Volume 13, Number 3 Backyard June/July 2018 PoultryAmerica's Favorite Poultry Magazine HELP YOUR CHICKENS maintain a healthy digestive system DIY COOP WATERING with rainwater TIPS TO KEEP YOUR CHICKENS HAPPY while you're on vacation PatrioticHISTORY & Poultry: BREEDS $5.99 U.S. www.countrysidenetwork.com PLUS: CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD, make classic or pesto Backyard Poultry FP 6-16 THINK:Mother Earth 4.5 x7 6/30/16 3:51 PM Page 1 SATISFACTION $ 95 19 EACH –––––––––––––– FREE SHIPPING GUARANTEED When you buy 4 lights or more oryourmoney –––––––––––––– back! PROMO CODE 4FREE To Protect Your Property From Night Predator Animals Nite•Guard Solar® has been proven effective in repelling predator animals for the past 19 years. #1 Nite•Guard Solar attacks the deepest most primal The World’s fear of night animals, that of being discovered. Top Selling Solar Powered Nite•Guard When the sun goes down, Nite•Guard begins to Security System Repellent Tape DON’T BE FOOLED BY Keeps predators flash and continues until sunrise. The simple away during the but effective fact is that a “flash of light” is COPY CATS daylight hours sensed as an eye and becomes an immediate $ 95 14 Per Roll threat to the most ferocious night animals and they will run away. PO Box 274 • Princeton MN 55371 • 1.800.328.6647 ......................... For information and videos, see us at FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1997 www.niteguard.com ......................... Backyard Poultry FP 6-16 THINK:Mother Earth 4.5 x7 6/30/16 3:51 PM Page 1 SATISFACTION $ 95 19 EACH –––––––––––––– FREE SHIPPING GUARANTEED When you buy 4 lights or more oryourmoney –––––––––––––– back! PROMO CODE 4FREE To Protect Your Property From Night Predator Animals Nite•Guard Solar® has been proven effective in repelling predator animals for the past 19 years. #1 Nite•Guard Solar attacks the deepest most primal The World’s fear of night animals, that of being discovered. Top Selling Solar Powered Nite•Guard When the sun goes down, Nite•Guard begins to Security System Repellent Tape DON’T BE FOOLED BY Keeps predators flash and continues until sunrise. The simple away during the but effective fact is that a “flash of light” is COPY CATS daylight hours sensed as an eye and becomes an immediate $ 95 14 Per Roll threat to the most ferocious night animals and they will run away. PO Box 274 • Princeton MN 55371 • 1.800.328.6647 ......................... For information and videos, see us at FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1997 www.niteguard.com ......................... contents // 13.3 08 Editor’s Letter 10 Photo Essay — Growing Up with Chickens 14 Coming Events 16 Something to Crow About 24 Poultry Talk Ron Kean and Pam Freeman answer reader questions about their flocks. 30 Flock Photos The best of the best submissions via snail mail and our social sites. 34 Chicken Caesar Salad By Rita Heikenfeld 40 Classic American Chicken Breeds By Pam Freeman 48 A Broody Hen and her Ducklings 40 Provide Inspiration By Susie Kearley 52 DIY Rainwater Chicken Watering System By Erin Phillips 56 How to Get Rid of Mice and Rats in the Coop Naturally By Jeremy Chartier 60 How to Help Your Chickens Maintain a Healthy Digestive System By Jeremy Chartier 64 Poultry Blips from American History By Doug Ottinger 66 From Backyards to Factory Farms By Kenny Coogan 72 10 Ways to Keep Your Chickens Happy When You’re on Vacation By Cherie Dawn Haas 66 4 Backyard Poultry contents // 13.3 76 Mobile Chicken Coop Benefits By Cherie Dawn Haas 80 Dutch Hookbill and Aylesbury Ducks By Kenny Coogan 84 Chicken Treats: How to Raise Mealworms and Superworms By Kenny Coogan 88 Chickens in a Minute — How to Keep Your Chickens Cool in Summer By Pam Freeman 93 Breeders Directory 95 Classifieds 96 Just for Fun 84 88 6 Backyard Poultry from the editor BACKYARD POULTRY Exploring a www.countrysidenetwork.com EDITORIAL Steph Merkle, Content Director [email protected] Poultry Heritage Pam Freeman, Editor [email protected] She's in her late 90s now and the house Editorial Assistants she lived in for more than 50 years has Samantha Ingersoll, Ann Tom been cleaned out and sadly, sold to de- velopers. That house will soon be gone, CIRCULATION & MARKETING but in going through her pictures, I came Ellen Grunseth, Marketing Director [email protected] across the one to the left and wanted to share. Publication Designer You see, my great-aunt is thrilled that Sara Heideman I raise chickens. Even in her golden years, she tells me stories of how my ADVERTISING Alicia Soper, Advertising Director great-grandmother got chickens each [email protected] year and raised them for eggs and meat. 715-748-1388 My great-aunt's favorites were the Barred