Recent content by dawn

40 of my neighbour's chickens were killed last night. They have about 20 left. Ours are fine thankfully but the scene in the field next to our garden this morning was heartbreaking with bodies scattered over a wide area, both in and out of the enclosures. Our neighbours breed them as a hobby and...

I feel rather guilty asking for advice as I haven't posted for a while, but this forum is where I naturally turn if I have problems. One of my pekins, about 2 years old, died last night. I'm pretty sure it was coccidiosis from reading the symptoms which almost all match hers - hunched with...

I've just noticed that Elvis my rooster has a small split along the length of his beak, at the tip. He's perfectly ok, and I don't know how long it's been like that. Am bit concerned it could get worse and cause him problems eating and drinking. Has anyone come across this before and knows...

After the recent dog attacks (still escaping despite police, dog warden, game keeper and half the neighbourhood complaining and being verbally abused by the owner) things have settled a little. I've had to stop my chickens free ranging and they now live in an electric enclosure unless I'm...

Hello and welcome. I'm in Suffolk too

I've been offered a pair of old English game hens to go with my Pekins. I know very little about them as a breed, can anyone educate me please ? They'll have to be penned much of the time, but am getting a 25m electric fence because of recent dog attacks. I've read that they don't like being...

Yesterday when I got home instead of 3 chickens running to greet me as usual, I found one rooster in the henhouse and apparantly fine and a pile of black feathers by the front of our house. No sign of the two hens. We eventually found the black hen who came out of the bushes, she'd lost a lot of...

Well almost bald. This is the first year mine have moulted properly and so far only one has which makes it look worse. My previously plump and fluffy black pekin now looks like a naked neck and seems to have shrunk to half her size. Her half naked state is clearly very attractive to Elvis the...

Welcome Mandi, I'm from almost Norfolk. Postal address is Norfolk but we live a few miles into Suffolk near Thetford.

One of my pekin hens started the three weekly broody thing yesterday, and when I put her in the broody house it was crawling with earwigs. Elvis the rooster was helping and had a look but didn't want to eat them so I brushed them all off. They're back again, and I've remembered, I think, that...

.....has been discovered in my neighbour's field. It looks like a light suffolk but has feathered legs. This remarkable discovery was found when one of their hens who'd disappeared emerged with a new batch of chicks. They breed suffolks so will no doubt be very excited. My pekin rooster is...

They have to be bantams and I've narrowed it down to sablepoots, wyandottes,welsummers or autralorps but have questions about them all. Do sablepoots go broody much and how are they for producing eggs ? I've heard that wyandottes do go broody, but are they as bad as pekins ? Will welsummers be...

Following the dog attack, my pekin has lost so much of her wing feathers that she can't flutter up to perches or control her descent very well. She's also lost most of her tail feathers and has a bare bottom. I've read in the past that if feathers are lost they won't grow back until the next...

I had 6 months of chicken keeping without one problem or worry, but in the last 4 months I no sooner sort out one crisis than another happens. Yesterday a dog escaped from a house in the village, got into our garden and attacked the chickens. All he got was a mouthful of feathers, thanks to...

I've been doing it again :oops: Spent the lunch hour looking a pooh pictures, not chicken this time but fox and hedgehog. Noticed it in the grass recently, not for the first time but I've taken more notice since I've had the chickens. Fox and hedgehog pooh seems to look so alike, but I think...