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Are all of the following OK to feed my chickens from the allotment or are any best avoided / poisonous? I want to supplement their diet with more greens and have been buying them cabbages / apples every week (changed to apple as they seemed to go off cabbage). Is there anything else they might...

My 2 year old brown warren, Clover, has been laying slightly strange shaped eggs with the last few weeks and some have had very thin shells that crack very easily. I've even had to throw some away as I've noticed that they were cracked before I went to use them. For the past few days there have...

Just wanted to share my news - my new Skyline, Blossom, laid her first egg on Monday and it's a lovely olive green! Very exciting as I wasn't sure what shade we'd get. Her eggs are really tiny though - more like bantam size. Will they get bigger?

We have x2 brown rangers (Clover and Sage got at 16 wks of age in March 2012) and 1 favorelle (Bella just over a year old). About a month ago we moved house and they went to a farm that does chicken boarding for a couple of weeks, whilst their state of the art new home was being erected. I...

Can anyone advise me on the best way to go about bathing a hen? My favorelle is due to go into boarding whilst we move house and I would like to clean her up a bit first as she’s quite muddy, particularly round her beard. Can you use mild shampoo or will this affect the oil in their feathers...

We’re hoping to be moving house soon to a place with a bigger garden for the chickens – hooray!! Dad has been roped in to create a permanent run with a covered roof. Can anyone recommend where to buy materials from – specifically fox proof wire mesh; and the clear corrugated roofing stuff? Thanks

My favorelle, Bella, appears to have developed a scab on the top of her beak. Initially it just appeared to be an area of darker pigment but in the last week it has started to look a bit crusty. Is this something I should be worried about?

Today we lost the last of our bantams, Floss. She seemed absolutely fine this morning when I let them out, and has been eating and laying well and had a full crop when I checked last night. I came home at midday and she was dead on the ground outside. She was only about a year old. She is the...

My two brown warren hens, Clover and Sage, came into lay at the beginning of March. All has been fine up until now with lots of good strong eggs and several double yolkers. However over the past few days one of them has stopped laying in the nest box but lays where she sits on the perch right...

Calling all favorelle experts! Have your favorelles come into lay yet? We got Bella as a pullet last summer and she still hasn't come into lay yet. We don't have any other favorelles to compare her to but even last year's pekin bantam has now started laying, whilst Bella is showing no signs. I...

Can anyone help? Flo (our 2 and a half year old pekin bantam) is very lethargic, and her comb and wattles have a pale yellowish tinge. She is eating but is very listless and shakes her head a lot and sometimes sneezes a few times. Crop does not always seem completely empty the next morning...

I read this on the Flytes of Fancy website with interest: Prevention is better than cure Some simple preventative measures can help save a great deal or worry and loss of birds. If in a fixed Run then move it regularly to new ground, or if you are not able to move the run then consider a...

I've got a diatom puffer pack and have been using it to dust perch ends etc but it does end up very dusty. Is it best to continue using it this way or make perhaps a slurry with washing up liquid and paint this on the perches? I'm worried that it can't be very good for my birds breathing. I had...

I am planning on getting 2 new brown ranger hens in February and would be grateful for some advice on how to integrate them with the rest of my flock: 2 bantams and a favorelle. I've got an a Flights of Fancy house, which has an enclosed run area beneath it, which I usually leave open in the...

Had to take Bella to the vet today. She's a salmon favorelle, approximately 1year old . Found her this morning, very pale, listless and thin, liquid yellow diarrhoea. Was fine at weekend. Vet has given her antibiotics to have twice daily and wormed as precaution (though I've been worming them...

Is it okay to use a quarter of a teaspoon of flubenvet to 1kg of layer's pellets for my 2 pekin bantams, and 1 favorelle bantam? All the forums I've read suggest 1 teaspoon to 2kg of feed, then to discard the feed that is left over after 7 days. They are currently eating a bit less than 1kg a...

Can anyone recommend a breed of chicken that is generally quiet and won't bully pekin bantams? We have 3 pekins at the moment but one shrieks all the time so have taken the decision that I will sadly have to try and rehome her. I would really like to get another hen to live with the other two...

Does anyone have any advice on dealing with noisy hens? Since a few weeks before she started laying, our pekin bantam, Mabel, has got extremely noisy and makes a persistent ear-piercing squawk which I fear is really starting to upset the neighbours! None of the other hens do it and it's really...

Can anyone recommend Diatom or Barrier Louse Powder (organic) as a preventative red mite / louse powder to add to bedding / dustbaths? Thanks

Chickenvet have very helpfully recommend that I buy a disinfectant called Rhodasept to disinfect my chicken house but they only sell it in 1kg bottles. Apparently it also comes in 250g sizes but I can't find anywhere online to buy it from. Does anyone know where I can get a small bottle...