Influenza in the U.S., there is a lot of information in the lecture that is completely relevant to the current state of affairs. So purely for awareness and information purposes, I revamped the presentation and uploaded here. Currently, […]
I love re-purposing things, but even I’m impressed with this find. Well out of warranty and beyond it’s commercial “useful life”, this ice freezer was being discarded as scrap. Getting it home was anything but easy, it measures over 6 feet long. Tim certainly earned his dinner this night. We really weren’t sure of the condition of the compressor, so we took a few days to test the temperatures that it achieved after we got it home. As it turned out, all it needed was some minor adjustments and a good cleaning. The one major issue was not with condition, but functionality. Because it was designed to have bags of ice stacked inside it, there wasn’t anyway of organizing food and I didn’t want to just throw everything in there and hope that I could find it when I needed it. So we put our heads together to find a […]
See Full Article Guineas are… 1. Excellent guard animals. They act as an alarm system and predator alert, even in the dead of the night. I quickly learned that they put the sirens on my home security system to shame and that sleeping with the windows open may be a thing of the past. 2. They are very entertaining. Aside for the outlandish makeup job, and odd attire, they seem to have an almost teenage angst mentality. They tormented my poor Tom turkey for 3 days by waiting until he wasn’t looking and then going up behind him and nipping his butt. 3. They are far from Intellectually gifted. Or as one person phrased it, they are as dumb as a box of rocks. They will investigate neighbors houses, road ways and even spar with moving vehicles. 4. Their clownish fashion sense is rivaled only by their flight ability. 5. […]
