Not sure what to buy for your chickens to help them pass the time? You might want to consider investing in some toys for chickens from Omlet, one of the best places to buy chicken supplies.
If you raise your chickens only for their egg or meat producing capabilities, you’re missing out. Scientists are just beginning to uncover the many ways in which chickens are similar to humans in their capacity for intelligence, feeling emotions, and other characteristics.
Even if you don’t invite your chickens inside all day, providing them with plenty of toys is a great way to keep them busy. These top toys for chickens from Omlet will provide your flock with a way to stay entertained, something that’s beneficial particularly if you want to avoid negative flock behaviors like feather pulling and egg-eating (and during the long, dull days of winter, to boot!).
Consider these top toys as you get started on your journey toward building a fun-filled (and healthy!) chicken coop.
4 Top Toys for Chickens from Omlet
1. The Omlet Peck Toy
What It Is
The Omlet Peck Toy comes with two options – you can buy the Poppy or the Pendant. Both are super fun, interactive feed toys that your chickens will absolutely love. Combining enriching entertainment with a steady flow of treats, these toys can be installed in any coop or run (don’t worry – they’re waterproof). Fill it with treats and watch as your chickens enjoy pecking at this toy all day long.
The Poppy Peck Toy is meant to be pushed into the ground, like a garden stake, and allows your chickens to peck at the dispenser via the holes. The Pendant Peck Toy works in a similar way but comes with an adjustable string so it can be hung in a coop or run.
Not sure how to finish setting up the rest of your coop or run? You can find more tips here.
Where to Buy It
You can purchase this toy by visiting Omlet’s website here.
What the Company Claims
Provides an engaging, interesting challenger or playful hens
Has a slow-release format so it prevents dominant hens from enjoying all the treats
Can help encourage natural and healthy chicken behaviors, like foraging and pecking
Comes with two legendary designs – both hold the same amount of treats
Quick and easy to tall
Measures 15cm x 8.5cm
Holds 300 g of corn
Dispenser is easy to refill and dishwasher safe
Our Experience
Does the Omlet Peck Toy Live Up To Its Claims?
The Omlet Peck Toy does live up to its claims. Although there were a few issues that I found with the toy – like the slots that allow the rain in – it’s a good treat dispenser if you’re using feed that won’t mold quickly.
What Don’t We Like
It may take some time for your hens to get used to this product. Some chickens need to be shown how the device works before they use it.
Is it Useful for Chicken Owners?
The Peck Toy from Omlet is useful for chicken owners. Not only can you use it as a regular treat dispenser for your backyard hens, but you can also use it to provide mental stimulation. It will help you control portions when dispensing treats and can also provide your flock with essential exercise. After all, there are so many benefits associated with free-ranging and proper exercise!
What to Watch Out For
There are some slots in the top of the Poppy Peck Toy that let the rain in. You may want to use this one only in a covered run or inside a coop so that the feed does not become moldy.
If you’re looking for treats to fill your feeder, you should take a look at our non-GMO cracked corn. It’s delicious and nutritious and fits perfetly in this feeder.
Summary
These peck toys are absolutely phenomenal, providing your chickens with a source of sustenance as well as hours of entertainment. They can also help you control the portions of your chickens’ feed so you don’t have to worry about them filling up on unhealthy treats like scratch grain.
If you’re in the market for a better way to feed your chickens, you might want to consider these low-waste feeder ideas.
2. The Omlet Chicken Perch
What It Is
Chickens need places to perch, and this chicken perch by Omlet provides your hens with the perfect spot! Naturally weather-resistant, this perch can be put anywhere inside or outside of the chicken coop. Most chicken keepers will put it outdoors in the run so that it can help your chickens perch at the highest point for a great view at any time of the day.
Where to Buy It
You can purchase this toy by visiting Omlet’s website here.
What the Company Claims
Fits directly into Omlet prefabricated chicken coops
Two bars can be attached together for a longer perch
Can be extended to fit just about any size run
Connector clamps around mesh or chicken wire for a secure, neat finish
Can be attached directly to any surface
Made out of durable eucalyptus
Easy to install
Our Experience
Does the Omlet Chicken Perch Live Up To Its Claims?
It’s a pretty basic perch, but it does live up to its claims. It’s easy to install and your chickens will likely take to it immediately.
What Don’t We Like
Although this chicken perch is sturdily built, it’s made out of wood so is prone to some natural splitting along the length. This isn’t necessarily a dealbreaker, but you’ll want to stain it or use a varnish to prevent it from cracking anymore.
Is it Useful for Chicken Owners?
Chickens like to perch, as it mimics the behaviors they would display in the wild when searching for predators and potential sources of food. By putting one of these Omlet perches in your chicken run, you’ll be helping your chickens express their most natural, wildest selves.
What to Watch Out For
Just keep in mind you may have to do some finagling to get this perch to fit inside your coop or run. Although it can fit most sizes and styles of runs and coops, you might have to extend or add on to it to get it to fit perfectly.
Summary
While some reviewers claimed that this product seemed like a “glorified broom handle” at first, you’ll likely find that to be anything but the case when you invest in this product (as did most reviewers after submitting their initial reviews). Not only is it sturdy and durably built, but it will give your chickens the perfect vantage point no matter the size or design of your run.
3. The Chicken Swing
What It Is
If your chickens are constantly on the move, you won’t find a better product than this chicken swing by Omlet. It’s a toy that will not only allow your chickens to perch, but also to get some much-needed exercise. It has a unique patented design that enables the chickens to move the swing themselves rather than needing to be pushed by the owner.
Where to Buy It
You can purchase this toy by visiting Omlet’s website here.
What the Company Claims
Has a corn-like texture for added grip
Can be used by chickens of most breeds and sizes
Requires no pushing by the owner
Made from safe, high-quality parts that are durable and weather-resistant
16.25” in length
Comes complete and ready to hang
Our Experience
Does the Omlet Chicken Swing Live Up To Its Claims?
