The best room and board for your backyard chickens

May 10, 2012 -

Charlotte from Peaceful Valley

All chickens deserve dry, safe places to live. Offer them good grub too—and you’ll get yummy eggs full of Omega-3 fatty acids! 
 

Feed your chickens our Omega-3 Chicken Forage Blend to ramp up the Omega-3 in their eggs.  (shown here growing in seed flats).

Give your backyard chickens the best room and board. Here at Peaceful Valley we have all the supplies you need to raise healthy chickens.

BACKYARD CHICKEN VIDEOS Raising Chickens - We have 3 videos for you on backyard chickens! Tricia raises chickens and covers the basics on what they need. 

Jessi Bloom, author of Free-Range Chicken Gardens, tells the story of chickens as part of permaculture.

Jayme Jenkins blogs at Nest in Style—and built her own chicken coop. View Jayme's tips on the coops that will be best for your back (and for the hens).

OMEGA-3 CHICKEN FORAGE BLEND

We’re famous (in the poultry population) for our Omega-3 Chicken Forage Blend. Chickens love to cruise around and find their own tasty bites in the garden. This blend gives them choices, and sneaks in a lot of Omega-3 producing greenery for them.

Omega-3 fatty acids are an important component of a healthy diet. One way to get this substance in our food is to eat eggs from chickens raised on a diet that promotes the formation of Omega-3s right in the egg. University studies show significantly higher Omega-3s in eggs from hens who can forage in pasture instead of just eating an industrial diet. Our mix has the alfalfa, clover, and flax that increase Omega-3s in eggs.

Plant annually after danger of frost has passed.

Plant at 50 pounds per acre or 2-3 pounds per 1,000 sq. ft. Keep moist until germination and then water regularly, depending on your soil type. When the mix is 2-5” tall turn the chickens loose on the planted area until they have eaten the grasses about half way.

Or plant some in a 17” square flat for the chickens and let them chow it all down. Add soil, sow thickly, follow the growing instructions above, then place the flat in the chicken run.

Caution: Flax can form prussic acid when exposed to frost so do not graze horses on this mix.

CHICKEN COOPS

Who uses that coop anyway? The hens, of course, but you do too—and you want the coop height to be easy on your back when you’re gathering eggs, checking on your flock, and cleaning the coop.

We found small and large coops that work well for the chickens and for you!

These meet all the requirements for being secure, high off the ground, well-ventilated, designed with chicken roosting and laying needs in mind—and they’re cute!

CHICKEN RAISING SUPPLIES

We have galvanized chicken waterers and feeders for your feathered friends. Lots of good food too, like Organic Layer Chicken Pellets, and the specially digestible oyster shell that keeps calcium levels high (and egg binding away).

A chicken’s idea of a spa treatment is a dust bath. Mix food grade diatomaceous earth with your own dirt and make some hens happy.

BOOKS ABOUT BACKYARD CHICKENS

Chickens are a hot topic and the chicken books are flying off the presses. We read all the new books and have our picks for the top of the pecking order.

You can’t go wrong with Jessi’s Free Range Chicken Gardens, or the comprehensive City Chicks and Living with Chickens.

In a nesting mode? Check out the great coop designs and super-easy-to-follow building directions in the brand-new Art of the Chicken Coop.

Here’s to healthy hens and healthy chicken keepers!

http://groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/the-best-room-and-board-for-your-backyard-chickens