Chickens

Five automatic chicken coop doors compared by power source, light sensor or timer control, obstruction safety and opening size, plus how to install one and train the flock.

Prepare adult backyard chickens for winter with dry shelter, fresh air, unfrozen water, balanced feed, a safe heat plan, and a repeatable daily checklist.

A normal fall molt starts at the head and neck and brings pin feathers in behind the loss. How long it lasts, how to tell a molt from mites, and why extra treats make it worse.

Cage free, free range and pasture raised are not degrees of the same thing. Here is what each label legally guarantees, which ones the USDA regulates, and the 54-fold difference in space that only shows up when a certifier is involved.

Lavender Orpingtons are gentle, gorgeous, and often misunderstood. What they are, why lavender breeds true when blue does not, egg production, and what to pay.

Easter Egger chickens lay blue, green, olive, and pink eggs, one color per hen. What they really are, how they differ from Ameraucanas, egg production, and where to buy.

ISA Brown chickens lay 300+ eggs a year and are perfect for beginners, with one trade-off nobody advertises. Egg production, lifespan, roosters, and where to buy.

When do chickens start laying eggs? Most hens lay between 18 and 24 weeks. See laying age by breed, the signs a hen is about to lay, and what delays the first egg.