Guides for Raising Healthy Chickens Anywhere
New to chicken keeping? This is where your journey begins. Find beginner-friendly guides on choosing breeds, flock size, local laws, and everything you need to raise chickens with confidence.
After raising both Ameraucanas and Easter Eggers in my backyard flock for over 10 years, I can tell you the single biggest difference comes down to one thing: breeding standards. An Ameraucana is a purebred chicken recognized by the American Poultry Association with specific color varieties, slate-colored legs, and consistent blue eggs. An Easter Egger … Read more
Last summer, my chicken coop had a fly problem so bad I could barely collect eggs without swatting constantly. It was gross, frustrating, and I was worried about my hens getting sick. If you’re wondering whether flies actually pose a health risk, I wrote a complete guide on whether flies are dangerous for chickens—spoiler: they … Read more
If you live in the southern United States, Australia, Nigeria, or anywhere temperatures regularly climb past 35°C (95°F), you know that summer isn’t just “warm” for your chickens. It can be dangerous. As a chicken keeper, watching the thermometer climb past 100°F is stressful. I remember the panic I felt during my first real heat … Read more
Why do chickens stop laying eggs? It is the single most stressful question for any backyard chicken keeper. You go out to the coop expecting breakfast, but find empty nesting boxes day after day. The immediate panic sets in—are they sick? Is a predator stealing them? Did I feed them something wrong? The truth is … Read more
![The Real Cost of 6 Chickens: My Complete 1-Year Expense Report [2025 Data]](https://chickenstarter.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/The-Real-Cost-of-6-Chickens-My-Complete-1-Year-Expense-Report-2025-Data.jpg)
When egg prices hit $8 a dozen at my local grocery store, I did what a lot of people do. I started Googling “is it cheaper to raise your own chickens?” The answer I found online was frustrating: “it depends.” So I decided to find out for myself. For the past 12 months, I tracked … Read more
If you are reading this, you are probably doing the “egg walk.” You know the one—walking out to the coop three times a day, peeking into the nesting boxes, and walking back to the house empty-handed. We’ve all been there. No matter how long you’ve been keeping backyard chickens, one of the most exciting moments … Read more
Starting your first backyard chicken flock is one of the most exciting projects you can tackle. I remember when I first started, the sheer number of choices was overwhelming. Learn about the common mistakes every first-time chicken keeper makes so you can avoid them from the start. You’ve got to pick a coop, the right … Read more
What if you could taste the “queen of poultry,” a chicken so revered it sells for over $50 a pound? I’ll never forget the first time I heard that figure back in 2022. It sounds almost unbelievable, doesn’t it? Welcome to the world of the Bresse chicken, a heritage chicken breed often called the world’s … Read more
Picture this: you walk out to your chicken coop on a crisp morning and find a clutch of beautiful, sky-blue eggs waiting for you. It’s a little bit of magic, right? After raising backyard chickens for over a decade, that feeling never gets old. If that sounds like a dream, then you’ve likely heard of … Read more
The Araucana chicken breed is truly one of the most fascinating and unique birds you can add to a backyard flock. When I first heard about a chicken that lays naturally blue eggs, I was hooked. These quirky, rumpless birds from South America are more than just a novelty; they’re a heritage breed with a … Read more