New poultrykeeper site :-)

Tim

Tim

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Hello all,

I've been rather busy over the last 6 months working on the new poultrykeeper website so haven't been on the forum as much as I would have liked...

There's still some information missing - Turkeys and Quail for example and I'm still debugging some other bits and pieces. I have redirected many of the popular URLs (addresses) so that links remain intact but have only done this for the busiest 150 pages, there are many more that will take time to be re-indexed in Google.

Anyway, please have a browse and tell me what you think. I'm particularly pleased with the Keeping Chickens section and Poultry Breeds area.

Feedback greatly appreciated!

What's new? Well the images are delivered by Amazon's Content Delivery Network (from Amazon Servers) and since the servers for the poultrykeeper sites are physically in the US, Amazon CDN comes from the nearest location around the World to the user so for the UK, this is from Ireland. Images are the the biggest file to transfer to your browser so a fast network like this closer to you gives a speed improvement.

The search on the site actually works really well now - so if you are looking for something specific, type it in and it should show all articles containing those words.

There are comment boxes at the bottom of some articles (reviews and poultry breeds). I didn't want this at the bottom of every article because people tend to find a page and then ask a question in the comments box - our forum is for questions of course. The comments boxes at the bottom of reviews are so others can share their experiences of a product and under the breeds so that people can add further information about a specific breed of poultry.

There are social buttons - so you can like, tweet and so on... seems to be the way things are going these days. Obviously I'd be really pleased for you to do this as it promotes our pages to others within your network :-)

There are photo galleries on the breeds pages and within reviews like this Omlet portable Chicken Netting review I recently added.

The site has a cleaner look, is organised better and has an easier menu system.

Finally, the most important thing...

I'd like to thank the moderators of the forum for being so patient with me and holding the fort here while I've been working on this.... Without them, this forum wouldn't be able to exist.

Thanks,

Tim.

PS This message will unstick in 7 days :-)17
 
Well done Tim,so when is moving day i assuming this site will be closed eventually?
I had looked at chicken breeds section and no Seramas there :( I hope is only temporarly and this section will grow in future.it is very hard to find anywere any info about when yung pullets (any breed) will start laing eggs.i wish this info was included in breed section,please ;) POL is so wide is from 16-36 weeks somtimes and it would be nice to hava some clue about when they do start producing lovely eggs especially that most people using the forum keep only few hens :D
I love the new site,I had enjoyed read about bulding house from old wooden crate:)
 
Looks great to me. Only problem is this old PC won't load the pages very quickly and there are errors. The Broadband is fast because our new laptop is instant, but I can't be let loose on that until Rosie has set it all up. Presume I couldn't download the TNN page because there isn't one. I did like the Omlet netting, because of the small mesh at the bottom and the height. Wish we'd seen it when we had money, as the 42 metre one would be very very useful indeed in three months time -we keep doing the lottery.
 
Well done, Tim, you've worked terrifically hard on this and its a really useful set of resources. I haven't had a chance to read all of it yet (grandchildren have been visiting, they've gone home now, its's all lovely and quiet again) but have enjoyed as far as I've got. As good as having a lovely new e-book about poultry!
One suggestion - would it be possible to have a link to click on at the top of the Forum board index page, to go directly to the Poultrykeeper home page, (and another link on the Poultrykeeper Home page to get back again to the Forum?) I've got an instant-access button on the top bar of my computer to get straight on to the Forum but haven't got round to putting on a second one to go to Poultrykeeper and it would be very useful to be able to switch more easily between them. Also I think some people who look at the Forum don't necessarily realise what's available on Poultrykeeper or maybe even that it exists! Even this post of yours doesn't take people to the Home page, - maybe you might make it one of those permanent sticky sections above the questions, with a heading of its own, to highlight Poultrykeeper to forum members as a resource? So many questions asked on the Forum are understandably about the same things, and it would be great now to just be able to easily link new people to the relevant article, rather than saying the same things over and over.
 
Thanks for the feedback... much appreciated.

@tygrysek75 The new site is running = it's poultrykeeper.com that has changed, don't worry, the forum, poultrykeeperforum.com is a separate site and isn't going anywhere :D

The point at which a pullet starts to lay is variable as you say - the problem is it also depends on so many other environmental factors such as the amount of light and the husbandary - for example buying new pullets and taking them to a new environment can stress them and delay the onset of lay and if they get deprived of food / don't have sufficient protein and so on..

The Serama wasn't included as when I first put the list together it wasn't standardised... I need to add it though as it now is!
I have 3 wooden crate houses here now ;-)

@chrismahon There are still a few bugs to iron out, but it may not display correctly on older browsers. The trouble is, I can't always make it work with these because of security problems. The pages should load in about 3-4 seconds depending on the number of images and so on.. there are exceptions though - occassionally if the server has a load of requests at the same time or the network is slow for some reason then it slows up.
Yes, no page on TNN yet sorry... there are so many breeds to cover!

