Every page on this site
Grouped by stage, in the order a first flock hits them. There are 60 pages in total.
Home
Stage 0 — deciding and planning
Start Here5 pages
Stage 1 — weeks 0 to 6
Brooder9 pages
- The best brooder heat plates, compared on what the makers publish
- Heat plate against heat lamp: the arithmetic, and the exception
- Chick starter feed, compared on the guaranteed analysis
- Medicated or unmedicated chick feed: one question decides it
- Chick feeders and waterers, and the one change that fixes both
- Brooder thermometers, and the specification most of them do not publish
- Brooder temperature by week
- Setting up a brooder before the chicks arrive
- When chicks can go outside, and how to move them
Stage 2 — weeks 4 to 8
Coop9 pages
- The best chicken coops for beginners, with the capacity claims checked
- Coops for four chickens, sized against the published figures
- Coops for six chickens, and why almost none of them are
- Automatic coop doors, ranked on what the makers publish
- Run-Chicken T50 against Omlet Smart against ChickenGuard Pro
- Coop bedding, judged on moisture and ammonia
- Coop size per chicken: the numbers, and how to check a coop against them
- Predator-proofing: one material, one apron, and one legal fact
- Ventilation is not draft, and the difference is what causes frostbite
Stage 3 — from the move outside, onward
Feeding8 pages
- Chicken feeders, judged on waste and what else eats from them
- Treadle feeders: the mechanism, the training, and the bantam problem
- Chicken waterers, and the design that stops them fouling
- Heated chicken waterers, with the winter electricity cost computed
- Feed storage, and why the seal matters more than the lid
- Layer, starter, all-flock and scratch: what actually separates them
- Grit and oyster shell: two different products, two different jobs
- Stopping chicken water freezing, including the things that do not work
Stage 4 — week 16 and up
Laying6 pages
- Nesting boxes, and the ratio that decides how many you buy
- Roll-out nest boxes: what a sloped floor actually fixes
- Nest box pads, and why loose bedding does not stay in a nest
- Nesting box dimensions, and the three numbers that matter
- When chickens start laying, and the signs it is about to happen
- Handling and storing your own eggs
All stages — the cross-cutting one
Health7 pages
- A chicken first aid kit, and where it stops being enough
- Coop heaters, and the case against buying one
- Mites and lice: confirming them, then treating by the label
- Diatomaceous earth: what the label says, and what it does not
- The dust bath: the cheapest parasite prevention there is
- Keeping chickens through winter, in order of what actually works
- Backyard chickens and rats: it is a feed problem
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