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At Staffordshire Show a new player entered the domestic coop market. I was rather impressed by them so thought it worth showing them to you and discussing good and the few small down points. Turns out they are just down the road from me (at the moment) and have a decent site...

Thanks to Margaid for pointing me towards EcoSheet. Went to the Staffordshire show today and saw some. A sample is on the way to try cutting and fixing. I am building a set of 6 coops (more on those later) which rely on the floor structure to keep them in shape during any transit, which is the...

Big softy Arnold, our last remaining Blue Laced Wyandotte cock has been irritated by Claude once too often. Arnold is, I would say, well over 6Kg. Claude (avatar) got into the veggy plot today. The only thing between Claude and Arnold was a temporary chicken wire fence. Judging by the bent fence...

Had a bit of a shock this morning when I went to let Daffodil out of her coop (she's no longer a house hen) as she wasn't there. I could have sworn I put her to bed last night but then remembered I only said 'good night Dilly' and didn't actually see her. So thinking theft I went to open the...

Rosie bought a tub of this on a 'just in case' basis. Today big softy Arnold, our Blue Laced Wyandotte, damaged his big rose comb. The fence mesh had come loose and I guess he got caught up in it. Anyway he seemed fine this afternoon, just a bit of skin off at the back. Doing the evening egg...

Having read that Fowl Pox is in the UK and there are outbreaks in the Midlands I was a bit worried about our Basil. I thought these scabby areas were the result of squabbling with Frankie through the wire mesh. But they are very slow to mend and after two weeks we've started applying Teatree...

Hi Karminski. Was out with the camera earlier and you said you would like some ideas for shelters. These frames are made from Canadian Cedar I think, 35 x65, with radiused corners, plus offcuts of ply and the cover is two frames of treated laths covered in one piece of scaffolding cladding...

Hi Tygresek. This is the first coop I built over Christmas in our cellar 9 years ago. Started with 9 pallets, one of which was closely boarded 1 x 1.2 metres used as the floor. The others were dismantled and made into the sides plus the roof, which is one very heavy piece. The end section you...

What have plastic play balls got to do with chickens you may be asking? If you have the bell type drinkers as we have, green plastic, red plastic or glass and they are scattered at distance around the area you will find, unless your eyesight is exceptional, that it is difficult to see which are...

Bottom hasn't been himself recently. Not sleeping very well and looking a bit droopy. Spends a lot of time vigorously preening his hackles and pulling bits of fluffy underfeather off. Closer inspection, despite his painful squealing, revealed very very tiny mites running around very large scabs...

Couple of pictures for Lacy Blues. Not her best side but it's difficult to keep her still for more than a moment. Easily distracted when she's outside. By the time the camera shutter had snapped she had moved onto something more interesting than me! Now that she's on layers pellets and has...

A happy ending at last for Dinky and Donky but sad to see them go as they are a pair of characters. In their temporary coop and run just prior to leaving. Made a bit of fuss when picked up and shoved in a cardboard box, but just outside Newark they started crowing! They were unloaded into a...

When a cockerel has a damaged comb the hens pick the scabs off. Presumably in the wild this would prevent infection. Danger is they can get a taste of blood and begin to eat the comb. In extreme cases, which we have had with 3 Wyandottes and a Copper Star hybrid, they will eat the cockerel's...

Been unable to access the forum because I, like millions, have fallen foul to the 'Windows Stability Maximiser' which claims to protect you against intrusions like itself. It sneaks in one day and embeds itself in the startup files. Then claims that you are under all sorts of attacks and won't...

Poor Isabella sneezed this morning and both her eyes filled completely with bubbles. She's been chesty but that has stopped now. She is very run down but quietly eating a bit. We are treating her for Canker with Flagyl at the moment. She obviously has Myco as well, brought on by her run-down...

The oldest of the TNN's has decided to go broody with a vengance (hatched June 2011). Been making strange growling noises for a week now but last evening I found her covering 3 eggs and pulled feathers lying around her. Took the eggs and she was fine this morning for about half an hour. Back in...

Tim mentioned in a recent post that he switched to grower/rearer pellets for the parents when producing hatching eggs which reduced the number of 'dead in shell' chicks. This makes sense to me. Firstly rearers pellets have more trace elements and less calcium which should make the contents...

When we got Claude, our TNN cockerel, he wouldn't eat pellets. They just went everywhere and we asked the previous keeper what he fed him. He said dry mash. So we swapped him onto mash and he started eating. But he's always been a messy eater with food all over his beak. He also had feather...

Isabella, a 3 year old Buff Orpington and one of Bottom's 'wives', has sour crop. When I looked into her mouth, nearly overcome with the smell, I could see what looked like feed stuck to the side of her mouth and throat. Attempting to dislodge it I soon realised it was yellow fungal growth -same...

Catching chickens with a net is not a practice I use, or would use on a routine basis. It absolutely terrifies the chickens which is never going to be good for them, or your relationship with them. There is also a risk of injury. I have heard that these things are available for chicken catching...