I have been a subscriber of your magazine since it started and have enjoyed keeping a small flock of chickens since the 90s. The last few years, I have been grateful for many good practical tips I have picked up from your magazine articles. But I also have collected many tips on my own simply through the everyday tasks involved with raising a backyard flock, and I thought my experiences might be of interest to some of your readers. So here they are, in no particular order...

Cleaning the Chicken Yard: In the old days I used to get a broom and sweep the chickens' yard, but now instead, I wait until after any sign of rain has passed and then I call the chickens far away from their main outdoor area, and use our leaf-blower to blow all droppings and other accumulated debris through their fencing and out of the chickens' area. This method is quick, thorough, and leaves the grounds looking brand new (but doesn't work as well in severe winter weather when droppings have frozen to the ground).

Early one summer I noticed that my chicken yard had begun to have a fly problem. For years we had no such problems in or outside the coop, but suddenly we seemed to have large, shiny green flies covering every dropping. It was kind of disgusting. Well, back when we raised horses I had saved an advertisement for ordering "Fly Predators" because I thought their concept of introducing a tiny fly that's only activity in life is to live inside dung and prey on big, ugly fly larvae made good sense. So eventually I broke down and decided to take the risk and order some of their "good" tiny flies (via Spalding Laboratories) in hopes of getting rid of my unsightly, big, pesky flies. At first, when I saw the little bag of flies that arrived, I caught myself thinking I must have been crazy to spend my money so foolishly. But I followed their instructions, and their product worked like magic! In less than 10 days, every ugly green fly was gone, as if they had all disappeared off the face of the earth. The best lesson from this experience is that I learned that I never need to purchase fly predators again! That's because I learned that during warm months, the trick with raising chickens is that it's imperative not to sweep, pick up, or blow away your chicken droppings! Instead, whenever you do clean (sweep, pick up, or blow) droppings, be sure to discard them nearby! The discarded droppings must remain within 150 feet of your coop and/or other chicken areas where you want to minimize flies. The old droppings serve as "housing" for the good fly predators, and if you discard your droppings too far away, new fly predators cannot make it back to your property to do their thing (i.e., eliminate bad flies by eating their larvae).

Gina Douglas with her flock.

The Cock in the Flock: After our first years of raising chickens, with many different attempts, we have come across the best breed of rooster for our flock of hens. First, as many flock owners realize, it is really important to not have more than one rooster for every 8-12 hens that you own. Otherwise, instead of protecting the flock, a too-high ratio of roosters to hens will cause your hens to suffer (feather damage, sunburn, and too much attention). Additionally, what we've found to be the key is to select a mellow-natured, small breed of rooster! By choosing a small rooster you receive all the advantages of a rooster (a sentry, leader, comforter and protector to hens, your females won't become bullies, plus all the beauty and fun of a rooster), without any of the disadvantages (brutality to hens during mounting, feather loss, meeker hens getting favored too frequently).

We currently have one Phoenix rooster ("Slim") for our 11 hens. Because of his breed, he is naturally proud, protective, and a bit aloof towards people, yet easy to handle on the perch at night, doesn't pick favorites with the hens, and best of all, he's very light-weight (about 5 or 6 lbs.) relative to our standard-sized flock of hens. Once or twice we noticed that a couple of our hens were starting to lose a tiny spot of feathers on the top of their heads (where Slim likes to hold on for balance). So we very carefully took a large toenail clippers and clipped just the outermost point off of his beak. This immediately remedied the problem. Otherwise, we can honestly state that our hens have never had any feather loss at all due to mounting. Also note that smaller roosters tend to have a higher pitch to their crowing, but because Slim is a Phoenix, he is not into crowing morning, noon, and night! (Well, to be accurate, during his first year of life, he did crow a lot more often than age two and afterwards). We do like a little crowing, but not the obsessive, all day crowing we've experienced with other breeds.

In the case that any of your hens do lose feathers (from treading or other reasons) and then their bare skin appears red (that's sunburn!), each night when your birds are on their perch, apply 45+ sunscreen to any exposed skin spots, and you will see immediate results (the skin will turn from red to pink, then back to white), and your hen will not be in sunburn pain or as susceptible to other hens pecking at her "red" areas while she grows back her feathers.

