Search results

Daffodil, with the swollen feet who is now a house hen, is laying again. Problem is she is losing the weight she put on over the last few weeks very quickly. I think there is a problem with her digestive system and so does she. I put her our on the lawn while I was washing my van and she spent...

As many of you know we are exporting our chickens to France -36 of them. This is easiest as there are no other Countries to pass through to get there. The logistics are fairly straightforward at first glance. They will travel as groups in separate dog cages, overnight and through the morning...

Just had the vet around to discuss export paperwork. I mentioned that this year we are relying on Elector biocide and good old creosote, both of which he was familiar with, to control red mite this year. He did advise caution with the creosote. One of his customers (he is a poultry only vet)...

Reading Lewis Wright's 1867 edition at the moment and have got to the chapter on Turkeys and rearing. There is no mention in this book about incubators so far, so I presume he considered them so unreliable as not worth mentioning. May appear in the 1901 edition? They have hatched and his comment...

I expected the warm weather to bring on an early red mite outbreak. Cleaned out a coop that was originally creosoted 4 years ago and was Nettex treated for red mite 2 years ago and last year as a precaution. Decided to do the inside with 50:50 creosote:paraffin mix before the TNN's take...

Well it's happened again. Someone has driven by in the night and dumped 4 cockerels on some waste ground nearby. No food, no water, no shelter. The area is just overrun with brambles and full of rubbish so damaged feet is likely. Thought the acoustics here were a bit funny when I sat outside at...

According to Lewis Wright in his 1867 Poultry book "The value of manure equates to to one fifth or perhaps more one quarter of the total profit from keeping fowls." He then says that the true value is 7 shillings per cwt but prices can be as low as 3 shillings. Also that it is too strong to use...

So the pullets have settled down so well they were allowed out into a larger area and then decided to explore the whole Orchard. importantly they came back straight away to a corn treat. They speak a different chicken language again -Romanian version obviously. So here are the photos of the...

Well Rosie's 'distraction' worked and 18 saddles have been made from what was going to be kindling held together with nails from a Charity Shop. In case anyone may be considering running a line across the top of a wall photos of my 'Heath Robinson' arrangement are below. The insulators and...

Well things seem to break in threes they say, but we are well past that now! Over the last two weeks the following things have broken:- Microwave -Panasonic combined oven and grille type, 8 years old. Replacement £200 so we got a cheap one for £40. Tumble dryer -2 years old and not used more...

Left little Boris (Brown English Leghorn Bantam) out overnight when the temperature was borderline to bring him in. Result was a frostbitten comb. His back two points have lost, or will lose, 3mm off the ends. I know it is painful for him and I also know not to touch them until they have healed...

Whilst doing some photos of red mite activity I downloaded this. He was walking from the kitchen to the dining room to visit Daffodil, which is why he is in the hall. At this stage there is no strange feather. His tail feathers are still growing and are about half the length of the old ones...

I think our Bottom is fat and needs to go on a diet. He's a pet Buff Orpington Cock and is struggling to stand up from sitting at the moment when he is tired. He can't reach to scratch his head properly either. Seems he has a problem developing with his hip joints. He only goes down the...

We are keeping pace with building coops and runs ready to move but have a problem. Because of the nature of the neigbours we want to move them all in one go- chickens, coops, runs and equipment. We can get 40 chickens in dog cages in the van so that's not the problem. We will have sufficient...

Well, we had the first egg from the Brown English Leghorn Bantams today -50 grammes as usual. Had a peek tonight and they all have bright red combs so expect more tomorrow. Now that we have enthusiastic young Boris cockerel chasing his girls around the coop every morning it stands to reason...

When I say Bottom I mean our pet Buff Orpington Cock, not the location of the feather. He is asleep on mummy bird's lap at the moment. Because we have lost our top hen he gets preened while he is there. I was shown a new blue (chicken speak for grey) feather about two inches long in his saddle...

We use roofing felt over closed boarding or plywood for the coops. I've been concerned that even after painting the gap between the roof boarding and the felt could be colonised with red mite. I took apart our first mobile coop yesterday and today. We had thousands of the things between the wall...

We've had threads on condensation and ventillation which reminded me of a sad tale from last year. One poultry keeper we know left the coop unlocked and a Fox got in and killed them all. They were replaced with Orpingtons which as we know are big and very fluffy. During the extremely cold spell...

I've noticed that the size of a hen's poo on/under the perch in the morning increases dramatically just before they come in to lay after the moult or after Winter. Several of our hens have started laying about two weeks after their poo size increased, but before their combs had noticably...

We've been lucky so far. After a daytime visit from the biggest Fox I have ever seen which I interrupted stalking Bottom (our pet Buff Orpington Cock) over 3 years ago, we have only had fruitless night time visits. It all changed today when a medium sized fox appears to have jumped an over 6...