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I notice an egg in my incubator is slightly cracked in one area. Is it important to remove this?

I am very worried to find a young bird with feathered legs has bright red patches on his legs, as with the older bird I bought in. I have guessed that this is scaly leg mite, but wonder if it could be anything else? If it is scaly leg mite, I now have spray for this and have ordered flowers of...

I have a Pekin bantam that recently sat on some eggs which did not hatch. She is back with my flock, eating well, but is calling all the time and this has gone on for a week now. What does it mean? Is she missing the chicks that didn't hatch, or perhaps wanting to go broody again? The...

One of two hens from a friend has some of her throat feathers missing and it seems to be getting worse. Is this some kind of mite?

I just wonder the best thing to give birds in the winter to make up for the lack of greens and nutritious grass? I think I read somewhere about sprouting something for them.

Have come home to find my lovely faverolles cockerel in a collapsed heap barely alive and being attacked by my bantam speckled sussex cockerel which somehow got into his pen. He is now in the house warming up but his feathered are covered in mud and blood all over his head. He has one eye...

Purebred unrelated cockerel and hen born August 2014. Lovely birds. Gentle and friendly. Cockerel does not crow too early in the morning.

I've just built a new 60 m run for my birds on my allotment. It is 6ft high 2" weldmesh. I'm wondering whether an anti-dig skirt will be safe enough, or whether two rows of electric wire along the bottom would be much safer? The plot backs onto woodland and is within a couple of meters of a...

Does anyone know up to what age it is safe to breed and get healthy offspring? I've seen a very nice trio of 3-year old (fertile) silver sablepoots (born 2011) which a friend is giving up. Would they be too old for breeding next year (at age 4)?

One of my birds has begun laying long, thin eggs and I wonder if this is anything to worry about? The shell quality is fine.

My first attempt at uploading!

I am very new to cockerels, but have reared several this year in different broods. With hens, I know it is important to always keep them with a companion/s from the same brood. How does this apply to cockerels? I have two related birds together (brother and sister) and another brother and...

Has anyone tried the Gardenlife steel-framed poultry run? It has a weldmesh upgrade and a skirt around the bottom. They are on a special sale at the moment and I'm wondering how safe they are.

I have recently given a lemon sablepoot cockerel to a breeder but he says he has noticed now he has a 'wry tail' so he doesn't want him for breeding. I never noticed anything strange about him, but I lost his sister to crossed bill, so I guess this must be a genetic fault? He is a...

I have a very young speckled sussex bantam (4 months old) who is glorious looking and nice-natured that I would like to use for breeding. He has been crowing non-stop (a bit less now) and has been being rather a nuisance to the hens, just racing after them and jumping on them, and they don't...

One or two of my moulting birds seem to have lost a bit of weight. Is this normal?

One eye has gone much paler than the other on one of my hens (or perhaps one eye has gone a lot darker). Not sure what this means or perhaps if one eye could be haemorraging. She seems to be laying and looking well otherwise.

Has anyone tried the vet operation on impacted crop? It seems to be done under local anaesthetic. As my bird has lost so much weight but still has some strength left, I thought I might go for this. Her tennis-ball sized crop is now soft after oil and yogurt, but has not got any smaller.

I have a young POL hen that has been off her food for a couple of days, pecking at food but not swallowing it. Now I notice on checking her crop again that it is very full and firm - like an orange, and slightly warm. She has lost a lot of weight. Has she got some sort of blockage and what do...

Does anyone know how a group of 3 x 17-week old cockerels are likely to behave with a group of 10-week old chicks if I mix them together, including the mother? They have all been in the same area of garden, but separated.