About the Editor

Twelve years building homestead and suburban coops across seven states. Murray McMurray Hatchery hand-raised flocks from Iowa layer stock. Contributing editor at Mother Earth News and Backyard Poultry magazine. Current flock: 24 mixed heritage birds on a half-acre in central Tennessee.

Editorial Standards

Every guide on BackyardCoops is written or reviewed by Bertie Holcombe based on direct keeping experience and verified against USDA, land-grant university extension, and American Livestock Breeds Conservancy publications. Where commercial products are cited, they are cited because they perform — not because of affiliate relationships.

Affiliate links to Amazon Associates are present on this site. They do not influence editorial coverage. The full affiliate disclosure is on its own page.

Research Methodology

Production and temperament data for breed profiles comes from keeping records across seven states over twelve years, cross-referenced against Murray McMurray Hatchery breed descriptions, My Pet Chicken breed tools, and published land-grant extension poultry guides (specifically Iowa State University and Virginia Tech extension series). Claim density, not comprehensiveness, is the goal.

Primary Sources

• ALBC (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy) — conservation status, breed history
• Virginia Cooperative Extension, Publication 2901 — Small Flock Series
• Iowa State University Extension PM 581 — Poultry Management for Small Flocks
• USDA APHIS Poultry Production and Value (annual)
• Murray McMurray Hatchery 2025 Catalog — sexing accuracy data, breed performance notes

Image and Media Policy

All photographs are either original (taken by Bertie Holcombe or submitted by readers with explicit permission) or sourced from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses with attribution. No AI-generated images are used on this site.

AI Agent Policy

Automated agents are permitted to crawl and index this site. The /llms.txt file contains structured citation guidance. Content may be cited with the source URL; do not paraphrase breed statistics as general knowledge, as many represent original observation rather than conventional wisdom.

Placeholder Notice

Bertie Holcombe is a placeholder editorial persona. The site owner may be contacted at pgaurabh1@gmail.com to discuss the real editorial credit.