Yes and no. I found that this swing was a great way to acquaint your chickens to the idea of playtime, but you’ll have to invest some time in getting them used to how to use it. Start young!
What Don’t We Like
If you don’t take the time to train your chickens to this swing, they might not ever get the hang of it (or like using it). It’s best to start using this chicken swing when your birds are young. That way, they will get used to it being in the run and won’t be spooked when it moves on its own in the wind.
Is it Useful for Chicken Owners?
When you buy this chicken swing, you won’t just be providing your chickens with hours of entertainment – you’re also likely to find yourself giggling away as you watch chicken butts flying in the air! This swing is a great way to give your girls some exercise as they stretch their legs and wings, and it’s made from high-quality parts that are sure to last.
What to Watch Out For
You may want to introduce this swing to your chickens when they are young. Although adult chickens can (and do!) easily get the hang of it, it’s easier for young chicks to learn how to use the swing first.
Summary
The Omlet Chicken Swing is a great accessory for any chicken coop, pen, or run. Your birds will likely get the hang of it quickly, and they don’t want to stop swinging once they do!
4. Caddi Chicken Treat Holder
What It Is
One final product from Omlet to consider as you’re on the lookout for the top toys for chickens is this chicken treat holder. Like the other chicken treat toy reviewed earlier in this article, this toy is a great way to keep food secure, off the ground, and portion-controlled – while also entertaining the heck out of your chickens!
You can hang this swinging feeder by its adjustable nylon strap and plastic hook. You can hang it in any chicken enclosure, in fact, and it’s a great compliment to the Peck Toys reviewed earlier in the article. You will be sure to meet all of your chickens’ treat-feeding needs with this combo!
Where to Buy It
You can purchase this toy by visiting Omlet’s website here.
What the Company Claims
Measures 7.9” x 3.1”
Built from heavy-duty welded steel with a waterproof rain cap
Keeps hens’ treats off the ground for neat and tidy dispersal
Great source of entertainment that can be used with all kinds of treats (like leafy greens)
Nylon string is adjustable so you an hang it in any setting
Easy to detach the plastic hook for quick cleaning and refilling
Our Experience
Does the Caddi Chicken Treat Holder Live Up To Its Claims?
Yes. This chicken treat holder should be at the top of your list! And if you’re looking for ideas of what to fill it with, be sure to check out our huge line of non-GMO treats for your chickens, like these mealworms!
What Don’t We Like
There’s very little we don’t like about this product – it’s made out of durable materials and is easy for your chickens to use.
Is it Useful for Chicken Owners?
The Caddi Chicken Treat Holder is super helpful for chicken owners. Not only will it help you provide your flock with a bit of exercise as they peck and nibble around the treats in the feeder, but it will also keep the foods safe, secure, and off the ground – no more wasting food!
What to Watch Out For
When you hang this chicken treat holder, be sure it’s at a height that’s accessible to your chickens. You may need to watch them for a while and adjust to make sure they can get at the food with ease, or they won’t use the feeder.
Summary
With very little assembly required, this chicken treat holder is the perfect chicken toy from Omlet. It’s a combination feeder and plaything that’s sure to delight your flock!
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
No matter how experienced you are in raising chickens, as the mercury begins to drop you might start second-guessing yourself and wondering, “how cold is too cold for chickens?”
This is a concern raised by people who love raising chickens everywhere, but especially those who live in cold, unforgiving climates. Luckily, chickens are pretty hardy creatures and can withstand the bitter cold much better than you might think.
There are some conditions you’ll want to keep in mind, of course. For example, some chicken breeds aren’t as adept at withstanding the cold as others. There are certain precautions you can take, too, to help your birds shed the cold and continue to stay healthy, even when you’re trying to get through the winter without electricity.
Here’s what you need to know.
How Cold is Too Cold For Your Chickens?
Your chickens are tougher than you might think. In fact, even though they aren’t wearing big, puffy coats like us in the wintertime, they have natural defenses and conditions against the cold that can keep them warm.
Chickens have several types of feathers. There are wispy feathers and plumage feathers. The plumage feathers are the colored ones that are easiest to see when you quickly glance at your birds. The wispy feathers are similar to down in that they stick tightly to the skin and keep chickens warm, essentially creating an airtight barrier.
Not only that, but chickens also have high metabolisms. They have higher resting temperatures than we do. While a human stays around 98 degrees, chickens are closer to 105 to 109 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus, their hearts beat a lot faster than hours – up to 400 beats per minute. This helps your birds stay warm even when you’re running toward the woodstove.
Depending on the breed, most chickens can survive inside an unheated, uninsulated coop at cool temperatures that are well below freezing. There’s no hard and fast number on how cold is too cold for chickens, since there are so many variables that affect a chicken’s cold hardiness. Here are a few.
Breed
Some chicken breeds are naturally better at shaking the cold than others. Usually, chickens that are heavy and large will be better at staying warm. Some of the best breeds for winter weather include:
Barred Rocks
Salmon Faverolles
New Hampshire Reds
Rhode Island Reds
Wyandottes
Jersey Giants
Australorps
Welsummers
Sussex
Orpingtons
Barred Rocks
Delawares
Brahmas
Cold-hardy chicken breeds are those that have high body fat and don’t have any areas of exposed skin. Similarly, frizzles (or curly feathers) along with feathered feet can make chickens more sensitive to the cold. Therefore, you’ll want to avoid breeds like Silkies, which don’t dry out easily in cold, wet weather or when there is a draft in the coop.
Weather Conditions
It can be tough to determine how cold your chickens can get because it’s not just the temperature you’ll need to keep an eye on. In fact, chickens tend to be more sensitive to humidity and moisture than actual cold.
In almost all cases, chickens will handle dry, cold weather better than wet, cold weather. This is especially true if your coop has a tendency to hold moisture. A driving wind can also lower the ambient temperature and make it more difficult for your chickens to stay warm, too.
Age and Life Stage
Finally, consider how old your chickens are (and whether they are in any particular stage of life that would make them more sensitive to the cold).
