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See How It Works @ www.niteguard.com SCAN TO WATCH VIDEO CHICKEN Volume 8, Number 2 BACKYARD April/May 2013 POULTRY Backyard 145 Industrial Dr. Medford, WI 54451 www.backyardpoultrymag.com Poultry 800-551-5691 Publisher: Bart Smith From the Editor: About Geese: A 3-part series Editor: Ryan Slabaugh It’s spring, I’m new and I’m not Part 2: Medium Geese........................ 66 Editorial Assistants: Elaine Belanger quite fully feathered .............................6 & Samantha Ingersoll Financial Opportunities: Circulation and Fulfillment: Laura Readers’ Letters ............................8 Legal Considerations Before Starting a Small-Scale Poultry Farm............. 72 Ching, Ellen Soper, Kelly Weiler, Confessions of a Chickenaholic.....14 Christine Barkley 4-H Poultry Project Evolves Into Bookstore: Ann Tom Backyard Poultry Family Money-Making Venture..................78 Album:.......................................................16 Advertising Representatives (Rates on request) SPPA News: Recipes: Alicia Komanec Associations Offer Guidance in Spring Chicken with Fresh Herbs... 80 800-551-5691 Rare Breed Poultry Raising............ 18 Tarragon-Chive Roast Chicken ..... 81 [email protected] ........................... 20 Gary Christopherson Coming Events Lemon-Spiked Chicken with Sage...82 800-551-5691 Helpful Hints: [email protected] Buyer Beware: No Antidote for Modern A Love of the Hobby: A Family Affair: When Show Time Backyard Poultry Rat Poisonss.............................................. 22 (ISSN 1559-2251, USPS 023-374) Comes Around, Every Stoltman is published bi-monthly by Build a Better Mouse Trap with a Child Pitches In..................................84 Countryside Publications, Ltd. at 145 Five-Gallon Bucket..............................23 Book Review: Industrial Dr., Medford, WI 54451. Build a $3 Nest Box ............................24 Periodicals postage paid at Medford, The Chicken Chronicles......................88 WI and additional mailing offices. Homesteading Made Easy: Fencing ©2013 Countryside Publications, Ltd. by Remote Control..................................26 Just for Fun: The views presented here do not Farm Days ....................................... 90 necessarily represent those of the editor Housing: or publisher. All contents of this issue Dad’s Chicken Coop: A Labor of Youth: of Backyard Poultry are copyrighted by Love...................................................30 Gertrude McCluck: Chicken in Countryside Publications, Ltd., 2013. All Charge ...............................................92 rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or MadCity Chickens’ Coop Tour.............34 in part is prohibited except by permission Backyard Poultry Breeders of the publisher. Health: Directory...................................... 94 The Answer Man............................. 38 Editorial and Advertising Office: Healthy Guts…Healthy Birds… Backyard Poultry Classifieds..97 Backyard Poultry Healthy Families!.............................42 145 Industrial Dr. ON THE COVER: Medford, WI 54451 Raising Healthy Chicks Naturally.... 46 [email protected] The April/May 2013 cover photo is by Feed: Vivian Struve-Hauk, Virginia. See Subscriptions (U.S. funds): It’s the Chicken AND the Egg™..... 52 page 16 for more information on the $21 per year; 2 years $35. photo contest. Backyard Poultry Subscriptions Bird Senses: They’re sharper than you 145 Industrial Dr. think ..................................................54 Medford, WI 54451 800-551-5691 Your Flock: Live Entertainment.........................56 POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM Breed Focus: 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND Choosing Bantam Versus Standard MILITARY FACILITIES: send Breeds............................................... 58 address corrections to Backyard The Buttercup Chicken: “The Poultry Subscriptions 145 Industrial Dr., Medford, WI 54451 Crown of the Fancy” .......................... 60 Printed in the U.S.A. Rare Breeds of Normandy..............62 4 Backyard Poultry April/May 2013 www.backyardpoultrymag.com 5 FR O M THE EDIT O R : It’s spring, I’m new and I’m not quite fully feathered BY RYAN SLA B AUGH happy to keep tracking down the answers water. He said it added about $300 to his EDIT O R to your questions. I walked away from a energy bill every month on average in the recent trip to Medford, Wisconsin, with winter, but the chickens stayed healthy. ’m not going to lie. I spent the last two heavy boxes full of books, which are When they did venture outside, they did month reading about chickens, tur- now scattered about my office, and an not for long, so he said it also helped keep keys, geese and all sorts of poultry, understanding that this will take years, if them close to home. Ipeople and situations. If you wrote a not a lifetime, to truly understand it. * * * book about one of these subjects, I have I do understand how to work with Friendly reminder: Start thinking probably been through it and read a few our talented set of expert writers and help about goals for the summer season. If chapters, at least. I was on the road for a craft a great magazine. And to reiterate my you’re a deadline person like I am, make couple weeks, and met quite a few people earlier point, I do want to listen and better a note on your calendar when you want who raise chickens. Each time, I asked understand how we can grow as a publica- your coop to be de-winterized and ready them 100 questions, and they asked 100 tion, which means giving the readers more for hot temperatures. In some of our read- back. If you heard a frantic sound of tip- than they expect, in every edition. ership areas in the south, that is already tapping behind you all month, it was me So, let’s get started … happening in abundance. sprinting hard to catch up to the amount * * * of knowledge and understanding that * * * On a recent trip up north to the Upper We have a guy in our internet depart- our collective readership owns, and is Peninsula of Michigan, I met a local man inside every Backyard Poultry. ment who just coined the phrase, “Urban who farmed chickens. (I know it’s really Chickster.” In Chicago where I live, it Yet, I am still here, and do feel like I not the “Upper Peninsula,” but the “U- It’s How You Care for am starting to gain on you. This is my first kind of works. Folks here are proud of P,” so forgive me.) Anyway, the chicken their backyard coops, and are getting the edition as editor, and one in which I am farmer was talking about the challenges being trained by the former editor, Elaine kids and the neighbors involved. And it’s Your Chickens. Completely. he faced in conditions where he got 300 getting a lot of ink in the local papers. Belanger. I cannot tell you how much I inches of snow per year, where his farm They eat. They drink. They make compost. Improve their health with everything they take in, owe her for sticking around and showing Anyway, if you’re living in a city and and everything they put out. Manna Pro Chick Grit improves digestion, Water Protector ensures pond usually stopped freezing over by have a small flock, this is the time of year me the ropes. I’ve been a new editor a the Fourth of July. Yet, he did nothing safe, clean drinking water, and Coop ‘N Compost makes for a cleaner, healthier home. With couple times before, and each time it was where you probably have friends thinking Manna Pro, it’s easy to give your flock the best possible care. Completely. too drastic. While he designed his coop about starting to join you. You tell them, without the former editor on site, leaving at small proportions for his 100 chickens, me out to handle tough questions without “It’s fun. It’s life-changing.” But you also he used large amounts of ventilation and know all the hard work, money and time the institutional knowledge to support a small heating system for the air and Chick Grit them. Elaine is making sure I succeed. you put into getting your flock going and keeping them healthy. · Small-sized grit While she is stepping away from her · Ideal for young birds and bantams As a guy who is learning a lot and former role, I doubt she will truly ever be · Aids in proper digestion of away from Backyard Poultry.