Guides for Raising Healthy Chickens Anywhere
Oladepo 
Yes, chickens can safely eat sweet potatoes, and unlike regular white potatoes, sweet potatoes are not part of the nightshade family and contain absolutely zero solanine. This makes them one of the safest vegetable treats you can offer your flock. I have been feeding cooked sweet potato to my hens every winter for three years now, and … Read more
Yes, chickens can eat certain store-bought mushrooms, including button, oyster, shiitake, portobello, and cremini, but wild mushrooms growing in your yard can be toxic or even fatal. I have been feeding my flock small amounts of cooked button mushrooms for over three years with zero issues. But last spring, after a stretch of heavy rain, I found pale green-gilled mushrooms … Read more
The first warm day of spring when I opened my coop after a long winter, the smell hit me like a wall. That unmistakable ammonia sharpness that told me everything I needed to know. The deep litter that carried us through January had turned into a warm, damp breeding ground for every parasite that had been quietly waiting out … Read more
When I ordered Jersey Giant chicks, I genuinely expected a chicken the size of a small turkey. The breed is literally called “Giant.” Every website said “the largest purebred chicken in America.” I pictured a bird that would tower over my Orpingtons and make my Australorps look like bantams. Eighteen months later, my fully grown Jersey Giant rooster stands maybe 2 … Read more
The White Leghorn produces more eggs than any other chicken on Earth. Period. More than 90% of the commercial white eggs in the United States come from Leghorn-based strains. If you have ever cracked open a white egg from the grocery store, you have eaten a Leghorn egg. But here is the paradox: despite being the most productive … Read more
It was January, 15°F outside, and my 12 hens had been cooped up for three straight days during a snowstorm. By day two, I noticed bare patches appearing on the backs of three hens. Feather pecking had started, the classic sign of winter boredom. That evening, I hung a whole cabbage from a piece of twine in the middle … Read more
If you are here because your chicken just ate some avocado, skip straight to the Emergency Response section below. For everyone else, this is the one treat article where my answer is fundamentally different from every other food I have covered on this site. Every other treat guide I have written, including blueberries, apples, corn, carrots, cheese, and celery, has been some variation … Read more
I almost learned the hard way about celery and chickens. One afternoon I tossed a few long celery stalks into the run, thinking it was a healthy, low-calorie treat. My Buff Orpington grabbed a whole stalk and started swallowing it. I watched in slow motion as a long string of celery fiber trailed from her beak into her throat. That … Read more
The moment I dropped a piece of shredded cheddar into the run, my hens fought over it like it was a diamond. Wings flapping, beaks snapping, feathers flying. It was gone in seconds. Then I Googled it and got whiplash. Half the internet says “cheese is toxic to chickens” and the other half says “it … Read more
I was prepping a batch of carrots for Sunday dinner when I caught myself about to toss the green tops in the trash. Then I read something that stopped me cold: carrot tops contain six times more vitamin C than the root itself. My 12 hens were about to get the most nutritious part of the vegetable, the part … Read more