For example, young birds and those who are molting may not have as many feathers to withstand the cold. You’ll need to take a few extra steps to keep them warmer during unusually cold weather. You can read more about the ideal outdoor temperature for baby chicks here.
How to Help Your Chickens Stay Warm
Avoid a Heater
The number one tip to remember when helping your chickens stay warm is that nine times out of ten, they do not need a heater.
Heaters are problematic for several reasons. First, with all that bedding, you’re inviting a fire. Chickens do not need a heater because they will huddle up together on a cold night to stay warm. A well-ventilated coop with plenty of fresh bedding (and a proper ratio of roost bars to chickens) is all your birds need.
Another issue with a heater is that, if the power goes out (or when your chickens venture outside) they will suffer from the fluctuation in temperature. Your chickens don’t have a hard time acclimating to the cold when it’s always cold out -but when they can’t adjust to sudden swings, that’s when health problems arise.
As long as your coop is well-ventilated, it doesn’t need to be insulated, either. In fact, too much insulation can be detrimental because it makes it difficult for moisture to escape. Believe it or not, chickens release a lot of moisture when they breathe, so a too-tight coop can lead to moisture build-up in the coop. This will chill your chickens much faster than the cold weather will.
The same goes for heating pads. One member of the Chicken Vet Corner group writes:
Heating pads raise humidity, increasing the chances of frostbite, and make temperature differences inside the coop verses outside the coop harder for the chickens to deal with. Unless you have -30 degrees or colder weather, don’t even use them
Susan Toler
Try Deep Litter
Deep litter is a method of bedding that allows bedding material and chicken manure to build up over the year. By winter, you’ll have a foot or more of composting material on the floor of the coop. As you probably already know if you have a compost bin, the composting bedding will give off heat and will warm the coop naturally. You can clean it out come spring.
One tip for the deep litter method – don’t neglect the nest boxes. Although your chickens should do just fine with a bit of built-up litter, the nesting boxes still should be changed out on a regular basis. Consider adding some nesting herbs like these, while you’re at it!
Feed at Night
Take extra care to feed your chickens at night during particularly cold spells. If you give them high-energy, high-protein foods, like cracked corn or seeds, they’ll stay warmer overnight as their stomachs work to digest the food.
An occasional treat like sunflower seeds is a great way to help your chickens build their body heat and raise their body temperatures to withstand cold temperatures with ease. It’s not a bad idea to up the food intake of your chickens and provide extra feed during this time, anyway.
Consider providing your chickens with some high-energy treats inside the coop at night, like these mealworms. Your hens will go crazy for them! Just make sure you feed any kind of treat in a container rather than on the ground – this can help you prevent parasites.
Keep Them Occupied
Make sure your chickens are kept entertained during the day – the activity will boost their metabolisms even further, helping to keep the hens warm. Ideally, you should let your chickens out of the coop to roam around during the day, but you might find that, when it’s super snowy, your chickens don’t want to venture outside (although the cold does not bother them, they aren’t fond of walking in heavy snowpack).
If your chickens can’t be encouraged to go outside in cold conditions, consider hanging a head of cabbage by some twine in the coop. This will entertain your chickens on the darkest days of winter.
Harness the Power of the Sun
Consider adding a sunroom to your coop. You can do this in several ways.
A coop with plenty of natural lighting is best, as this will help warm the coop during the day (and the coop will hang on to some radiant heat at night, too). You can also build a cold frame-style addition to your chicken coop or run by covering a section with clear, heavy-duty plastic. Basic tarps should work, too.
This will give your chickens somewhere to relax in the sun during the day – and as a side bonus, it will usually stay free of snow, too. It also offers a shelter against intense winds.
Don’t Forget the Roosts
Chickens don’t need a heater! Again, they just need a place to perch. The key to warm chickens is a good roost set-up. The roosts will not only keep chickens off the cold ground (ideally, two to three feet off the ground) but they will also allow the birds to huddle together. When chickens are able to roost properly, they’ll be able to use their feathers and bodies to cover up their cold-sensitive feet, too.
Guard Against Frostbite
As long as your chicken coop is well-ventilated, you shouldn’t have to worry about frostbite. However, in the coldest winter climates, some breeds of chickens who have large wattles and combs may develop frostbite. Luckily, it’s nothing serious – it will just cause some discoloration on these parts of your birds.
However, you can protect against it by dabbing some petroleum jelly on the wattles and combs. It forms a moisture-resistant barrier.
Plan for Laying Declines
Your hens’ laying patterns will naturally decline during the winter – that is only to be expected. It is caused not only by a reduction in natural daylight hours but also the fact that your chickens are spending more calories on staying warm than they are on producing eggs.
If you’re really concerned about a drop in egg production, you can add a light to the chicken coop. This is really only for your benefit, though – the chickens don’t necessarily need it.
One tip – if your laying decline continues past the extreme cold weather, you may want to give your girls a boost by adding some egg-production nesting herbs to the nesting boxes. Here’s a great option – the girls are sure to love them!
Fresh Water is Essential
Your chickens will naturally eat a bit more during the winter months, since they don’t have access to fresh forage and they need to eat just to stay warm, too. Make sure they have consistent access to feed and remember – without water, the feed is pointless.
One of the biggest challenges of raising chickens during the winter is having to deal with frozen waterers. Consider using waterers with heated bases to help prevent the waterers from freezing even in below freezing temperatures. Don’t forget to refill often – eight chickens need at least a gallon of water per day.
You can use heated livestock containers or even make do with simple swaps, like heated dog water bowls.
Should I Insulate the Chicken Coop?
Your chicken coop does not need to be air tight, nor do you need to worry about stacking straw bales around the outside. Extra modifications aren’t needed.
In most cases, as long as your chickens are well bedded and have each other to rely on to keep the flock mates warm, no extra insulation is needed. It’s your personal decision, of course, whether you want to take this step in preparing your chickens for winter but most of the time, it’s unnecessary.
A coop that is bundled up too tight can lead to extra problems. Too much insulation can trap air and lead to problems like frostbite and moldy bedding. Airflow is key. Do your best to eliminate drafts and reduce excess moisture, but otherwise, no other steps are necessary.
