sara | February 19, 2011
I have been asked some questions relating to silkie chicks and hens. I don’t have silkie hens myself although a friend has some and they hatched some of my guinea fowl eggs and looked after the keets brilliantly so I know they make great mums!
Dear friends,
Hope you are doing good with your pets
I [...]
sara | March 31, 2010
I have been asked what cause curled toes in poultry and waterfowl chicks.
Curled toes is when the chick, keet or duckling is born with toes or feet that are curled up.
This can be caused by a number of things:
Curled feet can be genetic and due to inbreeding. It’s only safe to breed ducks down by [...]
sara | March 26, 2010
I received a couple of tips if your chicks have splayed legs that I thought would be useful to share.
“Its my opinion from many years of hatching, that getting the splayed (spraddled) legged chick on 1/8 inch wire as soon as possible will correct most chicks with this defect. Keith”
“My wife has cured splayed legs [...]
sara | March 4, 2010
I have received this tip and advice about litter for a brooder.
“The safest, most comfortable ,most hygienic, most chick friendly and cheapest litter for a brooder is clean chopped straw. All you need is a small bale of straw and your lawnmower (with it’s collection bag on if possible). Lay straw on a [...]
sara | July 14, 2009
At Monday tea-time the quail chicks were moved from the incubator to the brooder.
There are 29 quail chicks in the brooder and some are dark brown a few are a fawn colouring and one or two are creamy coloured.
The chicks are very lively and quickly found the chick crumbs and started eating them, which they [...]
sara | July 13, 2009
Yesterday the 42 japanese quail eggs that I had in my incubator where due to hatch. I had been away in the caravan on Saturday night and when I returned on sunday afternoon some of the eggs had pipped and I could definately hear cheeping.
At about 7.15pm one chick hatched by 7.45 there were about [...]
sara | June 15, 2009
I received an email about a broody hen that was bullied off her nest of eggs for about 5 hours. I sent a reply and corresponded with Kate and was delighted to hear that the hen managed to get back on the nest and the eggs hatched out. Here is our email correspondence tracking the [...]
sara | May 7, 2009
Taming quail chicks requires;
Lots of time – frequent and daily contact is needed.
Daily contact with the quail chicks – frequently handling, feeding, playing and talking to the chicks throughout the day.
Frequent handling of the quail chicks – at least 3 times a day.
Hand feeding the quail chicks – placing chick crumbs or lettuce on your [...]
sara | November 21, 2008
It isn’t very easy to identify the gender of young chicks but there are a number of ways to do so.
Cloacal, or vent sexing is one method although this method is not easy to do without proper training and experience. This method involves examining the baby chicken’s vent, located under its tail, looking for a [...]
sara | July 31, 2008
Sara, one of the farmingfriends visitors, contacted me for advice as 2 of her day old quail had a splayed leg problem. I sent Sara some information which suggested that she use a band aid to splint the legs. You can strap/splint the legs so that they come back into line. This can be done [...]
