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I'm never quite sure at what age you should feed chicks mixed corn, as a treat in conjunction with chick crumbs of course? It looks quite hard to digest to me but I'm sure the mother would love some and she will try to feed it to the chick (currently 4 days old). Also at what age should you put...

My broody pekin hatched a chick the day late the day before yesterday (5th July). She still has 2 more eggs, one due to hatch on Monday, the other on Thursday. (My neighbour put the other eggs under her while I was on holiday...). I'm slightly concerned that she hasn't yet taken the chick out to...

I just discovered this morning my pekin broody has kicked her 3 eggs out of the nest and unfortunately they were stone cold by the time I found them. I have put them back under her and she is sitting again but I wonder if they will still be viable at this late stage? I could put a couple of...

I have two gorgeous little chicks just 3 and 5 days old. Their mum loves her bath but I'm not sure whether to put a dustbath into their run yet as the chick are still so little and could get dust/DE in their eyes or nostrils. What does anyone think?

My 3 chickens have all got really dirty feather shafts in the area around their preen glands. As far as I can see there is nothing crawling around, just black specs/dust around the base of the feathers and the skin around the gland itself, which since they are white/cream chickens, looks pretty...

I think my 3 chickens may have northern fowl mite - they have grey/black dust all around their preen glands, but only there. Is this a sign of nfm or am I being paranoid and it could just be from dustbathing where the dust sticks here because it is oily? Anyway I treated one of them previously...

It's that time of year again - I'm off on holiday in a few weeks and suddenly my little flock of 3 chickens have all these health issues..... One of my pekin girls still has an ear infection which I have given up trying to cure and just bathe and clean out every few days. This could be a...

I wrote about this back in January - one of my pekins had, and still has, an ear infection in both ears. I was prescribed Surolan ear drops by the vet (over the phone) but they did no good, despite several courses of treatment. Since then I have taken her to the vets and she was given an...

One of my pekin girl's ears are constantly blocked lately with a smelly creamy coloured wax/pus gunge. A few weeks ago I noticed her gaping and shaking her head a lot so I immediately wormed them all, suspecting gapeworm, but she was still doing it after this. On close inspection (she is the one...

I've noticed recently that Basil's neck feathers are coming out. It started off with the feathers looking a bit 'greasy' which I once read was a symptom of northern fowl mite - I think? Now he is going balder by the day and the skin underneath looks a bit yellowish and flakey/crusty. It's also...

My little pekin Myrtle has decided to go broody for the first time in 4 years - typically enough just before we go on holiday for 2 weeks. I've spent a week turfing her out of the nest box at every opportunity, and although she spent a bit of time running around with the others, she'd end up...

I got two new pekins a few months ago from someone I'm pretty sure is a reputable breeder. They did sneeze a bit to start with which I hoped was due to the stress of moving home. I quarantined them for a few weeks and then put them together with my cockerel and other pekin hen. They all then...

My two new pekin girls are exhibiting what seems to me to be quite odd behaviour. They frequently rush/flutter about madly for a second or two and end up head down and bottom up in a sparring position, and they also spar with each other. I am 99% certain they are girls!! They haven't laid yet...

I've been looking for some new pekins recently and am quite horrified by the conditions some people keep them in. Some I have seen have been crowded into small, dark pens, probably never cleaned out, with filthy (and often empty) food and water containers. I know it's not a good time of year...

I'm just looking at getting two more girls for my little flock of pekins which will take it back to a grand total of 4! I currently have a cockerel and a hen, both cuckoo, but would like to get a different colour this time. The hens I have found available locally are either partridge or blue...

I've had a terrible summer chickenwise - one of my cockerels was killed by his brother Dumpling, then Dumpling got (suspected) cocci, went downhill over a day and died. Then Myrtle had the same symptoms (lurid green watery poo) so I immediately treated all 3 remaining chickens with Baycox and...

My lovely pekin cockerel Dumpling died almost 2 weeks ago - the only symptom was really bright green watery poo and he just went downhill and sadly died within 48 hours. Now Myrtle has the same poo and yesterday was very quiet and miserable (mind you, the weather was awful so the other 2 weren't...

Just reading the recent topic on bedtimes which has evolved into perching but thought it best to start a new topic: One of my pekins has recently decided to sleep in the nesting box after 3 years of perching. When I move her on to the perch she just squawks loudly and stumbles back into the box...

Yesterday morning I noticed that Dumpling's poos were quite watery and green and was surprised he was still upstairs when I went out to see him in the morning. He seemed fine in the late afternoon when I let him out though and was following me everywhere, chuntering away, as he does. Today...

It's finally happened - Basil and Herbert, my 2 pekin cockerels, who seemed to tolerating each other quite well until now, appeared this afternoon with their combs and wattles in a total bloody mess, presumably after fighting over their girls. Herbert's was especially bad and it looked really...