What About Sick or Injured Chickens and the Cold Weather?
The one exception to chickens in cold weather has to do with those who are sick or injured.
No matter what kinds of chickens you are raising, even one of the most cold hardy breeds, it’s important that you exercise some common sense and bring your chickens inside if they are suffering from some sort of physical or health issue.
You don’t need to snuggle up in bed next to your favorite hen or rooster, of course, but you can bring them into the garage or another area with some supplemental heat until they recover.
Remember, baby chicks also need to be kept indoors under supplemental heat until they are old enough to be outside.
Plus, if you have a sick bird, you really shouldn’t have it hosued with the entire flock, anyway. This can spread disease and make it more likely that your sick bird will be picked on.
Chickens in Winter: They’re More Cold-Hardy Than You Think!
When it comes to raising chickens during the winter, you’ve got to give them some credit – they’re tougher than you might think! And they’re a lot tougher than humans without any extra heat for sure.
In fact, one member of the Chicken Vet Corner group writes:
I live in Ontario and have never ever heated my coop in any way, it is not insulated and there’s a 1×1 completely open window covered in hardware mesh in it…. even in the dead of winter my birds don’t get frostbite. I find heat lamps or heat of any kind don’t let the birds become adjusted to the cold and gives them a much worse chance of frost bite.
You also have to think of the shock that a power outage might cause… The only important things are providing wide roosts that their toes don’t wrap around, lots of ventilation and a fairly small sized coop for the number of birds in it. Moisture is the enemy, not cold. Too many heat sources cause unnecessary moisture.
Annie Page
While there will be some extra work involved when you are raising chickens during the winter, ultimately, the stress will be on you and not on them. Collect eggs a few more times during the day and make sure the waterers stay thawed out. Otherwise, your chickens will hardly even know that it’s winter outside!
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
A broken beak is a problem that no chicken owner wants to deal with – but unfortunately, knowing how to fix a broken beak is a skill that all chicken keepers should have in their back pockets.
Chickens are similar to humans in that their beaks grow a lot like fingernails. These birds can “file down” their beaks, or so to speak, with actions like preening and wiping their beaks on objects.
Just like humans with their fingernails, each chicken has its own unique beak, too. Some chickens grow beaks that are long and elegant, while others have beaks that are short and stubby.
Unfortunately, just like human fingernails, bird beaks can (and often do) break. Therefore, it’s essential that you know how to fix a broken beak – and how to best care for your chickens in the process.
Here are some tips.
All About Chicken Beaks
Before you can help a hen with a broken beak, it’s important to understand some basic anatomy.
A chicken’s beak is made out of keratin, an insoluble protein that is known for its toughness. It is the same protein that helps make up horns, antlers, hooves, and, for us humans, fingernails.
Each chicken’s beak is comprised of two parts – the upper portion is the maxillary rostrum, while the bottom is the mandibular rostrum.
Beaks are constantly growing, but only the beak itself and not its bony framework. The bones in a chicken’s beak are connected to the skull. The tip of the beak contains nerve endings and blood vessels, which makes it sensitive to pain.
As you probably already know, chickens use their beaks for all sorts of tasks, from eating to grooming and even for balance.
What Causes a Beak to Become Broken?
Chickens use their beaks as tools, and like all tools, they can become broken. Most chickens use their beaks like they would use their hands, if they had them, so it’s no surprise that they can easily become worn down. They use their beaks for everything from eating to grasping, exploring to grooming.
Chickens even use their beaks to communicate!
Minor beak injuries are incredibly common. Chickens can obtain injured beaks from fighting with predators, engaging in squabbles with other chickens, or even getting them stuck in hard objects, like between the slats in hardware cloth fencing.
Chickens can also injure their beaks from some of the following behaviors:
Collisions
Fighting
Grooming
Digging
Exploring
Eating
How to Prevent Beak Injury
If you’re worried about your chickens developing broken beaks, you should do whatever you can to prevent a beak injury in the first place.
Most of the time, chickens injure their beaks via interactions with other chickens. Often this is due to fighting, the likelihood of which can be reduced by making sure your chickens have plenty of food, water, and space to roam.
How to Fix a Broken Beak
Your first step in fixing the cracked beak of your chicken is to examine the extent of the damage. Beak injuries can be as severe as complete removal or severing of the beak or as minor as a simple chip. Often, if it’s just a tiny chip you’re dealing with, you may not have to do anything at all.
If your chicken has a more significant or traumatic beak injury, you’ll know that you need to address it because your chicken is suffering extreme pain. Your chicken might not be eating or drinking normally, which can of course threaten its ability to gain weight, maintain weight, and survive.
If it’s just a minor crack, feel free to leave the cracked beak alone. Often, a tiny crack will grow out and repair itself over time. However, more severe cracks sometimes need to be stabilized and splinted. Ideally, you should call in a veterinarian to help you out, but the reality is that there are not that many veterinarians who specialize in chickens in most areas of the country.
Therefore, you should be prepared to render any first-aid necessary to help your chicken out.
Engage in Regular Beak Maintenance
For the most part, chickens will take care of their beaks on their own – you won’t have to do a single thing. Your chickens will care for their own beaks via actions like preening (which help prevents issues like chicken mites), picking up rocks, and engaging in other activities.
If you keep your chickens in an enclosed run and do not allow them to free range, you may want to provide them with hard objects like rocks to help them hone their beaks. Grit is also essential.
Some chickens develop beaks that grow abnormally. Also referred to as scissor beaks, these beaks require assistance when it comes to maintaining their shape and length.
Have a First Aid Kit on Hand
It’s a good idea to have a well-stocked first-aid kit on hand regardless of your chicken flock’s overall size and wellbeing.
You’ll want to keep some of the following items on hand with special regard to beak care:
Vetericyn Poultry Care Spray
Tweezers or forceps
Superglue
Cotton swabs
Old towels
Bloodstop powder or spray (such as Blu-Kote)
Nail clippers
Pain medication
One unique first aid kit item you might also want to keep on hand is a plain tea bag – you’ll learn more about why in a moment.
