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Hello from France and welcome to the forum. We have very few laying hens now as all ours are old. We exported 28 chickens from England 7 years ago, lost another last night so are down to just 5- 4 Wyandottes that are 10 and still giving us the occasional egg and one TNN who is 8 and looks like...

We've been in France 7 years now and the only things I have done are replacing pop-hole pull cords and fitting clear acrylic sliding vent covers to the North side, instead of plywood, which is the one usually fully closed. The climate here means coops take a real bashing and realistically...

Trying to post a better photo but have to admit this is all pretty complicated, which is why I haven't posted any photos for years. It actually worked! Now you can see some of the chicken coops. The slope of the land is a bit less on the ground than the image appears, presumably something to do...

That's a very pretty location Bigyetiman. Guess if we lived somewhere like that we wouldn't be here. I took a photo this morning as the clouds have cleared- very frosty, but views of the Pyrenees are rare outside of Winter. Difficult to take as we face South and the sun was shining off me and...

Hi Deetle and welcome to the forum. Free ranging chickens can be a pain in some respects although the destruction of the local insects, particularly the Box Tree Moth, is needed here. Our TNN's completely free range and have been known to lay in the wood store but generally prefer the coop, but...

The European Whip Snakes have hatched and the little ones, about 9" long, are wandering about. Florence, a free ranging 8 year old TNN, found one and stupidly tried to eat it. I noticed her shaking her head violently and backing away- a closer look and she had its tail in her beak and two coils...

We've been keeping chickens for 11 years now and today saw our first ever case of fly strike. We are very careful to wash bottoms as necessary but this happened just two days after inspection. Ruby, a Buff Orpington (had to be- they are really high maintenance), was brought in last night as she...

All our coops are wood, built in England 'flat-packed' to export. It can get quite hot and very windy so having closeable vents on opposite sides totalling at least 10% of the floor area is essential. We have perspex covers to give them light without wind. To keep the sun heat out I'm going to...

It took us 4 years to sell our house in England NicolsT due entirely to estate agent's lack of market knowledge, but it was worth the wait because as we gained experience we changed our purchase requirements considerably. Hopefully yours won't take that long. Nice weather down here as well and...

Rather late I know but welcome to the forum NicolsT. When you posted this we were just about to sign the Acte de Vente for our new home in Mirande, Gers and we were frantically loading the van and trailer for the first of 16 trips to move the household, gardening and chicken stuff. The chickens...

Hi Guillaume and welcome to the forum from an 'ex-pat' living near Auch in the Gers. Sure your English is better than my French! We use Google translate a lot as well. We started looking for property in the Lot when we came over 5 years ago, but ended up down here after the area was recommended...

A wall paper stripper wouldn't work Saraht- what you need is a fine jet of pressurised steam to get into all the cracks and gaps.

Hello and welcome Saraht. You may find plastic distorts badly in hot temperatures- we brought a Solway over from the UK and there is no way we would risk it outside in Summer (I am a retired plastics engineer). I don't expect an Omlet coop would survive down here either. The other factor is the...

Just three weeks on from my previous 'paralysis' post and I found Poppy was missing when the coop was checked last night. She was in the run, collapsed in a corner unable to stand but was fine a few hours earlier. Bought her in and she started to overheating as before so she had 50mg of Asprin...

Sorting through old issues of Practical Poultry (with a view to reducing the volume when we move) I came across 'Fun Facts' in the March 2011 issue. "If a cockerel isn't present in a flock of hens, the dominant hen will sometimes take on the role, stop laying and begin to crow. This is rare...

Had a real shock days ago during the early morning coop cleaning. One of our young Leghorn Bantams (Poppy) was lying 'dead' on the floor. No signs of life at all but not stone cold, so she must have died in the last hour. She was fine the previous evening and was roosting on her usual perch. We...

Thought it worth sharing this experience. We have on occasion had eggs dropped from the hens roosting on the perches at night. There are several reasons for this that we were previously aware of:- Fright- a predator or unusual disturbance. Stress- overcrowding leading to fighting for perch space...

Hello Alan2886 and welcome to the forum from another resident in France enjoying the very mild Winter indeed. Our chickens like it too.

Seems we had our first case of Botulism yesterday afternoon. Ruby, a French Buff Orpington, was fine at 2.00pm but at 3.00pm was struggling to walk. We first suspected an injury and put Arnica gel on a hot knee joint. But after watching her wobbling about and then seeing her fall off a low perch...

When we started breeding Blue Laced Wyandottes we were told to expect 25% of the hatch to be gold laced and 25% to be buff laced, which is exactly what we got. These are the derivative colours of 'blue', which in reality is grey. I was rather puzzled by the terminology, because lacing is the...