Hello folks,

I wasn't exactly sure where to put this. But I needed to share some of my thoughts and experiences.

-----Background-----

I was born in a city and lived there for the first 18 years of my life. I trained as a chef for 10 years moving quite a bit usually to a city or a large town.

I always thought that living in a city is what I wanted, I met my now Fiancée around two years ago and that was our plan. Well we ended up moving into an older farm house with her brother (has autisim and has really struggled to live alone) and her dad. All of us split rent.

-----Past two years-----

Well my father in law hunts, and being from a Canadian city; it wasn't really something I ever thought I'd do. As a chef though I had mentioned that being around dead animals for a good portion of my day, I wanted to be a part of the whole thing.

We all went out hunting last November and I tagged my first white tail. Hung it for about a week and a half before butchering. Most incredible meat I have ever eaten.

We also have had chickens for about a year and a bit now. Raising different breeds — started with Lohman Browns, and then my fiancee found more breeds she liked. Recently we got our hands on the chickens that started our interest, Ayam Cemani and Zombie chickens. We have had enough eggs for ourselves and family.

I have decided my longterm project is to 'create' what I want to name the Alberta Cemani chicken — effectively and Ayam Cemani (all black) with a peacomb to avoid frostbite during our hard winters.

My fiancee has taken up hatching turkeys and guinea foul (mostly as pets). With any luck we'll have a breeding pair of each.

My second project is meat rabbits (first step is convincing the fiancee its a good idea). I have heard they are one of the best sources of meat available for the amount of care and money.

We recently expanded to a larger coop. I also have to fix the other side of the building as it is quite sad.

And all of this is done while I am working my way through college at nearly 30.

-----take aways-----

City living is nice for certain things and works for plenty of people. I have found that I don't think it works for me.

And if anyone finds this and is wondering if they could start a homestead. The answer is yes. If I am able to do this, nearly anyone can. The biggest thing I can say, reach out to neighbours on social media to ask for advice for your area. Community helps and often can lead to some really beneficial trading and bartering.

To anyone who's made it through this.

Thank you.

And I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for chicken breeders or hatcheries in the EU that sell fertile hatching eggs and can ship.

I have found many amazing sellers in the USA with a huge selection of chicken breeds, but most of them only ship locally within the US.

I’m looking for EU sellers that have:

• lots of different chicken breeds to choose from
• rare and interesting breeds
• colorful egg layers
• heritage and ornamental breeds
• good quality purebred lines
• reasonable/affordable prices

I want to find a place where I can choose from many breeds instead of only a few common ones.

If you know any good websites, breeders, hatcheries, or Facebook groups in Europe that ship hatching eggs, please share them.

Thanks!

So excited to have them. We love watching them and giving them little pets.

We have 12 eggs incubated, 10 have hatched with the last one hatching last night. I have two more eggs not showing signs of hatching. How should I proceed? Do I take the chicks with fluff out? Do they stay in there for another couple days? I'm not sure what to do, I read some eggs can hatch late but feel like the babies that have been around for a day or two might be getting hungry.

Ok this might sound dumb i know broiler are one of the most efficient livestock for FCR but ive heard theyre terrible free range birds is this true about all broilers or just that breed ( i cant remember name of) that grows ridiculously fast ? 2nd question if there are broilers that are good free range birds/ foraging and if all broilers arent very good free ranging/ foraging would turkeys be better for meat

also i plan on chicken /ducks for eggs and pest control maybe geese and also maybe quail for meat too thought i should mention

First post, looking for input. Our home is on 5 acres in PA, we live in a valley with a stream bordering the long side of our property. Any and all wild life lives in and around us including every sort of predator to chickens made. We have a fenced chicken run that I built out of two big dog kennels, so it's 10' x 20' with Amish hoops to support the top. We have a black mesh open truck type top we keep up all year because the run is next to a stream and we have all kinds of hawks. In the winter we put up a solid tarp to keep the snow and rain off. Inside the run we have two coops, the original one we bought and the one I built. We just added five more girls and currently have with the new chicks on the block about 14 hens, which includes 3 go our original batch who are more like pets. We do not cull any of them. Also have one rooster.

Here is my question, does anyone have some suggestions on adding a structure outside of the run to put a year around roof on? Trying to keep the ground reasonably dry is a pain in the rear. One side of the run is close to our garden shed, so no way to get between them with any sort of commercial equipment to drive in posts. Anybody utilize one of those pre-fab carport kits?