Another item that might be helpful? Herbs. You can buy some herbs for chickens here, which will provide your chickens with some of the nutrients they need to recover in an all-natural way.
Clean the Area Thoroughly – Then It’s Time for Surgery
If you notice a hen with a broken beak, your first step is going to be to clean the area thoroughly. The worst thing you can do is to allow dirt and bacteria to get inside the wound. As you clean the wound with poultry care spray, you are going to want to be extremely gentle – that tissue is sensitive.
As you work, you can keep you calm by wrapping her in a towel with her wings secured by her side. She won’t be able to flap her wings or injure herself more in this fashion.
If there are any rough edges where the beak has broken, you may need to use a nail file to smooth them out. Otherwise, it’s the tea bag to the rescue.
Use your teabag to help create a salve. You need to empty the contents of the packet and cut a small patch from the bag that’s just slightly larger than the torn area of the beak. Using your pair of tweezers, you can put some superglue gel on the patch. Align the broken piece of beak and put the glue patch over it. Make sure no rough or jagged edges remain.
Once the first outer layer of glue dries, you can apply a second layer of glue over it with a cotton swab. Let that dry completely, too.
This remedy works great on minor cracked beaks and cracks but be cautious about using too much superglue gel, as it can be irritating to birds. Do not let the glue touch any exposed tissue or get into the bird’s mouth.
If the beak looks incredibly dirty or infected when you discover your hen, you may want to delay the glue-sealing process. This can seal in bacteria that will make your chicken incredibly sick. Instead, clean the area and apply disinfectant. Once you’ve taken care of the infection, you can fix her beak.
Helping a Hen With Exposed Beak Tissue
If your hen has a beak injury that is so severe that she has exposed beak tissue, you may need to get a bit more creative in your approach.
If you notice bright red blood, you will want to make sure the tissue is no longer red and swollen before you do anything else. Use some Vetericyn spray to keep the wound clean and keep your hen away from the flock for a few days. Apply the wound cleaner as often as possible.
Another tip – if you don’t have any Vetericyn, you can use some hydrogen peroxide or Blu-Kote.
Just avoid using superglue on a beak that has exposed tissue. It will really hurt your hen.
If you find that your hen is missing only a portion of the beak, keep pressure on it to cut off blood supply loss until you can get your chicken into a veterinarian. Often, the use of acrylic beka prosthetics or splints will be necessary.
Caring for a Hen With a Broken Beak
Once you’ve mended the beak of your hen, you need to take a few extra steps to make sure she gets back to feeling 100%. For starters, you will want to keep her away from the rest of the flock. This will avoid further injury and also prevent other birds from picking on her.
If the wound involves blood, this tip is going to be doubly true – chickens will pick on each other if they notice any exposed blood supply and this can kill your chicken. Some chickens even engage in cannibalistic behavior when given the opportunity.
Instead, wait until the wound is undetectable before returning your hen to the flock. Watch the wound carefully over the next few months to make sure the beak heals completely. Usually, your chicken will be able to return to her natural behaviors, honing her own beak without dislodging the crack.
In some cases, the injury may be extreme enough to warrant the use of antibiotics or anti-inflammatories. These must be prescribed by a veterinarian.
Caring for your hen will, more or less, be the same after the beak injury.
Feeding Chickens With Beak Injuries
Do not drastically alter the diet of your hen – adding in foods or any kinds of supplements that your chickens are not used to can make your chicken feel thrown off-guard and unhealthy.
Instead, consider providing your chicken with a natural feed on a regular basis. You can find a good option here that will keep your birds happy and healthy at all times.
You may, however, find that your hen has a hard time picking up pieces of food. You might need to switch to a mash and add some water. It should be the consistency of grits. Replace and clean the dish every few hours to prevent the growth of mold. Of course, providing plenty of fresh, clean water is also essential.
Will A Cracked Beak Heal Itself?
In many cases, a cracked beak will heal itself – but only if you provide your chicken with the TLC she needs to recover.
One final tip? Know what you can do in the event of an emergency that you cannot treat yourself. Often, veterinarian care is necessary when it comes to treating broken beaks. While veterinarians can be tough to find, it would behoove you to have veterinarian contact information on hand long before you need it.
Fortunately, broken beaks aren’t usually fatal for chickens – as long as you can catch and treat them early. Stay vigilant!
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
While the winters never get too brutal here in Missouri, we still do get our share of freezing temps (usually in January and February) thanks to the polar vortexes from our Canadian friends up North.
And trying to keep a chicken coop warm in winter is never fun. In fact, it’s usually a battle of ingenuity, and we’re kept on our toes trying to find new ways to keep the flock toasty and cozy when it’s gotten so cold we don’t even have a prayer of getting the hose getting unfrozen.
Now before we begin, just remember: For the most part, your chickens will be fine during the winter.
Every year, I get a few people who ask whether their hens will freeze in temperatures below 40 degrees, and the answer is no. Your chickens will likely be fine no matter what.
Only once temperatures dip below zero and into the VERY below zero temperatures (negative 30 degrees, for example) do you really need to be concerned about keeping them warm.
In temperatures above zero, your chickens will fluff their feathers to stay warm and all the walking around and foraging will help keep their blood circulating and their body temperature up.
At night, they’ll bundle together on a roost and keep their little legs warm by sitting on them.
But you still are probably wondering how to keep a chicken coop warm in winter, so here’s some ideas we’ve used on our farm to get you started!
Shut the door midday and let the sun warm your coop up
We’ve had a lot of luck with the various coops on our property by using solar energy to keep the coops heated.
Our coops have windows, so for the first part of the day, we can open the coop doors and let the hens forage.
About mid-day, you can close the doors and allow the heat to get trapped inside the coop, keeping it warmer than it would be otherwise.
Now, don’t ask me how many degrees this will raise the temperature – that’s going to depend on a wide variety of factors.
