Dummies.com: Home & Garden

Farming Other Animals with Free-Range Chickens

If you love your chickens and have enjoyed free-ranging them on your property, it’s only natural to think of having other farm animals. What joy to have fresh milk, fresh goat cheese, or farm-raised lamb [more…]

10 Ways Compost Benefits Your Soil and Garden

Your compost is a custom mixture, an interesting byproduct of your life. All the ingredients thoroughly combined become organic, rich humus with incredible benefits to your soil, garden, plants, trees, [more…]

A Seasonal Guide to Your Free-Range Chicken Garden

Your chicken garden should change with each season. Even if you live in a mild climate you still experience subtle season changes and have seasonal chores. You'll want to know how your garden will change [more…]

Growing Edibles in a Chicken Garden: Layer by Layer

Each layer of your chicken garden offers a chance to grow beautiful edibles. Take advantage of the different heights of plants to provide a stunning layered landscape and a multitude of good eats for your [more…]

Keep Your Chickens Safe from Predators

Where there are chickens, there are predators. Be aware of potential predators where you live and be proactive so your chickens aren't attacked. The following table offers ways to keep your chickens safe [more…]

Handy Herbs to Benefit Your Chicken Garden

Looking for some plants to grow in your chicken garden that have beneficial qualities for your chickens? Look no further. Check out the following herbs that pull double-duty: They are lovely to look at [more…]

Checklist of Poisonous Plants to Chickens

Toxicity is a natural defense for a plant, and some common garden plants are potentially poisonous to chickens. Unlike other types of livestock, free-ranging chickens have a keen sense of what is good [more…]

Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Chickens are gaining popularity quickly. Not only are chickens fun and educational, they are beneficial to you and your garden. When you free-range your flock, you gain helpful gardeners who aerate soil [more…]

11 Tips for Keeping Healthy, Stress-Free Chickens

In addition to basic needs like food and rest, chickens need as little stress as possible to be able to perform well. Stress in chickens may lead to fighting and injury, improper nutrition, and a lowered [more…]

Misconceptions about Chickens and Eggs

Here is a compilation of the most common myths and misconceptions about chickens and eggs that you may encounter as a chicken owner — or chicken-keeper wannabe. Maybe some of these bits of misinformation [more…]

Ten Tools for Urban Gardeners

Creating the perfect urban garden is one thing. The right tool makes or breaks a gardening job. Using a hoe to dig a hole for planting a tree is like eating soup with a fork. It’s just not the right tool [more…]

Ten Kid-Friendly Ways to Garden in the City

Children’s gardening has become huge all across the country. Many educators, parents, and public officials see gardening as a way to reconnect kids with nature, get them outside for some healthy exercise [more…]

Ten Tips to Manage a Sustainable Urban Garden

Sustainability involves three practices that ensure the wise use of water, materials, and other resources to make sure they last from one generation to the next and in harmony with nature. [more…]

Weekend Do-It-Yourself Projects: Repurposing 10 Ordinary Items

Springtime brings bugs. D.I.Y. bugs, to be exact. And if done right, D.I.Y. can be an affordable way to refresh your home. There's just one caveat: Doing things yourself takes time—and patience. [more…]

Ten Common Misconceptions about Chicken Health and Treatments

Here are ten of the most famous backyard flock-keeping myths. Busting these myths may burst some bubbles of wishful thinking, but hopefully, it also will ease some unnecessary worries. [more…]

Answers to Ten Common Questions about Chicken Health

Following are the most common questions that flock keepers ask about the health of their chickens. Also provided are quick, concise answers that you can take to heart or share with a fellow flock keeper [more…]

The Outside of the Chicken: Eyes, Ears, Skin, and Feathers

Being able to refer to the common names of the outside parts of the chicken is helpful when describing a problem to someone long distance and to ensuring the health of your flock. [more…]

The Respiratory System of a Chicken

The main job of the respiratory system of birds is to absorb oxygen and rid the body of carbon dioxide. In addition, the respiratory system also gets rid of excess heat, detoxifies some of the waste products [more…]

The Digestive System of a Chicken

Having a firm understanding of a chicken’s digestion system can help you figure out the reason behind a chicken’s digestive upsets. The figure shows the layout of the chicken digestive system, beginning [more…]

The Skeleton of a Chicken

Besides the obvious role of holding up the chicken, the skeletal system has at least two additional important functions: calcium storage, and believe it or not, breathing! [more…]