Ah, chickens. They are so much fun to watch and take care of. From a large flock of baby sharks that at least try to eat anything put before them, including fingers, all the way to adult birds who simply insist they need to be fed . . . NOW. A perfect illustration of this was Beaky, a black penendesenca hen, whom we gave to someone who fell in love with her at first sight. She was born with the bottom half of her beak at a nearly 90 degree angle to the top half. We didn't think she was going to make it to adulthood, but did she ever. She would see someone walking around with a bucket and run full-steam from the chicken coop to follow it around, eating from this buffet just meant for her at every opportunity. I saw her doing that and got a mental picture of a woman holding onto a wide-brimmed hat while running for a bus on a windy day.

Babies should be fed a high-quality chick starter, or otherwise simply a high-protein crumble. At Barebottom Farms we start our chickens on 20% crumble. When they are ready to go out to the coop in a controlled environment at about 8 to 10 weeks they stay on the higher-protein crumble. You might ask why we don't use medicated since that can help them build an immunity to possible illness later. Simply put, we believe in using medication when it's necessary. Using a medicated feed (amprollium is the typical medication in commercial chicken feed) helps them build an immunity to the medication. They are not as likely to respond to whatever medication we use if the need arises. And we have rarely had the need arise. To give them as good a start as possible we use water-soluble poultry vitamins until they leave the house.

You can reduce the protein to 16% lay crumbles at 12 weeks, though we choose to maintain the 20% as a base. When the birds are old enough we feed them a mixture of 20% egg pellets, scratch (with added cracked corn in colder months), game bird crumbles and all-way crumbles. For a PDF file on how to care for your birds from hatch through adulthood, click here.

If you want to take a gander at some of our breeder chickens and their offspring, click the picture. : (note from Wiggles - chickens may not be as cute as goats, but they provide some entertainment, so I let Dennis keep them)

Please note, while we ensure our birds are always happy and healthy, we do not claim our birds are show quality. As with anything else, you may get a bird that is fit for show, but we do not breed our flock for show.

We are fully tested and certified by TVMDL (flock # 200802 0402 19). This means we can ship live birds and eggs anywhere within the Continental US and Alaska, though we do encourage you to check with your state or county extension service for any special regulations of which you should be aware before ordering. We will ship live birds only by express mail, and only weather permitting. All of our birds for sale are, of course, available for pickup.