Life on the Farm
Guinea fowl and chickens are both Galliformes. They are similar in size and shape, and both lay eggs. But guinea fowl are not just chickens only different. They are different, period. If you wish to add guinea fowl to your...
For most dairy goat breeds, kidding season generally starts in November and runs through April. In the warm southern states, the season runs a little later — from about December through May. So most goat owners know when to get...
At the end of the gardening season, when frost threatens, I wander around looking for stragglers that might freeze. I invariably find a few young dill plants that missed their scheduled spring sprouting. That’s when I think of making Thousand...
Stress leads to changes in a chicken’s behavior, and prolonged stress reduces immunity to disease. When you are familiar with the way your chickens normally act, you can tell if your chickens are stressed out by observing these three basic...
Stress is normal in every chicken’s life. Most chickens are able to adapt, even to times of peak stress. Natural times of peak stress include hatching out of an egg, arriving at sexual maturity, and molting. Weather and other environmental...
The herb mache is as easy to grow as a weed — because it is a weed, or once was. Mache (Valerianella locusta) started out as a weed growing in European grain fields. It has become so popular as a...
Most chicken eggs are oval in shape, with one end rounded or blunt and the other end somewhat pointed. An egg is shaped in the part of the hen’s oviduct called the isthmus, where shell membranes wrap the yolk and...
Chickens stop laying eggs for so many different reasons you practically have to be Sherlock Holmes to determine the cause. To get you started, here are 15 reasons why hens lay fewer eggs or stop laying altogether. Wrong Breed To...
The spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect that threatens to destroy numerous species of fruit, nut, and hardwood trees in North America. It first appeared in Pennsylvania and is spreading to other states, attracted by another invasive species: tree of...
You can make homemade tomato paste by cooking down the liquid from fresh tomatoes until you get the consistency of paste, then process the results in canning jars. But here’s a much easier way to make your own tomato paste....
