Homemade flock block recipe

A few days ago I was replying to comments on my posts and somebody asked me what homemade flock block recipe I use. I realized I had never written about it and promised to post it this week...so here it is! I make my flock block with my chickens health and my pocketbook in mind. It's sort of a throw it together recipe that ends up producing flock blocks that are much cheaper than the store bought ones!

Yeay for frugal chicken keeping!

My flock block recipe has seeds, a little bit of layer feed, oats, some fresh carrots, mealworms, eggs, molasses and coconut oil. That is it! I do not add any type of vitamin supplement to the recipe because it's just a treat and as such does not have to fill any nutritional requirements. Super easy to make!

How to hatch guinea keets

Guinea fowl, you either love them or hate them! I happen to love them and have been raising guineas since 2009. I started hatching guinea keets as soon as my guinea hens started laying eggs. I also started selling keets that first spring since everyone wanted my newly hatched keets! Thankfully it's easy to incubate guinea eggs so I hatched myself more, and have been hatching them every year since.

The first time I incubated Guinea fowl eggs I just popped the eggs in my incubator along with chicken eggs and used all the same settings as I do for chicks. It sorta worked, actually. Other than the longer incubation period, guinea hen eggs and chicken eggs are quite similar in incubation procedure. With a few tweaks though, I started to get a better hatch rate and I was hooked on hatching my own guinea keets.

Of course the easiest method is always to have a hen hatch the eggs out. If you have a broody hen that is. Even though many guinea hens are excellent at hatching their own eggs, they aren't the best mothers at all. I'm pretty sure they lose more keets than they manage to raise! My solution is to give the guinea eggs to a chicken to hatch and raise. If you don't have a broody hen though, you'll have to use an incubator. 

75+ Dessert recipes to use up extra eggs

It's that time of year when all of our hens are laying and it feels like we have eggs and eggs and eggs for days! So what do you do with all those eggs, well cook with them of course. I'm sure you've been eating eggs every day for breakfast though (aren't we all?) so what else can we make with lots of eggs? Desserts of course!

Luckily (since we're not yet into the heat of Summer) it's a perfect time to make baked desserts and other dishes using all those excess eggs. The current slightly cool temps mean baking warms the kitchen without overheating the house. So grab your egg basket and get ready for dessert!

I have found some of the most a-mazing dessert recipes and some of them use as many of 13 eggs! I told you we could use up those eggs.

The button quail experiment

A few years back I decided to raise button quail. It was a fun little experiment in house birds. Unfortunately button quail didn't work out well for us, but they were fun while they were here. They are especially fun if you like 22 egg omelettes! Since they are so small, button quail may not be able to live outside in your region. Here in Pennsylvania where it snows in the winter they would not survive the cold. When I decided to learn how to raise button quail, I knew I would have to keep them indoors.

I didn't set out to raise button quail actually. I had gone to a breeders house to get some silkie chicks. Once there she invited us in the house while her husband went to get the chicks. On the table was a small aquarium with tiny white button quail in it and I asked about these cute little birds. They had just had some babies and she offered me some so I took them home that night. 

I had no idea what I was getting into

Caring for sick chickens: the hospital cage

Caring for a sick chicken can be tricky. You want to keep the chicken separated in case she's contagious and also so she doesn't get picked on, but you don't want her to lose her space in the pecking order. Leaving her in with the rest of the flock though can be a bad move as chickens will often peck at wounds on other chickens. Plus you don't want an illness to spread through the whole flock. So what do you do with a hen when she's sick? Where do you put her while she's getting better?

You'll need a small hospital cage or 'sick bay' for your ill or injured chicken. 

Luckily it doesn't have to be anything elaborate. A simple dog crate or large pet carrier will often do, or even a small bathroom that's rarely used. Where do you put the chickens hospital crate though? Should it be inside the coop or in a different location entirely? Well, it depends on what's wrong with the chicken.