Health: Once, and only once, I noticed a tapeworm particle in one of my chicken's droppings. So, I treated the entire flock with a wide spectrum wormer. It was a little harsh (I noticed the flock's combs all became whitish-pink right afterwards), and so the next fall I used a herbal recipe instead. It was an article that your magazine suggested (garlic, pumpkin, and carrots—via warm oatmeal that I used to hide the garlic in for a couple weeks) and I had a good result. However, back when I noticed the tapeworm, I felt disturbed as to "why" any of my chickens had tapeworms after so many years of never seeing any. So I gave it some thought. It took me a few days, but eventually I remembered that that very summer I had come up with a new idea for a treat to feed my chickens and had stopped in at a fishing store/pet store and purchased a little container of live crickets they sell as bait. When I remembered that, I couldn't help but consider that it seemed likely that introducing the crickets caused the tapeworm. I'll never know for sure, but it does seem like a good practice to really think ahead before introducing a food source like that. Similar to that experience, once when my husband and I brought in fill dirt to cover a pathway in our forest, although we had never had any problem with poisonous weeds before, a few weeks later poison ivy showed up growing on the pathway.

Gina has one rooster, a Phoenix, for her 11 hens. It is recomended that you keep one rooster for every 8-12 hens. When the ratio of roosters/hens gets higher than that, feather loss often becomes a concern.

Breed Considerations: In the past years we have raised many different breeds of chickens. We keep our chickens until they get old and die naturally, so as the years have gone by, we have found ourselves inclined to select new chick breeds more for their personality, rather than for their egg-laying capacity. The breeds we have raised so far include: Leghorns, Buff Laced Polish, Rhode Island Reds, Golden-Penciled Hamburgs, Black Stars, Partridge Plymouth Rocks, Phoenix, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Columbian Wyandottes, Golden Campines, Barred Plymouth Rocks, Sicilian Buttercups, and Dorkings. I have listed them above with the least-tame, nervous-natured first, descending to the most friendly, unafraid and mellow listed last.

We raised most all our chicks from one-day-olds, by hand and with a lot of interaction and handling. Nevertheless, some breeds are just naturally "more friendly" than others. Of course, even amongst the "less friendly" breeds, there sometimes can be one exceptionally friendly or unafraid bird. However, it is our experience that for the most part, you can forecast the future disposition of your birds simply based upon which breed(s) you are choosing. Here I would offer one tip when choosing: If you would like to own a breed of chicken that is the most pet-like, and is friendly, interested in people, unafraid, likes attention, and always wants to be with you, order Dorkings! I know their name sounds dork-y, and that Silver-Gray Dorking hens are not the most beautiful bird, but up close they actually have a beautiful intricate gray feather pattern with a slightly brown colored chest that makes them look unique. If provided with freedom, food, clean and secure shelter, they are hearty egg layers and good foragers. But best of all they are friendly beyond belief. I could recognize their lack of fear even in the brooder while growing up with our other tame-breed chicks. When I'd place water or food into the brooder, all the other hand-tamed chicks would scatter to the brooder's sides momentarily to make room for the approaching "UFO" that was hovering overhead and coming their way. However, in contrast, the Dorking chicks would run forward toward the approaching big hands overhead as if to say, "Here come the people! Something good is coming!" Ever since then it's been obvious the Dorkings are head and shoulders more tame, friendly, and pet-like than any chicken I've ever owned, seen, or heard of. They are the ones who want to stay with me no matter what (if I'm shoveling, if I'm pushing the wheelbarrow, if there's a sudden loud noise). They are almost like a dog! (However, they do draw the line when I start up the leaf blower—they then act confused and do reluctantly clear away). Sicilian Buttercups are right behind the Dorkings as super friendly, but Dorkings still take the lead by leaps and bounds.

Remember if you want to order Dorkings, their availability is often limited. So phone your hatchery well before spring and order and pay for your Dorkings months in advance! (Then if necessary, you can cancel up to two weeks before your spring shipping date). This way you will be assured that the hatchery won't run out.

