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By Jennifer Murtoff, November 16, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.    Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information Jennifer and her services.

To check out the full article from last winter and more winterizing tips, please click HERE.

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, September 26, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

So, you want eggs. You have hens. Do you need a rooster to have eggs? The answer is no.

In fact, the animal control and bird rescue folks would prefer you didn’t keep roosters.

Why? Well, we’ve been seeing a lot of homeless roosters lately, and they are very hard to place. Most people who find roosters want them to go to no-kill homes, and honestly, it’s hard to fit that bill…For the complete post, click HERE.

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, August 3, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

As the temperatures and humidity soar, you’ll want to help your hens keep cool. A few tips for helping your hens beat the heat!

As the temperatures hit the mid-80s, your birds will probably start panting. If temperatures hit above 100, your birds may suffer heatstroke. Here are some tips, excerpted from my class on chickens and heat, to prevent that.  Click HERE for the tips!

By: Jennifer Murtfoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, July 27, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

Blogger Joshua Jay Elliot logged the growth of his chicks over the course of two months. There’s a lot of fun commentary and great photography. Check out his blog here.

This is a very informative and artsy photographic  documentation of chick to pullet! Enjoy!

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, July 12, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

Here is a great site post for those of you who faithfully watch chicken poop for signs of disease!

It features pix of poops ranging from normal to parasite laden! Yeah, it’s kind of gross, but poop is really important for knowing what is going on inside of a bird!

Chicken Poop Page!

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, May 4, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

So you just got those cute, fuzzy little chicks! You’ll also note that those tiny little feet get poop all over them! So you may not want to handle your chicks.

It’s very important to handle chicks from the time they are little. You should pick them up,  touch their wings, examine their beak and vent, and hold them in different positions. The reason is very practical–if your chicken needs to be caught or handled as an adult, it will already be habituated to human touch.

Remember, chickens are a prey species, so they are skittish by nature. Careful nurture can change that.

Sometimes an  injured or scared bird needs to be recaptured. Adding fear of human touch to that equation will create one freaked-out bird, and she may make things worse or injure herself by trying to escape from you!

It is also important that a bird be handled as a chick because she will respond better to human contact if you have to treat or medicate.

Click HERE for the full article.

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, April 6, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

The following are common questions about raising chickens:

• “So how much money will having my own chickens save me?”
• “Will having my own hens benefit me financially?”
• “Is having chickens a cost-effective strategy?”

The answer varies widely, and Joshua Levin, who has chickens in New York City, does a good job examining the economics in his article “Backyard Chicken Economics: Are They Actually Cost Effective?”

Here is a brief summary:

Set-Up Costs: $121 (chicken wire, waterer, feeder, grit, hens)

Per-Month Variable Costs: $31.50 (organic feed) or $13.50 (non-organic feed)

Value Produced per Month: $27.66 (40 eggs = $20, fertilizer = $7.66)

In Levin’s estimation, the cost of feed determines whether or not your operation is profitable. If you use non-organic feed, you will break even in 6 months; organic feed, 14 months.

Click HERE for full article.

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, March 24, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

Join Home to Roost at the Animal Care League in Oak Park for a class on basic chicken keeping.We’ll meet some chickens and talk about how to keep them healthy. This class will help you get started with chickens and provide resources for caring for them.

Register today for the Chicken Keeping Class, April 10, 2011, 3 PM to 5 PM at the Animal Care League, 1013 S. Garfield, Oak Park.

Cost: $20 per person. 20% of proceeds goes to to the Animal Care League.

Space is limited, so register by giving us a call at 708-524-5038.

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, March 4, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

Free range. Organic. Cage Free. Omega-3. Farm Fresh. All Natural.

The labels on egg cartons are sometimes not all they’re cracked up to be. What do all these terms mean? If you don’t have your own chickens, how can you know you’re getting eggs from humanely treated hens?

A label you won’t see is battery. About 98% of the eggs produced in North America are from battery hens, who “live” in horrific conditions: allotted a space no bigger than their bodies in tight quarters with other hens, they are force-molted through starvation to keep up egg production. Their beaks are trimmed with a hot wire to prevent pecking. The birds are handled with no concern for their lives or safety, and their bones are broken in handling. Many live their lives not even able to flap their wings.  They die from starvation if they get stuck in their cages, and often dead hens are not discovered and remain in the cage until after they have decomposed.  To learn more about the conditions in battery-cage facilities, click here or here.

So, what’s a better option, and what do all those labels on the more expensive eggs mean anyway?

Here’s the skinny on all the labels. Truthfully, many don’t hold a lot of meaning in term of animal welfare so investigate before you buy.

Find a pdf summary of this information in table format here: Egg Carton Labels and for the full article and list, click HERE.

By: Jennifer Murtoff

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By Jennifer Murtoff, February 19, 2011

Jennifer Murtoff provides compassionate, homespun consulting and emergency care for backyard chickens in the Chicagoland area.   Please visit her site, Home to Roost, for more information about Jennifer and her services.

It’s that time again!

Come join Angelic Organics and Home to Roost for a class on raising chickens!

March 12, 2011 10:00am – 1:00pm

Farm fresh eggs from your own back yard?

YES!

Please join us for a workshop on best practices for Basic Backyard Chicken Care in Chicago and surrounding communities.

Raising chickens as pets and for eggs is LEGAL in Chicago – and part of our growing local food and urban agriculture scene.

Keep yourself, your chickens, AND your neighbors happy – from daily needs and year-round care to relevant city regulations.

Our instructor is the informative and engaging Jen Murtoff of Home to Roost Urban Chicken Consulting.

You will leave the workshop with the knowledge, recommendations, and resources you need for your own home flock – and you’ll make connections with other chicken enthusiasts in Chicago.

For more info, visit our Chicago Chicken Enthusiasts Google site, moderated by Learning Center staff.

For more information about the Learning Center’s registration & refund policies – click here. If the workshop fee presents a barrier to your participation, please inquire about limited work-exchange scholarships. For Chicago workshops, contact chicago@learngrowconnect.org.

Actual costs of workshops are close to double our workshop fees. If you are able, please consider making an additional donation to help cover the full cost of your workshop.

Angelic Organics Learning Center
6400 S Kimbark Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637 US
First Presbyterian Church of Chicago

Go to the Angelic Organics site page to register.