Hello Steve, welcome

What a lovely summer you have to look forward to, with all those eggies. I think Bluebelles are one of the nicest looking girls, I am sure you'll have a ball with them.

I haven't fed it to the chooks, isn't it slightly hairy? If so, I would have thought that naturally they would ignore it, my observations on the range have been that they love either 'juicy' things like sorrel or seedheads. However, you can make comfrey tea which is very good as an organic fertilise...

I like the new layout, its very clear and quick to navigate. I like the fact its a different colour to many other forums (it feels pretentious to write fora!) and all round thank you very much! I really appreciate this forum as a comforting mix of chicken chat and wider subjects, without FB nonsense...

Hi Chris, congratulations on the neem treatment, fingers crossed she continues to progress. It sounds as though Ruby is a bit under the weather and the fly strike is caused/made worse by, the underlying issue. If she has undigested vegetation then my guesses would be either impacted crop or sour cro...

I have never had to contend with this, so I don't have any advice to offer, but good luck to you. Apart from the direct treatment, I guess you need to make sure she is kept warm enough, with all the water penetrating to her skin. I can easily imagine the full bottom fluff must make it so much harder...

Ah, we do have starlings here, the speckledless variety, which having looked it up for its proper name I see is actually called the spotless starling. I wonder if that is the answer to my conundrum. Thanks all!

And you win the award for best post title....I couldn't imagine what it was going to be about, and sure enough a story about the Lady A was beyond my imagingings! You just need to get Mrs BYM looking out for the Marigold, Margaid, Icemaiden, Mrs Biscuit and anyone else female now!

We have rediscovered our very own snake, living amongst some stones on the boundary. In the sun it lies about on the road, basking. Last year it was in a wall. Its a ladder snake, very handy if, as OH says, you need to play snakes and ladders, as its all in one! We have something small, field mouse ...

I know what you mean! They are quite stunning and I like them because they are an easy spot! I have just read/listened to something on the BBC iplayer which says that Spring is, on average, 26 days earlier than a decade ago. I know Spring/Autumn do seem to be starting earlier, but 26 days? I just do...

Basically you should give them their 'usual' amount of food per day as the Flubenvet pellets, and restrict/cut out everything else so you know that anything they eat for a week is going to have the wormer in it. My birds were FR but I kept them in the pen for the weeks they were being wormed.