Reminds me of a story my friends father told me. He was a fitter at Rolls Royce aero engines and said that the spitfires had an emergency boost level which, when activated, broke a wire seal. If the seal was broken the engine was immediately returned for a refit. During the war tools were scarce, so...

Another reliable indicator of them coming into lay, regardless of their age, is the size of their poos. A week before they lay the poos will increase in size dramatically, from dozens of small ones to a few big. If you clean out the coop every day and particularly if you are using newspaper under th...

They won't be moulting as such, but they do lose small feathers and grow bigger ones as they themselves grow. At the moment they should still be on rearer pellets- change to layers pellets when you get the first egg.

Storey's Guid to Raising Chickenswritten by Gail Damerow ISBN 978-1-60342-469-1. This covers everything in great detail and is the only book you should ever need.

Isn't that MP's all over. Same here- they are paid so it's a job worth grabbing. Amazon- what a horrible employer. I Had a similar experience working for Toyota. I had quit before I hit someone- the 'Management' were just a load of bullies and at the time I had a hip problem which meant I couldn't r...

We tried this and concluded the resulting mess with poo and shavings in the water and feed wasn't worth the effort. A 2'x3' house is not enough space for chickens to be awake in and they need time to rest from laying anyway. We used a large (and heavy) leisure battery so there was no dependency on s...

Ours hate wind, even a moderate breeze and will go into the coop to escape it, meaning they don't eat or drink. It depends I think upon their age and type of feathering, because fluffy birds get their feathers lifted, which removes the insulation and they get cold. We have solid barriers to the West...

The system here is a bit different so you only get permanent residency if you stay married, or have been here for 5 years. A French friend of ours married a Romanian woman and 5 years to the day she left him and went off on here own, having acquired the rights of residency and importantly healthcare...

We use newspaper or publicity brochures in all our coops now and scoop the poo from the surface every day. The paper is changed when it gets wet or too dirty. Can't see a problem with cat litter. Just thought of a major potential problem with cat litter- they could see it as grit and eat it. Obvious...

Sour crop will be accompanied by slimy smelly poos so it sounds to me like a digestive impaction. This can be caused by worms in large numbers preventing any undigestible solids from passing through the gut- in our case it was often cherry stones. After the digestive system blocks the crop contents ...