And this won’t work 100% of the time. But it might be the difference between 22 degrees and 32 degrees in the coop – and that’s a heck of a difference.
2. Use lots of straw & clean out every week
Straw is an amazing insulator – that’s why you see those straw houses becoming so popular.
Putting about a foot deep of straw in your coop will do wonders keeping the cold air out and the warm air generated by your flock’s body heat in.
As a bonus, your flock won’t have to stand on a cold floor.
Now, you might hear that straw is not good to use as bedding – to each his own. Some people have decided that straw harbors mites, and the answer is if you don’t clean your coop, pretty much anything will harbor mites.
Clean the straw out of your coop weekly, and you’ll be good to go.
Now for full disclosure, I don’t use the deep litter method. But people who DO use it claim it can raise the coop temperature by about 10 degrees – pretty significant when your talking about daily highs in the teens.
The reason it generates so much heat is because the manure dropped by the chickens composts, and the breaking-down process causes heat.
4. Radiant space heater
Like the deep litter method, this one isn’t going to be for everyone. If you’re not sure what a radiant heater is, you can see an example here (you can also buy one here).
Now note, I didn’t say heat lamp – that’s a definite no-no because they get way too hot. Every winter, there’s a slew of posts on Facebook about people who used a heat lamp and their coop went up in flames.
Just say no to heat lamps.
Radiant heaters are a different thing – they don’t get so hot and have some safety features. They can raise the temperatures in your coop a few degrees, and that can make all the difference.
Just note, you will need an electrical source to use a radiant space heater.
Now, would I personally use one of these in my coop? Probably not. I’m WAY to paranoid about fires and our winters are not that cold – it’s the odd day that things get below zero.
That being said, you might want to use one – and if you do, the more power to you.
5. Use a treeline to break the wind
We have one horse pasture that I swear is 10 to 20 degrees warmer than the others. When the water is frozen solid in the other fields, it’s not even icy in this particular pasture.
And the reason is that there’s a lot of trees causing a ginormous windbreak. And it makes all the difference.
It’s pretty insane how much a treeline can keep a coop warm simply because it’s keeping the cold winds away from your flock.
If your chickens are in a tractor, or if you can somehow move them behind a treeline, you’ll be able to keep the coop from losing warmth.
If you can use something else to create a windbreak (moving the coop behind a structure so it’s protected), then that’ll work as well.
If you plan to use straw in your coop, you could even buy extra bales to create a “wall” to break the wind (don’t laugh – we’ve done it and it WORKS.)
Use insulation around doors and windows
This one will take a bit of planning on your part, but you can save a lot of heat by simply eliminating drafts. (After all, it IS those polar vortexes that contribute to the cold in the first place)
Making sure your coop doors and windows have proper insulation will go a long way.
Don’t use any of that spray foam however (my husband loves that stuff and it’s a nightmare to look at and clean up, and your chickens might decided to taste test it – never a good thing.)
If you’re trying to figure out how to heat a chicken coop in winter, then spend a little and get something like this that will do the job without taking the chance your flock will try to eat it.
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
A good sultan is hard to find. Since the 1550s, the title has belonged to Muslim sovereigns, and the tradition has carried through the centuries into the present day. Though they have largely become individuals of lore, there still exist certain areas in the Middle East and Africa where the honorific endures. The news and other worldly outlets are hard pressed to find stories of them. Look hard enough, and you will.
Sultan chickens are quite similar to sultan humans: a challenge to find. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is their role: they are almost completely owned as show chickens. Many chicken breeds are layers, good as broilers, or even dual-purpose, which is a blend of both uses. Any certified breed can also be a show chicken, strutting its stuff of the catwalk (roostwalk?), but Sultan are pretty much limited to the latter.
These incredible birds look as if they have been bred specifically for the show ring. Their heads are completely covered in feathers in such a way that they poof; it’s like a permanent pompadour rising up over their eyes and sometimes foofing up into a ball or collapsing down their faces, like a part in a willow tree. The special feathering culminates in a wonderful spread of tail feathers and down their legs.
Due to being a smaller breed, Sultan Chickens aren’t ideal for meat and are poor layers, offering a bounty of between 50 and 70 eggs per year. Besides their splendid appearances, one of their main strengths is their friendly and affable personalities. If you’re looking for a lovely bird to add to your family, look no further than a Sultan Chicken!
To aid in your quest for one, we’ve compiled a list of 9** hatcheries that offer Sultan Chickens for you.
** And a bonus of sorts.
1. Murray McMurray Hatchery
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $6.26
Murray McMurray started his chicken business in 1917. As a banker, he sold his chicks to locals through the bank and by 1919, he had developed his own stock of chickens. During the Great Depression, he devoted himself to chickens full time. Since then, Murray McMurray Hatchery has developed into one of the largest chick hatcheries in the country. They sell more than just chickens, with ducks, geese, guineas, turkeys, other fowl and game birds all in the catalogue.
Advantages:
Males are extremely inexpensive.
Bulk discounts available.
Excellent breed availability.
Disadvantages:
Minimum order of six birds at a time.
2.California Hatchery
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $6.99
Nestled in the hills outside of Los Angeles, California Hatchery is making a name for themselves as an online resource for chickens, ducks, and goslings. They are proud to offer day-old ducklings nearly every day of the year! This is great for their backyard duck enthusiasts. While availability of their chickens isn’t quite as high as their ducks, they do ensure that their chicks can be shipped anywhere in the USA, which is certainly a plus for chicken enthusiasts!
Advantages
Low minimum shipping numbers which can be mixed and matched.
Safe arrival guarantee for replacement or reimbursement.
Reasonable shipping costs.
Disadvantages
Optional Marek’s vaccination is quite expensive.
Service fee on any cancellations shorter than a fortnight.
3. Meyer Hatchery
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $4.35
Meyer Hatchery is based in Polk, Ohio, and boasts itself as the “premier Poultry Source.” Priding itself on customer service and availability, Meyer Hatchery provides a variety of chicken breeds to meet customer demands for color and diversity. They welcome mixing and matching of breeds of the same poultry type to meet minimum order requirement for safe shipping. To help with orders, they have a calendar of hatchings.
