Bird Selection Archives - SoCal Nestbox

Common Chicken Breeds for Backyard Owners

Joseph Gendreau2022-12-13T20:34:32-08:00

When you think about a flock of backyard poultry, what kind of chicken comes to mind? Do you dream of Delawares, plead for a Plymouth Rock or wish for a Wyandotte? Here we will describe the most popular and commonly found chicken breeds for California backyard owners so you can better identify which bird will best suit your needs. What to Look For First, let’s go over a few defining features that will help with identification. Most notably, the “plumage” (feathers) of many breeds will come in a variety of colors, making identification strictly based on color difficult. When comparing

Common Chicken Breeds for Backyard OwnersJoseph Gendreau2022-12-13T20:34:32-08:00

The Basics of Incubating Hatching Eggs

Joseph Gendreau2022-03-10T16:02:48-08:00

Due to the life changing events of the global pandemic, many people have taken up new hobbies such as baking bread or curling. One less confusing hobby many people have dabbled in is hatching chicken eggs. When I was in elementary school, we incubated and hatched our own set of chicken eggs. We would take turns watching the eggs, checking the incubators temperature and humidity, and turning the eggs. We only had the eggs for about three weeks before they all hatched, and we got to see a bundle of cute chicks running around the class. A good time was

The Basics of Incubating Hatching EggsJoseph Gendreau2022-03-10T16:02:48-08:00

Sources of Baby Chicks

Joseph Gendreau2021-11-15T22:54:25-08:00

From a disease, welfare and husbandry perspective, the best place you can source your fertilized eggs or baby chicks from is a farm or hatchery that is part of the National Poultry Improvement Program (NPIP). To be NPIP certified as a hatchery means that the birds on the farm are tested for various diseases possibly including Salmonella (it depends on which level of NPIP certification the farm/hatchery has) which can cause your eggs to be contaminated with a foodborne pathogen (aka it can get you sick). From a poultry health perspective NPIP requires testing for various other infectious diseases that

Sources of Baby ChicksJoseph Gendreau2021-11-15T22:54:25-08:00