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Chicken Breed Abbreviations

A BBROEGB Chicken

Chicken keepers often use abbreviations and assume their listeners know what they mean. Here are some of the more common chicken breed abbreviations, along with abbreviations for variety features and those used for show that may be puzzling when you see them in poultry publications, forums, and websites. Note that abbreviations may be combined to […]

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How to Mix Different Chicken Breeds in One Flock

a mixed flock of chickens outside

Like a lot of chicken keepers, you might want to include a variety of breeds in your backyard flock. Maybe you look forward to gathering baskets full of colorful eggs. Or, rather than all one breed of the same color and type, you prefer a more interesting variety of colors, sizes, and personalities. Or maybe […]

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How to Store Eggs in Lime Water

eggs in wire basket

To store fresh eggs for the long term without refrigeration, an alternative to the traditional method of submerging them in water glass (sodium silicate) is to use lime water (calcium hydroxide). Both are highly alkaline saturated solutions, with a pH of about 12.4. Both seal eggshell pores to prevent evaporation from within the egg, as […]

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What is NPIP? National Poultry Improvement Plan

Cackle Hatchery® and Cackle’s Chicken Breeder Farms are members of the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP). But exactly what is NPIP? What is NPIP? The National Poultry Improvement Plan is a nationwide collaboration between state and federal departments of agriculture. Its purpose is to monitor member flocks and hatcheries and certify them as being free […]

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5 Chicken Breeds that Have 5 Toes

Salmon Faverolle Chicken

Most chickens have four toes on each foot. Of the chicken breeds found in the United States, five breeds typically have five toes on each foot. The condition is technically known as polydactylism — from the Greek words poly meaning many, and daktylos meaning a finger or toe. The trait of having five toes represents […]

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Chickens Disclosed How Our Immune System Works

Baby Chick

Until the 1960s, no one was able to determine the function of a chicken’s cloacal bursa. That year, in an attempt to find out, Ohio State University graduate student Bruce Glick performed bursectomies on some chickens. But it didn’t seem to make any perceivable difference. Unintended Consequences Then a fellow graduate student, Timothy Chang, borrowed […]

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Catalog Request

To order your Free Breed Guide Catalog, please fill out the form at the bottom of this page and click submit (once). The catalog you will receive is our 2024-25 catalog. New catalogs mailing soon. 2024 – 2025 Color Guide Catalog does not have pricing or mail-in order forms enclosed. You will need to reference […]

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CACKLE HATCHERY COLOR CHICKEN CATALOG

2020-2021 Cackle Hatchery Color Catalog Free Breed Guide – This Color catalog displays breeds but does not have any pricing. You will need to reference cacklehatchery.com to access current pricing. Limited supply while they last. We do not guarantee you will receive a catalog. Our catalog printing and shipping is mailed by bulk rates offsite. […]

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Poultry Breed Finder Index Page

STANDARD CHICKEN BREEDS Austra White Barnevelder Barred Cochin Barred Plymouth Rock Bielefelder Black Ameraucana Black Australorps Black Breasted Red Aseel Black Breasted Red Phoenix Black Cochin Black Jersey Giants Black Laced Gold Wyandotte Black Laced Red Wyandotte Black Laced Silver Wyandotte Black Sex Link Black Sumatra Blue Ameraucana Blue Cochin Blue Laced Red Wyandotte Blue […]

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