Cluck Blog

Submitted by Susan on February 28, 2013 - 12:30pm

We are often asked about introducing new birds to an old flock and, although we’ve had success doing that (keep separately at first, provide plenty of space, make sure everyone has more than adequate
food and water), we know there’s no surefire method.

But in the past couple of weeks, we have tried something a little more complicated. We’ve allowed two different flocks to mingle together during the day and then retreat to their separate roosts at night.

The amazing thing is that each flock sorts itself out at the end of the day and goes back, without fail, to the proper roost. That’s even more surprising to us because some of these birds used to be part of
the other flock and were only separated a few months ago.

Submitted by Susan on February 23, 2013 - 4:16pm

egg chart.png
We have had a whole flock of people in CLUCK the Chicken Store lately asking which chicks to order for spring and where to get them. For the record, we aren’t taking orders for chicks because we don’t have a good local supplier. CLUCK is still pretty new and that’s one of the relationships we’re still working on.

However, we recently came across this nifty chart from backyardchickens.com that shows what color egg you might expect from different breeds and gives a really brief overview of 48 of the most popular breeds. That’s a good place to start. We also have an assortment of books at the store so you can dig as deep as you like into the characteristics of whatever breeds you’re thinking of getting.

Submitted by Susan on February 19, 2013 - 11:41am

photo by Tamara Staples

If you’re looking for some chicken-inspiration in this bleak and ice-bound February, you couldn’t do better than the gorgeous photos by Tamara Staples that were profiled in a Slate story this week.

Submitted by Susan on February 10, 2013 - 4:08pm

chicken coops buried in wet snow

It doesn’t look like spring. A cold rain has been falling and the coop garden at CLUCK the Chicken Store is piled high with snow. But we know spring must be coming soon because this is the weekend of the Wisconsin Garden Expo.

Submitted by Susan on February 7, 2013 - 1:53pm

From JSOnline
By Jon Olson

Feb. 6, 2013 | By the time the chicken ordinance was approved, almost every member of the Common Council had spoken on the issue, and a number had made their feelings known two or three times.

Submitted by Susan on February 3, 2013 - 4:28pm

The Wall Street Journal, which writes about $100,000 sports cars (for driving on sunny days only) and $10,000,000 yachts (for use a couple of weeks per year) with nary a blink, has now rather archly
“discovered” chickens, but can’t take them quite seriously.

“What would possess a person to buy a $1,200 chicken coop?” a story in the WSJ’s Jan. 29 issue asks, incredulously. You can read the WSJ story here. Or, better, you can read our honest, Midwestern response to the WSJ in a blog post by 77 Square editor Katie Dean, Backyard chickens' star continues to rise.

Submitted by Susan on January 30, 2013 - 9:09pm

CLUCK has been nominated for Best of Madison

We always look forward to seeing the Best of Madison listings every year in Madison Magazine, if only to make sure we haven't missed a hot new restaurant or cool new bar. But this year we have a special reason to check the listing: CLUCK the Chicken Store is one of the "best of" nominees in the hotly contested pet store category. We did a double-take when we saw it!

Submitted by Susan on January 27, 2013 - 9:22pm

chicken coop modeled on round barn

We have seen chicken coops styled after the palace at Versailles and others that look like Hobbit houses, but the coop that arrived today in the Coop Garden at CLUCK the Chicken Store looks like no coop we have seen before, and yet like something that has always belonged in Wisconsin.

We call it the round barn coop, although it’s really octagonal. Coop builder Jeff Jicinsky modeled it on the grand old round barns you can still see around Southwestern Wisconsin.

Submitted by Susan on January 18, 2013 - 9:05pm

Our apologies to everyone who tried to call CLUCK the Chicken Store in the past few days and got voicemail. We discovered late this afternoon that TDS Telecom had somehow mixed up our main phone line, our FAX line and the neighbor's phone line. Their mistake, so sorry. Our IT guys - Answer IT from Belleville, who we highly recommend - figured out the problem today after we realized we were missing calls and didn't know why. So, if you called and never got an answer, we sincerely apologize. We still want to talk to you.

Submitted by Susan on January 14, 2013 - 8:19pm

Big crowd for Chickens 101 seminar at CLUCK

Who knew there were so many chicken people!? CLUCK the Chicken Store was bursting at the seams Sunday for our first free seminar of the year – Chickens 101, or, getting started with chickens. Featured experts included Ron Kean, UW-Extension poultry specialist, and Twain Lockhart, Nutrena Feeds poultry consultant. Twain’s wife, Heather, who has years of experience raising literally thousands of birds of all types, was also a welcome guest, as were Erica Solis and her husband, Joel Helge, from Emancipation Acres in Stoughton, who provided some very helpful information.

We want to thank all of them for taking the time to participate in a very lively discussion that went on long after the formal part of the presentation was done. It’s a testament to the high level of interest people have in chickens that the crowd of 65-70 people listened patiently through more than 90 minutes of chicken talk.

Pages

Subscribe to Cluck Blog