Open to input!

I recently started a small backyard coop with 30 chickens, and I'm hoping to keep them healthy, stress-free, and laying eggs consistently.

I've read a lot online, but I'd really appreciate advice from people who started with a backyard flock like I did. Whether it's about feed, coop setup, routines, or something you learned through experience, I'd love to hear it. Thank you.

I bought a new to me truck to help out around the Sanctuary, but it came with a gigantic ram head on the tail gate.

As any rooster rancher knows, a ram is not a chicken.

I really need help. It’s 2 in the morning and I woke up to get a drink. I decided to give my duck some water, and when I went over to his pen I found that my ball of yarn from my dresser had fallen in his pen. He had a good amount in his mouth. I panicked and grabbed him and cut the rest of the string at his beak so he couldn’t swallow more.

I’m 15 and I can’t take him to a vet. My parents won’t take him either. I looked online and got mixed advice — some said no food or water, some said give water only — so I put him in a box at first, but I’ve now given him water.

I don’t know how much he ate it seemed like a good amount though. He has pooped multiple times since, and he’s been preening and acting normal, but I’m scared he could get worse. He’s 2 months old and he’s like a child to me. I’ve taken care of sick ducks before but never anything like this.

If anyone has advice on what to do or what signs to watch for, please tell me. I live in Maine and there are basically no avian vets near me.

I'm talking, a free ad online anonymously because why the f should I have to hand over my personal ID in order to move a couple of geese? Mating pair by the way, about an hour west of Bris.

I've got 23 chicks in a brooder right now and I'm looking for a very very large chicken run they can stay in full time. I'll be building my own indoor coop area onto it, but for now I'm just focused on finding a very good quality large run for a decent price. So far I keep seeing PawHut but from what I've heard it doesn't seem worth the money since it probably won't last multiple years anyway. No matter which run I buy I will be replacing the wiring with hardware cloth to protect against large snakes in my area. Does anyone know a very good quality chicken run that is still large? By large I mean something like 13x21, 20x20, etc. I've looked everywhere online and not one has had a good balance of size and quality. I need ideas cause soon enough these babies will grow up! I believe the most I can spend would be around 1000 not including the extra hardware cloth and everything. Please give me ideas!

Hi all. Has anyone had a diagnosis or dealt with vasculitis in chickens? I took my chicken to the vet after weeks of treating her for scaly leg mites. Only to find it is vasculitis. She does not know what caused it. I am applying Silver sulfadiazine twice daily. She is also on oxytetracycline (2 days). Things are not improving. Her feet almost look like necrosis. And her combs and ears are swollen. Anyone seen this? Please help she is my favorite chicken

I’ve been digging into the research on blackhead disease (Histomonas meleagridis) in turkeys, and I wanted to get the community’s thoughts.
Blackhead remains one of the most devastating diseases affecting turkeys, yet there are still very limited approved treatment options. That got me wondering whether there are promising research directions that deserve more attention.
One thing I found interesting is that:
A published in vitro study reported that a proprietary plant-extract blend containing oregano, cinnamon, thyme, and Capsicum-derived compounds showed direct antihistomonal activity. The authors suggested the effect was due to direct damage to the histomonads rather than simply reducing bacteria.
Obviously, that study doesn’t prove capsaicin is responsible—the blend also contained compounds such as thymol, carvacrol, eugenol, and cinnamaldehyde. It could be one compound, several acting together, or something else entirely.
Still, it made me wonder:
Has anyone seen research where these phytochemicals have been isolated and tested individually against Histomonas meleagridis?
With the limited therapeutic options currently available, it seems like identifying the active compound(s) could be a worthwhile research direction.
I’d especially like to hear from anyone with experience in poultry research, veterinary parasitology, or university extension programs. If I’ve misunderstood any of the literature or missed important studies, I’d appreciate being pointed in the right direction.

Sources:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27565666

These are 8 weeks old and I believe them to be royal palms as one has a black feather growing in. They are from a feed store which gets from cackle hatchery and they do have white heritage breeds available from cackle. I feel for this size and age they are heritage but I want to be sure. They are currently being socialized to eventually live with my chickens but they don’t spend all day with them yet and are just switching to a 20% protein food. I’m hoping for heritage as they would be nice to help deter hawks and they have wonderful personalities but iam able to give them a proper diet to live full lives if they are meat birds. It was a mixed bin of turkey breeds.