Rocks. Which is weird, because they're Kelly Weiler also favorites of mine. I love hearing my [email protected] 715-748-1389 great-aunt's stories and am proud of my family's backyard poultry heritage. But Sue Lapcewich I never could picture it accurately until [email protected] now. 970-392-4436 I know I'm not the only one with family stories of raising backyard chickens. Our General Manager stories inside this issue prove that. From Mike Campbell My great-grandmother along with my great- our founding fathers to our modern fam- [email protected] aunt's favorite Barred Rocks! ilies, backyard chickens have been a part of it all. We'd love to hear your poultry Backyard Poultry’s Main Coop took this issue's cover picture last heritage stories too. Feel free to share! Backyard Poultry year. Why? It's hard to find pictures P.O. Box 566, Medford, WI 54451 Iof chickens and flags and I knew we'd www.countrysidenetwork.com want a patriotic cover picture this year. And fate intervened. I had just gotten Subscriptions (U.S. funds): some old metal watering cans from my $24.99 per year great-aunt and it was Fourth of July, so I Backyard Poultry Subscriptions planted them and added some decorative P.O. Box 1848, Carson City, NV 89702 flags. My Buff Brahma happened upon 970-392-4419 the planters and that was it. Or was it? Pam Freeman Printed in the U.S.A. As I reviewed the picture for this cover, Editor I started thinking about my great-aunt. Backyard Poultry (ISSN 1559-2251, USPS 023-374) is published bi-monthly by Countryside Publications, at P.O. Box 566, Medford, WI 54451. Periodicals postage paid at Medford, WI and additional mailing offices. ©2018 Countryside Publications. Countryside Publications is owned and operated by Fence Post Co. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of the editor or publisher. All contents of this On The Cover issue of Backyard Poultry are copyrighted by Countryside Publications, 2018. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole Fourth of July just wouldn’t be the same without chickens or in part is prohibited except by permission of the publisher. and flags. This Buff Brahma doesn’t have a name since POSTMASTER: she’s usually with her sister and they look exactly the Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); same. Luckily, she admired the Fourth of July decorations NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: Send and then left them alone! address corrections to Backyard Poultry Subscriptions, instagram.com/pamsbackyardchickens P.O. Box 1848, Carson City, NV 89702 8 Backyard Poultry Keep up with everything goat! Receive Free Weekly Goat Content in Your Inbox. Sign up for newsletters containing our best stories from livestock experts. Visit Countryside Network countrysidenetwork.com/news/join-our-community-newsletter Subscribe to Goat Journal. visit online at countrysidenetwork.com/subscribe-to-dairy-goat-journal/ GROWING UPwith Chickens Laundry day with chicken friends. By Dana Faulkner Nestled in a rural spot in the Tennessee countryside is my grandparent’s small family farm. It’s here that our whole family comes together on a daily basis to eat, share stories of our day, and watch the sunset on the porch swing. It is also home to a handful of goats, ducks, and a 30-year-old hand-built chicken coop, which houses a variety of breeds including Buff Orping- tons, Barred Rocks, Red Sex-Links, Silkies, and Sebrights. It’s where we hatch and nurture our chicks; handling, hand-feeding, and loving each one as they become a part of our farm and our family. My two-year-old daughter, Ellie, has always shown great interest in our chickens ever since she was able to toddle over to the small metal bin and throw her first fistful of corn. After a hearty breakfast including fresh eggs gathered and cooked by her great-grandmother, she is excited to throw on her pink farm boots and set out to the coop to let her feathered friends out for the day. Always safely guided and observed by us, she is able to interact and play with the chickens while they free range. There are few moments in Ellie’s life where she doesn’t try to involve her chicken friends. From tea parties to taking a stroll, even story time has every chicken in attendance. On her second birthday, Ellie received her very own pink chicken coop things we value most are God, family, and farm life. I am truly to house her four fluffy Silkies. blessed to be able to raise my children here, in the same com- When the day is done, our flock marches back to roost with munity where I grew up, surrounded by strong fellowship, a Ellie right beside them, holding the door and saying goodnight loving family and the opportunity to connect with nature and to each one as they pass.