@Marigold Why not open the site and forum up into a different tab and then you don't have to wait for the page to load each time you switch? If you're using a recent version of internet explorer, there should be a tab visible and the option to open a new one next to it, alternatively Ctrl-T should open a new one.... then you can flick between them, even in 'mid post'. There is a link on the forum at the bottom that says "The Poultrykeeper.com Website"

The easiest way to link to the information would be to change tab and run a search on the poultrykeeper site, then go to the page of interest, copy the address, then change tab back to your forum post and paste in the link by highlighting the word then clicking URL and then pasting the link in..

Thanks for the comments all,

Tim
 
It's looking very good.

Do you want to know about any minor errors we spot or is it still in the early stages? It loads quickly on my computer but when I followed the 'Poultry Breeds' link you mentioned the large bold text says 'Select the from one of the following 3 Poultry Breeds pages' so I'm assuming there's a word or something missing from between 'the' and 'from'.
 
Oh yes please... anything however minor would be appreciated. I have edited that page - thank you.

The trouble is I've been looking at if for too long and miss errors like that now! :oops:
 
Thanks for the advice about opening the pages Tim yes I do this, but my point was whether it is immediately clear to people that Poultrykeeper exists - I can see the link at the bottom of the main page now but didn't see it when posting yesterday on Tapatalk, and I think the new site deserves a more prominent link at the top if the main page.
Talking about minor glitches, I did notice a few spelling typos in what I've read so far in the Chickens section - would be happy to proofread if you like.
 
Hi Tim,

had a quick look at both pages and they're great. On the Breeds is it your intention to have this evolving to add more breeds that are not already listed, e.g. Seramas?

One other point: especially for people who are new to keeping poultry - a page to list abbreviations and meaning would be very helpful.
 
Yes, it's my intention to have every standardised breed listed with photos - and individual breeds pages for most but this as you can imagine has been a huge undertaking - I'm still trying to get photos at the bigger shows of the harder to find breeds.

The Serama isn't in the British Poultry Standards 2008 which was the definitive list I was working from - it was standardised in 2008 though so I need to add it and get some good photos of good birds - probably from the National or Federation later this year now.

Once I have finished off the last bits on the site and removed bugs and typos etc (thank you Keg who has been messaging me with lists of typos that I am correcting after work)... then I'll be looking at the forum - there are a couple of bugs to fix that the Mods spotted and I'd like to sort out the breeds section on here too.

I will add the abbreviations to my wish list - I have an almighty list, there is lots still to be done :-)

Jo Barlow is still writing for us and so is Richard Jackson of Chickenvet bi-monthly and I'm also hoping to have a new author start writing for us soon who's quite well known in the show world and an author of some books and many magazine articles :-)

Which reminds me, I need photos of chicken poo for the June article from Chickenvet... I will post separately about that ;-)
 
Wow Tim - That was one heck of a lot of work you have put in, and I must say it is looking excellent and is easy to navigate. Well done, it is a wonderful resource for poultry keepers old and new. Many thanks
 
I'm new to the world of poultry, specifically ducks (6 khaki campbells and 3 cayugas), and was unaware that there actually was a poultrykeeper.com. Other websites only had a link to the forum. I wish I would have know- would have saved a lot of time thumbing through the forum for answers and suggestions! So I think it would be helpful, especially to moderators, if there was a more prominent link from the forum to the website, and vis versa. That's my opinion.

So I went to the duck section to hopefully get more info and questions answered. Found some typos:
Sub-Categories>FAQ: the link description has some typos
Sub-Categories>Beginners Guide>1st para: wrong punctuation at end of paragraph

I know that chicken sections are a priority, but I do appreciate what you have already on ducks; basic for us beginners. Granted, i still have some questions, but that's what the forum's for!
 
A list of recommended reading would be good Tim. Start with Lewis Wright and I have a few other worthwhile reads as well.
 
Looks brilliant, although I have only had a quick look at the duck section :)
I have some duck behaviour info that I would be happy for you to use if you liked? It has duck speak and some quirky behaviours that may help new owners.
Also is it worth mentioning some of the genetic conditions that some breeds are prone to?
It must have taken you forever! Amazing work!!!!
Zo
x
 
@mtsadie Thank you. I appreciate you pointing this out and I will investigate! I have a long list of typos and corrections to make now thanks to Kegs checking them for me that I will be working through in my spare time. Yes, I plan to put more information on ducks online soon.

@chrismahon That sounds like a really good idea. I hadn't really thought of that as there are recommended books in the Amazon shop and so on but these are modern books that you can buy online. I will add it to my wish list.

@dorsetduckowner Oh yes please... I would really -love- to get some of this information on the site. I'm always on the look out for this sort of thing!
 
Hi Tim - I had saved a link to an interesting article on the site

Some thoughts on the hatchability of Dark Brown Marans eggs

but it seems to have disappeared. Is there a way of getting back to it

Many thanks
Sue
 
Oh dear, sorry... it looks like I missed that one. I haven't imported it from the old site.

The only way I can get it back is by re-installing the old site on a different address and then finding it / copying it.

I will get the bugs ironed out and the other articles edited and added and then I'll try and get it for you. It might take a couple of months though.

Tim
 
Tim I will sort out some articles and pics for you over the next few weeks :)

Where should I send them?

zo
x
 
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