>>1313365If one is losing feathers on its back, because it is the rooster's favorite, you can make a saddle for it (pic).
If you get chicks to raise or hatch your own, put down a sacrificial towel, in their box, to ensure their feet have proper traction and don't end up deformed.
Use tree limbs of slightly varying thickness and shape as roosts to help prevent foot problems later in life.
Only have 1 rooster per 10-12 hens.
If the chickens graze out in open areas you can either make a hawk hide shelter they can run to or put up long poles with fishing line spanning out from the top tied to other things to prevent birds of prey from attacking the chickens. Fishing line degrades in UV, until it is brittle and breaks, but it can be a quick cheap fix until you get better shelters up.
Use a padlock on your chicken coop to help stop nighttime raids from raccoons.
Keep your food station and nest boxes in completely different rooms to prevent daytime raids from raccoons/opossums/sparrows from disturbing the egg laying fowl.
Use a beaded curtain on the small coop door to the feeding station to prevent sparrows from entering and eating the chicken feed all day long.
Letting the chickens roam on a large pasture that has grass seed will save you quite a bit of feed.
Blackberry patches make great hawk hides and good feed for the chickens, but keep the rows narrow so you can look into them and spot eggs being laid out.
>>1313370Yes, it is humus and pretty good stuff.
>>1313393It is bad only if it still has too high a nitrogen content that can cause root burn and from plant pathogens from still rotting things. If the pile is 1 year or older, you can plant pumpkins and squash. If you mix it to make soil then it may start to rob the soil of nitrogen if there's still a good amount of wood matter in it. Otherwise, it'll be fine. You can tell mostly from the smell. If there's a garbage smell or off odor then wait longer and stir it up a bit. If it smells like mushrooms it is ready.
