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Only a few minutes a day is a bit dishonest... I spend an hour per day cleaning drinkers, poo picking & feeding my 7 hens. Admittedly they're in 2 flocks, so it takes longer, & I usually make time for a cuddle or two so that they're used to being handled.

Hi Audrey. My current challenge is how to replace the tanalised timber vertical posts that hold up our hen run. They've been concreted into the ground for 12 years & are decaying. The question is how to remove & replace each post without dismantling the run, as the hens still need to live in it...

There used to be an invaluable post pinned to the top of this forum, containing lots of pictures of what constitutes "normal" for chicken poo. It covers a huge variety!! Perhaps Josh can reinstate it? I think it brought more visitors to the forum than any other thread! I hope your hen soon...

Hi Hellochuck. Yes, I'd agree that the one with the tuft on its head looks as though it could be a cream legbar hybrid. I don't know about the others. I examined my pol pullets pretty carefully when I went to buy them, but failed somehow to notice that one had had the end of her toe amputated...

I'm not sure if I want to look at an egg hatching in someone's nether regions! I think I'll pass, thanks! 😵‍💫

Something frightening them definitely sounds like a probable cause for them all to stop laying at once, as Chris suggests. We had a neighbour for a (mercifully short) while, who kept roaring around near our boundary on a quad bike. That had the same effect.

I confess to not being a duck expert (you could try sending a PM to DorsetDuckOwner?) but my instinct would be A. I'd let them all stay out together & keep each other warm. They've still got the shelter that you've made, should they need it when it gets really cold. They also each have their...

Pet hens are considered livestock. Where we live we're supposed to double-bag them & put them into the general rubbish bin. It would seem more logical to put them in the food waste bin- people eat chicken every day! I must confess that, as they're family, we usually bury them in the garden...

I've had a similar issue in the past, but the problem was mainly that the layers' pellets were short dated & it took me a fair while to get through a sack of layers' pellets when I only had 3 hens. I started making a point of asking for "the newest stock that you've got", which sometimes meant...

My hens love spring onions (scallions), leeks & the like. They seem to instinctively know what isn't safe for them to eat, but my hens have been eating spring onions for years with no ill effect apart from onion breath! Having developed a taste for spring onions was unfortunate when I tried to...

I've heard of people putting special nappies on chickens, so I guess you could try something similar on your guinea hen if she'll let you?? I admit that the poo, especially the caecal poo, is the reason why I don't allow my chickens in the house, unless they're sick enough to be confined to a...

We get jackdaws in our garden; they're quite cute to watch. The only time they cause any trouble is when they build a nest in the chimney & fall down the flue into the log burner. We've still got soot in our lounge curtains from the last time- the dilemma is whether to let them out while...

It took a while for my pullets to get to grips with "training mode 2" where the treadle and the lid both moved a bit. But having given them several weeks to get used to it, they didn't bat an eyelid when I removed the training bolts to make the feeder fully operational & rat proof. Now the rats...

Welcome Trevor & a very happy Christmas.

If you're planning to come to East Kent again, do let me know. If I'm not in the middle of teaching a glass class, I'd love to buy you & Mrs BYM a drink. The same goes for Margaid & HenGen, though it's a long way for you!!

You won't be needing a turkey then 😄

Oohh, Christmas Eve, I should think. Then drinks in our local pub, built in the 1500s from old ships' timbers & with a huge inglenook that you could sit in.

Oh, and it seems that the magnolia colour eggs are from Eleanor, the partridge leghorn. I was wondering, when I got her, what made her a hybrid when my previous leghorns were pure breeds. Clearly she's part leghorn & part something that lays pink eggs! Any idea what the combination could be?

Yesterday when I went to do the poo picking, Sweep (the Speckledy) was snuggled in the coop on top of 3 eggs. I picked them up & popped them into the nest box & she moved in there to sit on them. This morning I was delighted to find a Speckledy egg in the nest box with Tigger's egg. Now I could...

Th That makes me Naughty Butternut. I'm picturing a butternut squash cooked with a whole head of garlic, 4oz butter, some double cream and a large glug of brandy. That should do it! Oh, and maybe some boursin mixed in.