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I've been doing some experimenting to try and build a red mite trap. First thing I needed was an infested, but empty, coop. During the course of this I've discovered a few things worth sharing. Red Mite are not attracted to just body heat, contrary to what I have read. Using a heated mat at...

Came as quite a surprise to me to discover bullfighting in this part of France -I thought it was only Spain. Anyway it is this weekend so we've been to peek at the goings on with the 30,000 that descend on us once a year (town population 6000). This is the first year they have provided camp...

Hello Peckomatic. Think Marigold is thinking of the place in Sicily with the same name? Just Googled Syracuse NY to find that the French were the first Europeans there in 1615. Do you keep chickens or just make the feeders?

My memory seems to be failing me today. One of our little Leghorns (Daisy) appears to have some degree of internal infection and we are treating her with Baytril. The bottle I have is for oral use at 10% strength. I seem to remember that it is administered at 0.1mL per Kg bodyweight, once a day...

Following on from comments on the previous thread. The Hoopoe nest in our wall contains two chicks at the moment. At 20 days old we thought, when the following video was made. Only the larger one is seen. The less developed chick, perhaps 3 or 4 days behind, only gets to eat when its sibling is...

In the UK we had problems with whitefly in the greenhouse. I read they could stand heat and also read they could stand high humidity. But by way of an experiment I subjected them to both at the same time, flooding the floor with water and shutting all the vents. The temperature rose to 50...

Hello Wise and welcome to the forum. I have recently read a book by Katie Thear called Organic Poultry. In it she observes that feather pecking and the cannibalism that follows in any confinement can be the result of failing to provide feed at the three distinct heights a chicken would naturally...

Two weeks ago it looked as if we were going to be overwhelmed by red mite. The first coop we took out for creosoting was almost at the point of burning! We had red mite in three others and it looked like they were spreading out of control. We hit them with contact biocide and Nettex but it was...

Welcome to the forum Christian1971. Trees are great cover for chickens from excessive sun, but too many and they don't get enough as we found out last year. We are surrounded by miles of farmland as well. Spotted my first wild boar a few days ago- a huge beast which moved really fast and I hope...

Of course we don't buy eggs but was curious to see a sign explaining the French system of egg standard. There are 4 categories- 3, 2, 1, 0. They are defined thus:- 3 -caged hens at a stocking density not more than 13 per square metre. I defy anyone to find an egg box marked category 3. I picked...

Hello Soliloquy72 and welcome to the forum. Silkies are renewed for being broody. Sure they are not as bad as Transylvanian Naked Necks though? Just need to be sure your broodies are two years old and in perfect health with no lice or mites. We put ours in a purpose built very secure coop and...

Welcome to the forum HIfarmpickles. That does sound a rather haphazard setup you have, but if it works on the land you have that's great. My neighbour's 6 chickens run free range most of the year, but even over two acres they need supplemental grain. They are penned in now (for 3 months) because...

I guess to class them as Leghorns they would need to comply with breed standard Dinosaw. The hens should have a floppy-over comb that doesn't flop so much as to obscure vision, but unfortunately in my experience can be prone to frostbite. Suppose the term 'utility modified leghorn' may apply...

Our hens seem to have gone broody all at the same time, which is strange. Some of them do it silently, hoping you don't notice? No clucking or raised feathers, they just sit there looking as though they are just going to lay an egg, but taking ages about it. Noticed the other day though that if...

Hi Topaztiger1983 (Chris) and welcome to the forum. Loads of good info here plus on the host site 'poultry keeper.com'. Of course much of the forum is filled with problems and that could lead you to believe poultry keeping is just one problem after another. But that isn't the case. Start with...

Our biggest predators are stray hunting dogs Patsonline. They can (and have) torn through chicken wire. The foxes are timid here and won't come in the daytime, unlike England, unless the crops around us have grown enough to give them cover, so we have 3 months high risk (starting now). We had...

Our local breeder hatches all year round Patsonline. But its not as easy as you would think. Problems in this area begin with very high winds -there are no wind turbines here as they would blow over. Also hot summers mean that the fluffier ones have to go inside a stone barn to keep cool. The...

Hello Patsonline and welcome to the forum. A great selection of breeds listed there. La Bresse Gaulois is a native breed in France obviously. But our local breed is the Black Gascone- a sort of black Leghorn I would think. Loads of them around us, although the French here are beginning to become...

Continuing my quest to reduce the strain on my back I have been looking at a way of poo picking the enclosures without bending down. There are dog poo pickers available and horse poo pickers available. I've used a horse poo picker (just a dustpan and brush on a stick) and it's hard work as they...

Hi Jackie57 and welcome to the forum. Good luck with the hatch, it's always an exciting time for us. Something we will be doing later in the year once we have our enclosure better arranged for new arrivals. Our flocks are getting old and this year may be our last chance to keep them going.