Also, if you are going to own Dorkings you must provide provisions to "break" the hens when they get broody, because once they mature, Dorkings are extremely broody and will sit in the nest box endlessly (i.e., until they lose weight, become weak, and even die waiting for chicks to hatch). This behavior, naturally, counteracts all their friendly characteristics because if they are broody (during warm weather only) they will do nothing but sit on the nest. So plan on having separate quarters or a pen area where you can safely feed, water, and offer separate range, while isolating your Dorking hen from any nesting materials (until she stops being broody). The best trick is to always keep an eye on your Dorking layers during warm weather, and if they are in a nest box more than 30 minutes after laying, move them away from nests and into a separate non-nesting area until they stop showing broody behavior. The sooner you realize and catch that they have become broody, the faster you can "break them," and cause them to go back to regular hen behavior. Fortunately when the hens are over two years old, the extreme broodiness subsides. If you don't want the hassle of monitoring for broodiness, I would instead choose Sicilian Buttercups as the next best for a super-friendly (non-broody) breed.

The Dorking chicken breed was featured in the April/ May 2009 issue of Backyard Poultry. The American Buttercup was featured in the June/July 2009 issue of Backyard Poultry. Breed articles can also be found on our website's library.—Ed.

Gina's Dorking hen, Grandma, is one of the friendliest birds she has. Gina says that the Dorking breed is "the most pet-like, is friendly, interested in people, unafraid, likes attention, and always wants to be with you." Dorkings are a broody breed.

Fencing: If you have watch dogs like we do, and don't need electric fencing during the day, you may be interested to know that by checking with the various portable electric fencing companies, you may eventually be able to obtain some very discounted "damaged" fencing that I now use as non-electric, very conveniently portable fencing. Also, for a few months after we first moved, we successfully used the short, black-colored, plastic fabric-like "fencing" which comes stapled to short wooden stakes that is often used to prevent erosion at construction sites (available at all hardware stores). It only stands about two feet high, but because it is solid black and our full-sized standard chickens were shorter than the fencing and could not see through it or over it, they never tried to jump up over it. It is very reasonably priced and can be helpful for temporary use (on fairly level ground where chickens will not be able to view what's on the other side). We bought some n-shaped hooks at the hardware store in order to help secure any floppy ground spots where the ground was uneven or where the leaves and forest floor didn't serve well enough to hold the bottom tight.

Grit: Although our hens free range, we offer them chicken grit in a hopper, and although they could possibly extract the gravel they need for digestion from the large natural area that they range on, they nevertheless seem to eat up the gravel that I leave out for them rather quickly. To me this seems to indicate that they benefit by my providing it (regardless that they might otherwise find enough grit out on their own). When raising chicks, we buy parakeet gravel in order to provide the gravel-size that chicks need.

Sicilian Buttercups are right behind the Dorkings in the "friendly category," but are generally non-broody.

Automatic chicken coop hatch opener: And lastly, the all time tip of the universe is to...save up, budget, take another part-time job, or whatever is necessary to indulge yourself in the luxury of an automatic chicken coop hatch opener! We waited years to do this, but it was absolutely the key to peace of mind and convenience when we finally installed one! We purchased the battery operated German-made brand, and it is awesome and worth every penny (in three years it has never malfunctioned).

Four tips regarding purchasing an opener: 1) Definitely buy the "light sensor" so that your hatch will close according to naturally changing day/night time hours, and forego buying a "timer." (The light sensor acts as a 24 hour sentry that will automatically adjust for all the increasing/decreasing daylight hours of the year so that you don't have to constantly reset a manual timer.) 2) You must build a little awning over the outside of your coop's door/hatch. This is absolutely necessary but will not be mentioned in your automatic door opener's instructions! Building a miniature awning for your chickens' exit area is the only way to prevent the weather from causing your automatic door opener from malfunctioning. Otherwise, if your auto-door comes in contact with rain, ice, snow-flurries, strong wind, etc., it will alter the precision of the door and likely cause it to get stuck. 3) Be sure to purchase the optional metal rails that the auto-door is designed to slide up and down on (do not try to save money and build rails yourself) because the door relies on precision motion and will not open/close properly unless it is aligned just as it was designed to function. 4) Be sure to buy the battery-operated system, or you will never know when a power outage may leave your birds unsecure at night or trapped inside during a hot day.