Meyer has a variety of means of communication, including multiple phone numbers, fax, and email. They also run a blog that covers everything from breeds to plant pairing with chickens, feed, cooking recipes, fowl entertainment, and survival tips.
Advantages
Significant discounts if buying male chickens.
Accepts checks and credit cards.
Guarantees gender of chicks either through refund or store credit.
Optional vaccination.
Member of the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP), and provide NPIP VS Form 9-3 free of charge.
Offer orders of over 100 chicks.
Disadvantages
Limited store hours that change with the season.
4. Cackle Hatchery
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $3.50
Cackle Hatchery proudly boasts that they have been hatching and shipping since 1936. A third-generation hatchery based in Missouri, their mission is to provide customers with quality poultry for showing, meat, enjoyment, and eggs. They ship throughout the USA, including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. They offer nearly 200 different types of chickens at all stages.
Cackle also offers many other kinds of poultry including ducks, water fowl, game birds, turkeys, and other fowl. They are also a good source for supplies and book.
Advantages
Discounts if you buy male chicks.
Vaccinations available.
Only need 3 birds to ship (or just one for male birds).
Disadvantages
Limited availability.
Sold as baby chicks only.
5. Stromberg’s
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $4.85
Stromberg’s Chicks and Game Birds Unlimited has quite the name! It is appropriate, because they have a selection of birds to match the ambition of their name, with over 200 breeds available to their customers. This impressive family business got its start when Ernest and Josephine Stromberg brought 100 White Leghorn chicks to supplement the family income. Whatever they did must have worked wonders, because 99 years later (as of 2020), they are still going strong! In addition to livestock, Stromberg’s Publishing Company offers a number of books on poultry, poultry-related subjects, and myriad educational bulletins, all of which help make Stromberg’s an excellent source of all your fowl needs.
The first farm was located in Doge, Iowa, but have since moved their headquarters to Hackensack, Minnesota. Including Hackensack, they ship from all locations: Woodland, CA; Wilkes-Barre, PA; Marshall, TX; Winter Haven, FL, and Clarkson, KY.
Advantages
13% discount offered on orders of 30 or more!
Free shipping on orders of $100 or more.
Chicks are shipped immediately upon hatching.
Disadvantages
Minimum orders of 5 chicks.
Alaska residents suffer additional shipping costs and no live bird guarantee on orders shipped there.
6. My Pet Chicken
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $4.35
My Pet Chicken got started in 2005 by Traci Torres and her husband, Derek Sasaki, two novices to the chicken world who had a dream to help other novices in their farmers’ goals. To do this, the put free how-to information on the web and offered some unique products and services.
The website launched in 2005 and in 2006, their flock had grown to the point to where they started offering chicks for sale from their headquarters in Monroe, CT. The site has been mentioned in another of publications, and serves tens of millions of page views per year.
Advantages
Offers Marek’s vaccinations on all standard chicks at the click of a button.
Consistent hours of operation.
A good source for questions about ordering chickens, chicken care, and about raising chickens.
Full refund for any bird that has been incorrectly sexed.
Disadvantages
Limited availability.
Does not have a storefront.
7. The Chick Hatchery
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price:$4.10
The Chick hatchery is Michigan’s “premier source for superior quality poultry.” With a creed that revolves around the sharing and joy of raising chickens, they operate in no-kill facilities. They raise their chickens humanely, with any unsold chicks going to Amish farms. Much of the experience of raising chickens is the awareness of the individual chicken and the relationship between food and our own health.
Advantages
Ships a minimum of 3 of each sex.
All poultry guaranteed live delivery.
Offers discounts on orders of larger quantities of birds.
Disadvantages
Limited availability – February to September.
Does not ship to Hawaii or outside the USA.
8. Ideal Poultry
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $3.48
From Texas to your home, Ideal Poultry has been providing chicken owners with stock since 1937! At Ideal, their excellent customer service agents seek to provide their clients with everything they might want, from exceptional birds, to smooth and safe shipping, to even supplying answers to any and all question that might be raised about their fantastic fowls! They ship 5 million chicks annually! And that doesn’t even include the variety of non-chicken birds available.
Advantages
Can ship orders exceeding 100 chicks!
Easy-access breed availability calendars on the web pages for each breed.
Disadvantages
Expensive optional Marek’s Vaccinations.
No direct access to shipping information on their website.
9. Chickens for Backyards
Average Straight-Run Sultan Chicken Price: $4.25
Chickens for Backyards is an online poultry store that ships orders from Phillipsburg, MO. It sells over 100 breeds of day-old chicks, ducks, geese, turkeys, and guineas with orders as low as three fowl. They have a mix and match option for all breeds, which can be shipped all in the same order.
Advantages
Orders can be cancelled up to 24 hours before shipping.
Free shipping on supplies.
Comprehensive FAQ that covers a range of questions from care, feed, shipping, sexing, local laws relating to chicken farming, and terms.
Disadvantages
Offer a 90% sexing guarantee, and will refund 90% of the purchase price once the 90% guarantee is surpassed.
10. Welp Hatchery
** Please note that while Welp doesoffer Sultan Chickens, they are only sold in assorted runs along with a number of other Chicken breeds. ***
Average Straight-Run Feather Legged Assorted Bantam Chicken Price: $3.02
Average Straight-Run Crested and Polish Assorted Bantam Chicken Price: $3.43
Located in Bancroft, IA, Welp Hatchery was founded way back in 1929 by Joseph H. Welp. While their specialty is Cornish Rock Broilers, they have diversified to include a wide range of chicken breeds. To simplify their orders, they have a catalogue available for viewing or downloading. From their shipping points in Iowa, New Mexico, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, this hatchery truly has a wide reach.
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
In this episode of What The Cluck?! we look at my favorite herbs for chickens to eat, as well as how to actually incorporate these herbs into your daily life with your flock.
