sara | October 9, 2011
Sneezing hens may have an upper respiratory problem and there can be discharge from the nose with this.
Hens are prone to respiratory problems.
There can be a number of causes:
poor ventillation (droppings give off ammonia),
sawdust (larger wood shavings sold in pet shops usually has the ‘dust’ extracted to prevent these problems),
straw may carry dust in it.
viruses [...]
sara | February 21, 2011
I have received a chicken feeder tip from Anthony Marriott from Marriotts Smallholding to help stop your poultry from tipping up their feeder.
Anthony says, “We have found that chickens like to scratch their feeders as much as the grass etc.
To solve this problem just get a couple of galvanised tent pegs and push one [...]
sara | February 20, 2011
One of our farmingfriends forum members recently posted about her poorly hen and was seeking advice on what might be the matter. She let us know as much information as possible about her hen by answering a set of questions, which I thought was very useful.
I thought that these were useful questions to consider if [...]
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 | January 18, 2011
The age of maturity of male birds will differ between species of birds. The maturity refers to the age at which the males reach sexual maturity and will start breeding with their female partners.
Quail = about 60 days old.
Hen = about 6-8 months old.
Partridges = male grey partridges mature from about 10-12 months old.
Pheasants [...]
sara | January 13, 2011
The age of maturity of female birds will differ between species of birds. The maturity refers to the age at which the females reach sexual maturity and will start laying eggs and breeding with their male partners.
Quail = about 50 days old (I have observed that female Japanese quail will start to lay eggs from [...]
sara | January 11, 2011
Here is a rough guide to the male to female ratio for keeping different varieties of poultry together.
Quail = 1 male to every 3-4 females.
Hen = 1 males to every 6-10 females. (The Domestic Fowl Trust normally recommend 1 male to 6 females for breeding chickens.)
Partridges = 1 male to 1 female.
Pheasants = 1 male [...]
sara | December 19, 2010
I am sometimes asked about coccidiosis in hens and whether apple cider vinegar can help with this.
Does anyone know if giving acv helps against coccidiosis,
or if there is anything that you can give them, one of my hens has milky runny droppings but is generally healthy, is she ok? Sarah
I thought I would mention it [...]
sara | November 23, 2010
I had never heard of the naked neck turken or the cou nu chicken until recently when my “farmingfriend” Sandy from the US sent me a photo of some hens she has.
The naked neck turken is the hen in the background. As you can see from the photo this bird has a look of a [...]
sara | November 4, 2010
Worming Chickens By Tim Daniels of poultrykeeper.com
This article shares some of my personal experiences and routines with worming my chickens.
Chickens, waterfowl and other poultry require regular worming to prevent health problems, yet it is surprising how many people don’t do this on a regular basis. If you are keeping chickens on the same piece of [...]
