The Coop with Meyer Hatchery

Let’s take a Meyer Moment to talk about leaving the lights on. As daylight slowly fades away this time of year, do you leave the lights on in your coop? The question often begins with electricity in the coop building stage. Often people associate electricity with heat, but a well-insulated coop does not need to be heated. You may, however, want to consider electricity for lights.

Important Links:

• EP13: Coop Considerations
• Omlet Coop Light
• How To Ensure A Year-Round Supply Of Eggs - blog
• Why Is My Hen Not Laying? - blog
• Egg Production Tracker - Free Download!

When it comes to getting chicks, most keepers think of the Spring season. But in my opinion, any time of year is a good time for chickens! Ok, maybe not the dead of winter but as we face the beginning of fall don’t hesitate to get that brooder ready. There are plenty of reasons to raise chicks in the fall from breed selection to egg production.

In this episode you'll: 

• Discover Why Fall Is A Great Time To Raise Chicks
• Catch A Listener Review Who Knows All About Chicken Math
• Learn The Best Reasons To Add To Your Flock This Fall

Important Links:

• Shop Chickens
• All About Brooding

Let’s take a Meyer Moment to celebrate my birthday month, with some of my personal Meyer favorites. While I’d like to tell you this month is all about me, I do have something special in store for YOU! So keep listening. 

Today we’re talking about free-range breeds, as part of our Best Of Series. We dedicate one episode per month to this series, covering the very best of each month's topic. For the month of September, we’re going to dive into the best breeds for free-ranging. Whether you’re jumping on the pastured poultry bandwagon or just looking for some good breeds for your backyard, there are a few things to consider. 

In this episode you'll: 

• Discover What Free-Ranging Means
• Learn The Benefits and Risks of Free-Ranging Your Flock 
• Get Our Top Free-Ranging Breed Picks for Each Poultry Type

Important Links:

• Benefits of Free-Ranging Your Chickens
• MM19: Yellow Yolk
• EP31: Predators - A Year With Chickens
• MM42: Waterfowl Imprinting 
• LIKE The Coop on Facebook 

Let’s take a Meyer Moment to talk about raising meat birds in an urban setting. Many Meyer Hatchery customers raise their birds on a small scale, usually starting with egg layer breeds. But meat birds can also be raised on a small scale! 

Important Links:

• EP:10 Chicken Tractors
• MM: 67 Top 3 Chicken Butchering Books
• EP: 64 The Best of Meat Bird Breeds
• All About Meat Birds - blog
• Processing Supplies

From Meyer Hatchery it’s The Coop - where we talk all things poultry in hopes of inspiring crazy chicken keepers and educating future flock owners. 

I’m your host Kendra and on the show today you’ll hear how the desire to feed their family the best possible food grew into a passion for sharing that food with their community. Crossing Creeks farm out of Shelbyville Tennessee began in 2012 raising grass-fed beef and has now evolved to sell pastured pork and poultry as well as eggs!

Elizabeth, from Crossing Creeks shares about their poultry journey, how they’ve evolved from raising 50 broilers to 800 rainbow rangers in mobile coops, her advice for those just starting out, and most importantly how her farm continues to be a family operation as her two young son’s help in the day-to-day chores. 

But to really understand Crossing Creeks' experience, we’ll begin when they made the decision to simply start...

Important Links:

• Blue Ameraucana
• Black Australorp
• Golden Buff
• Non-GMO Rainbow Rangers
• Black Spanish Heritage Turkeys
• Crossing Creeks
• Crossing Creeks Retreats
• Crossing Creeks on Instagram

Let’s take a Meyer Moment to talk about butchering books. There are numerous resources out there to learn about processing chickens. From the processing setup, butchering, and even the kitchen skills for cooking; today we’re reviewing 3 of our favorite books on the topic.

Important Links:

• Adam Danforth: Butchering Chickens & Butchering 
• EP11: Interview: Adam Danforth | Part 1
• EP12: Interview: Adam Danforth | Part 2
• Mobile Poultry Slaughterhouse
• The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How: Field-to-Table Cooking Skills

Hey everyone! Welcome back to The Coop with Meyer Hatchery - where we talk all things poultry in hopes of educating crazy chicken keepers and inspiring future flock owners. I’m Kendra. And I’m Jeff. And today we’re talking about game birds. 

When it comes to poultry types often raised on homesteads and farms most people stick to the tried and true domesticated chickens and ducks. For those feeling adventurous you may try geese and turkeys, and if you’re really wild, maybe even guineas. But have you considered game birds?

Game birds can be raised for eggs and meat, or even used in training for hunting dogs. Today we’re going to cover the Ringneck Pheasants and Chukar Partridges offered here at Meyer Hatchery, as well as Quail and Grouse.

The first thing you need to know about raising game birds is they are vastly different from the common poultry types you’re used to.

In this episode you'll: 

• Discover Various Game Bird Breeds
• Learn About Their Feed, Brooding, and Housing Requirements
• Get A Taste of Game Bird Flavors

Important Links:

• Ringneck Pheasants
• Pheasant Brooding 101 
• Chukar Partridge
• Chukar Partridge 101
• Anti-Pick

Let’s take a Meyer Moment to talk about chicken stock. Chicken stock has been used for centuries and is still commonly used today in all sorts of recipes. Chicken stock, also known as bone broth, is revered for its health benefits. When you had a cold or flu growing up, many of us have memories of our mom or grandma making a big pot of chicken soup. This feel-good meal is rooted in the amazing benefits of bone broth.  


Important Links: 

• Blog: Chicken Soup Recipe 

From Meyer Hatchery it’s The Coop - where we talk all things poultry in hopes of inspiring crazy chicken keepers and educating future flock owners. 

I’m your host Kendra and on the show today you’ll hear how an education in child development and love of food came together to drive Stacie Billis to become a food editor, cookbook author, and host to one of the top 20 food podcasts on Apple.

But her food journey didn’t start in the traditional sense of culinary school, after Stacie’s father urged her to receive an education she went to graduate school for child development. With her passion for food still burning, she decided if she wasn’t going to be in the kitchen cooking professionally she could at least engage with parents and families around food content. After having kids herself she realized it was time to be in the kitchen, but not as a chef, as a mom with the purpose of feeding her family.  Making a career pivot from education and research in children’s media she found her place in food media, writing cookbooks and launching the podcast Didn’t I Just Feed You, with her co-Host Meghan Splawn.

Their podcast exudes the fact that food truly is a connector, whether you’re making it, enjoying it, or talking about it. And it’s quick to see in this episode too as Stacie is truly one of the most authentic food professionals I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with. To really understand what led Stacie to create the cookbook, Winner Winner Chicken Dinner and earning her “chicken lady” title, it starts with her first cookbook… 

Important Links:

• Winner Winner Chicken Dinner - cookbook
• Didn’t I Just Feed You - podcast
• Stacie Billis - Instagram
• Make It Easy - cookbook
• CSA Finder: LocalHarvest
• Moink
• Good Meat Breakdown