I’ve been throwing confetti around the coop, right along with the Hipster Hens, the Graham Quackers and, well, everybody! We’re celebrating the sixth anniversary of Randy’s Chicken Blog! The yearly anniversary milestone is always a cause for celebration. It’s also a good time to look back at origins. So, for hoots, here are the basic facts about Randy’s Chicken Blog.

I was born on a Minnesota farm back in the early 1950’s. That takes care of the “Randy” part. Somebody domesticated chickens around 8000 years ago in southern Asia. And that takes care of the “chicken” part. Justin Hall, a Swarthmore student, started an on-line diary in 1994—a “web log.” Peter Merholz, in 1999, coined the contraction “blog.” And there you have it. In 2016, those three components were tossed into a paper bag, shaken around, and dumped out. And Randy’s Chicken Blog became a thing.

I first delved into blogging with a travel blog. I’ve always taken a few notes when I travel. And when I return home, I’ve always spent some time expanding on the notes. It's good to have something to refer to if I want to remember certain details of the trip. Then Justin Hall invented blogs. And one day it occurred to me that stuff I was already writing could go onto a blog. That day was in 2006. Hence, “Randy’s Travel Blog” was born. While I haven’t added anything to the travel blog since 2015, it’s still out there. Surprisingly, I continue to get a trickle of traffic to those old posts.

Then, in the spring of 2013 I picked up a few handfuls of baby chicks. Talk about milestones! Having grown up on a farm, I thought I knew about chickens. But being in the same vicinity of a couple hundred identical white Leghorns is one thing. Actually caring for and paying attention to twenty unique chickens that all had names was a whole different ball of feathers. I was smitten. You can be sure that there were lots of pictures and lots of lengthy posts about those birds on my personal Facebook page. And I noticed that my chicken posts got a lot of attention. Even from people who didn’t have chickens and didn’t know anything about them.

By 2016 the Facebook posts segued into a blog. The travel blog fell by the wayside and the new blog about chickens took form. My travel blog had been “Randy’s Travel Blog.” So, it seemed natural and logical that I would name the new blog “Randy’s Chicken Blog.” So much for originality and clever titles.

And here we are. Currently, there are about 7000 of you taking a look at my blog posts every month. Some of you are intrepid fans and supporters who subscribe to my newsletter or follow my Facebook/Instagram posts. But the bulk of my traffic still comes from people searching specific topics on the internet. What are people searching for? As has become my custom on each anniversary, here’s the list of my five most popular posts over the last six years.

Five Top Posts – 2016-2022

Fifth: Six Silkie Chicks Grow Up (2018)

One happy May morning, I took a short drive to a nearby Silkie breeder and adopted six baby chicks. By October, those babies were gone. In their place were six fine young cockerels and pullets. This post, replete with requisite cute baby chick pics and movie clips, is about what happened in between.

Fourth: Why is Marissa’s Belly So Bloated? Recognizing and Dealing with Ascites in Hens (2019)

If you are ever worried that one of your hens is suffering from ascites, you need to read about Marissa. Marissa’s belly looked like an over-inflated basketball. It was up to me to determine that she had ascites, verify the underlying cause, and treat her. This post has seen a lot of traffic. People want to know more about this condition and this post has helped them. The good news; the amazing news is that Marissa is down in the coop right now, hanging out with her friends, three years after I wrote this post. She’s had yearly flare-ups every spring. The flare-ups result in a trip to the vet, and a round of treatment. Then she seems to be good to go for another year!

Third: What’s Killing Our Backyard Chickens? The Top Six Causes of Death in the Backyard Coop (2020)

Why do chickens die? The answer is both easy and macabre: To become chicken dinner. And that was the only answer until the advent of the backyard chicken movement. In the past, veterinary science was more interested in flocks than individual birds. If an infectious disease had the potential to wipe out an entire flock, that was significant and was investigated. If one bird was doing poorly, that bird was simply culled. Nobody spent any time thinking about the cause of death of individual birds because nobody cared.

You and I care, of course! Backyard chickens have become our companions and pets. If Henrietta is under the weather, we want to know why! At last, you can find out meaningful information about the cause of death of chickens that live out their natural lives in backyard flocks.

Second: Marek’s Disease: 8 Questions - 8 Answers (2020)

In 2018 I wrote a long, technical piece about Marek’s Disease. It proved to be a very popular article. But I would look at it from time to time and come away thinking of things I would like to add or say a bit differently. So, I eventually rolled up my sleeves and got to work making those changes. It turned into a complete rewrite. This 2020 article was even longer and even more technical. It included a section that I urged readers to skip if they found it to be too technical and intimidating. And yet the article gets a ton of pageviews every day! Why? Because, sadly, a lot of flock-keepers are searching for information on this deadly and all-too-prevalent disease. The article includes a section on vaccinating chicks at home. Chickens need vaccine protection from this ubiquitous disease. And if you wind up with some unvaccinated chicks, you can vaccinate them yourself!

First: Are Chickens Dinosaurs? (2018)

So, are chickens dinosaurs? The answer is here. I’m amazed at the popularity of this post. It continues to hold the top Google ranking for this query. If you google “Are Chickens Dinosaurs,” this is the first thing that pops up!

Coming Up Next

As I head towards the seventh anniversary, here are a few of the things in the works:

**Are Chickens the Closest Living Relative to T. rex? Ummm….Not Really**

We all now know the answer to “Are chickens dinosaurs?” But the very misleading idea that chickens are the closest living relative to T. rex continues to be bandied about. In an upcoming article, I’ll explore how this misinformation got started. The article will include an interview with a very cool scientist.

Black Soldier Fly Grubs – an Update on the Unassuming Bug that Can Feed Your Flock and Save the World

In early 2020 I wrote some facts about black soldier fly grubs. Fact: they are an amazing source of protein. Fact: they can be grown on organic waste. Fact: Two promising start-ups piloted by twenty-somethings are now marketing black soldier fly grubs for chickens. In just two years a whole new set of facts have developed around this novel food source. So, it’s time for an update. In a new article I’ll talk about how black soldier fly protein is being incorporated into dogfood and how dogs are crazy for it. And I’ll have a conversation with the nice folks at Grubbly Farms.

The Sad and Unfortunate Lives of Commercial Chickens

Most backyard chickens live the good life. Most commercial chickens living in commercial production operations have a terrible, tortured existence. I’ve written about these sad chickens before. If we care about the hens in our backyard coops, we have to care about their sisters trapped in battery cages.

Are there any regulations in place to govern the way chickens are treated? Is anybody doing anything to make the treatment of factory farmed chickens more humane? In an upcoming interview with the folks at The Humane League, we’ll find out what we can do, and what’s already been done to end chicken suffering.