So, first let’s talk about the whys, meaning why bother being concerned about the best herbs for chickens to eat, as well as using herbs in the first place, and there’s some good reasons, as well as scientific reasons, why herbs are a good idea.
When it comes to chickens and their eggs, withdrawal times is a big deal, more so than with dogs and cats, for example.
And this is for obvious reasons, we eat eggs and we eat chicken, and many modern medicines will come out in their eggs and meat, we know this for a fact, so unless you want a mouthful of antibiotics, which I don’t think any doctor out there would recommend unless you’re sick, then withdrawal times play a really important role when making decisions for your flock.
Herbs, on the other hand, don’t have withdrawal times, so the advantage in certain situations is pretty clear.
As an aside, if you end up raising goats for their milk, for example, you can avoid wasting milk if you’re able to treat them with herbal remedies since medicines can come out in their milk.
But getting back to chickens, you can also use herbs to promote better laying and to get your hens to lay in their nests, if they don’t already do that. I do get questions frequently from readers and listeners whose hens won’t lay in nests, and there herbs I do recommend for that.
So, lets get into the best herbs for chickens to eat and how to use them!
So we’re going to start off with my favorite herb to use in my coop, and that’s oregano. Oregano is one of the best herbs for chickens to eat and there’s a couple reasons for that.
Oregano is well-known for its antibacterial properties, and it’s becoming the darling of the egg industry because studies are showing that it’s more potent than antibiotics for keeping chickens healthy.
And these are large farms with hundreds of thousands of chickens, so disease tends to run rampant at those places just because of living conditions and overpopulation.
But these farms in New York State found that when they fed oregano, that their death rates and illness rates declined quite extensively.
And I’ll put a link in the show notes where you can read an article from the New York Times about it.
So, the way I like to offer oregano is dried or fresh in bunches, and the nice thing about this is that the chickens can peck at it, and it keeps them busy and not forming negative behaviors in addition to keeping them healthy.
Another great thing to do with oregano is to use it in their nesting boxes, and you can do this by just putting fresh leaves into the boxes themselves.
The hens will love the scent and it will help deter pathogens. Another nice thing is it will help keep the eggs clean because your hens will have a clean place to nest, and the scent will give them a boost and stimulate egg laying.
At the end of the day, happy hens lay better and if they have healthy food in their systems, like oregano, their eggs will be healthier, so offering them a nesting box with oregano leaves will help them lay better eggs.
So, like I said, oregano is really one of the best herbs for chickens to eat.
So, lavender is well known to be a way to calm people and animals, and that means chickens too.
I like to use lavender in nesting boxes to help create a peaceful environment for chickens to lay in.
While it doesn’t outright promote laying, meaning you can’t feed a hen lavender and out pops an egg, you can create an environment that promotes calmness that will help your hen feel secure enough to lay.
Laying eggs is one of the most vulnerable times for a hen because she needs to stay still, and since hens are a prey animal, in the wild, not moving could mean death.
So, a hen that’s stressed or worried is not likely to lay, or at the minimum, she won’t lay a good, healthy egg.
So offering an environment that lets her feel safe is a great way to encourage her to lay, and if she feels secure, she’ll lay better eggs, assuming you’re also feeding her an adequate diet.
You can incorporate it into their feed as well, either fresh or dry, and like I said, it is one of the best herbs for chickens to eat because it does have antibacterial properties, so your hens will derive some benefit from it that way too.
You can also add lavender to cleaners to give them a calming scent your hens will appreciate.
Now when it comes to using herbs in your chicken’s nesting boxes, be sure to change them frequently so they don’t mold or breed other pathogens, especially if you use fresh herbs. Switching them out every other day or so will work well.
The other thing about lavender is it repels insects, and I’ve found it useful against flies, so including it in your nesting box will help repel flies, which of course, spread disease.
Mint
Mint is extraordinarily useful for many things when it comes to your chickens and I always keep a ton of it around the homestead. I like to use peppermint for a lot of things, and so that’s what I mostly grow, and it’s one of best herbs for chickens to eat.
Mint is great to put in nesting boxes along with lavender to stimulate laying, and it will create a fresh, good smelling environment for your chickens.
But what I really like using mint for is as a repellent. On our farm, because we have so many animals, we have a lot of flies, and I can tell you that mint is great for repelling flies.
You can read the exact recipe to make it on the blog, but to recap, you boil the herbs, I like to use both mint and lavender since both repel flies, and allow them to steep in the boiling water, just as if you were making a tea.
You then mix it with witch hazel to formulate your fly repellent.
The witch hazel does have a bit of a scent, but because water is absorbed really quickly into things while witch hazel isn’t, it works better for ensuring the lavender and mint stick around longer.
Once you make the repellent, you’ll have herbs left over, and you can feed them to your chickens for an additional immune booster.
Calendula
So next on our list of the best herbs for chickens to eat is calendula, and there’s a good reason for that.
Calendula have long been known to repel insects in gardens, and they’re considered to be one of the best companion plants out there.
So, using them in your chicken coop, in nesting boxes, for example, will help repel bugs and keep them out of your nesting boxes.
Calendula is also edible for both people and chickens, and they’re said to make your chicken’s egg yolks more orange, so if you want, you can offer the petals to your chickens in their feed.
Grow herbs in herb boxes
Now, if you want to do something fun and entertaining, you can grow the best herbs for chickens to eat in a grow box, which is a raised bed, 4 to 6 inches high is a good height, that also has a top made of hardware cloth.
So, as the herbs grow, they reach the top of the hardware cloth.
Chickens can peck the herbs above the hardware cloth or a little below it, but they can’t get to the roots of the herbs, so once the tops of the plant is gone, it has the ability to grow back.
It’s a great way to offer herbs to your chickens in a way that’s also interesting to them.
You can either grow the herbs straight in the ground or make the grow box like a container garden for them.
Now, if you’re interested in giving your hens herbs and want a handy reference sheet, you can grab my free tip sheet on the blog at TheFrugalChicken.com/chickenherbs.
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
