My Abacot Ranger Ducks have started laying and this year I have a German strain that I imported to breed from. I’m getting the odd egg from my Copper Black Marans and Cream Legbars and I know it won’t be long before my incubators are full again.

Last weekend I decided it was time to separate the breeds back out again, ready for the breeding season. I like to leave the cockerels in with the hens at least 3 weeks to settle in before I test for fertility. My guess is that most of my birds will be laying by the end of February which is in 5 weeks time, enough time for them all to settle into their new homes and runs. I will start them on breeding rations at the end of this month, they are more expensive but do result in healthier / stronger chicks.

This year, I have decided to sell a few surplus eggs on Ebay. I don’t normally do this since I hatch most of my own eggs and by word of mouth have sold on any surplus birds but I’m thinking of hatching a little less this year to allow me to spend more time concentrating on hatching some goslings.

We’re not sure whether to attribute the transformation to patient hand feeding, a course of antibiotics or even a generous dose of poultry tonic but the old Dave is back.

She spent the weekend strutting round the kitchen telling the disgruntled cat who’s boss.

It just goes to show how easy it is to write off a bird too quickly. It’s easy to assume the worse but some loving care can make quite miraculous transformations.

It’s certainly the best Christmas present we could have wished for.

During birdy breakfast I noticed something was not right. Normally first to the feed, Dave was lagging behind and seemed to be very uncoordinated. Upon further inspection, it became clear she is very unwell.

A call to the vet suggested removing her from the coup and a dose of antibiotics, which I have loyally administered. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like she has long to go.

It’s easy to attempt to self diagnose in these situations. I have almost an entire library of books on poultry health but I’m not a vet therefore it’s all just speculation. May poultry problems can only be diagnosed postmortem so whilst the vet may not be able to give you an answer, it’s always best to get the birds checked.

Today I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for Dave, a much loved beautiful hen.

As much as you think it is never going to happen to you, it seems a regime of hygine and rigorous checks are not always a deterrent. Now the blighters are here, it’s been a gloves off fight to keep the birds healthy.

We instantly disinfected the entire coup and stocked the shelves with red mite powder, applying a generous coating to everything in sight every other day.

We haven’t seen a mite now for two weeks but the attacks had taken their tole. The birds have been left looking scruffy and upsettingly anemic. As their health has returned so has the spring in their step but I fear the war is far from over.

Let’s hope a spell of cold weather will send the mites scurrying to their tiny red graves.

Stay tuned for the latest on the saga!

I’m often asked how I manage to keep a run of cockerels together because cockerels will fight. It’s straight forward enough if you keep docile breeds and providing you don’t hurry things too much and follow a few simple rules.

• First of all, cockerels are territorial, they will protect their ‘territory’ (usually their run) from others. Secondly, they are competitive so if there are hens around, they will compete with one another. I remove the hens so that they are out of sight, then I decide which house and run the boys will end up in. This has to be a run that hasn’t had any of the boys in recently – in other words, it is neutral territory. I open the door to this run as well as the door to the boys runs. They can slowly leave their territory and go into the neutral territory and meet. There are usually a few squabbles but often, they will stay in their own territory and providing there is sufficient space, ignore one another in the neutral territory as they explore it, they are fine.
• They still get fed and watered and continue to sleep in their own house, but there is food in the new ‘neutral territory’ run too. After 3 or 4 weeks, I find they are tolerating one another and will come for food together in the new run and I stop feeding them in their own houses.
• After another couple of weeks, I transfer them at night into the new house together and shut their runs so they are now all together in the new territory. The next morning, I always make sure I am there at first light but more often than not, there aren’t many serious squabbles. This house is neutral territory so none of them feel they need to protect it as their own territory.

The smaller ‘summer’ runs now get to rest for a while and with luck, the frosty weather will kill off any worm eggs or larvae that are living in the ground. Hopefully before we get any frost, the grass will recover a little, ready for late winter / early spring when I re-populate the runs. That is if I can keep the rabbit numbers down but that’s another story!

For the past three weeks overall egg production has dropped our coup and the dreaded broodiness has set in. Our once inquisitive, loving Pekin Bantum has been transformed into an agoraphobic, angry recluse.

No matter how fast we remove eggs, as soon as they’re replaced, Bruno is back at her post, guarding her spoils.

Experienced poultry keepers have suggested a variety of tricks and witchcraft to snap her out of her spell but to date her motherly instincts have overpowered our efforts.

A dunk in a bucket of water just left her a little damp, a night in the garden may have made her shiver but did nothing to deter her and a run around the garden simply heightened her aggravation.

Any attempt to lower her body temperature has been met with blunt refusal. So, where do we go from here?

I’m tempted to wait it out but I miss my daft ball of fun that is Bruno!

Want to hear the chicken’s point of view? Visit my Chicken Talk Blog.

You can also follow my chickens on Twitter.

When I opened up the Old Girls (in my diary I refer to the old girls being the first three chickens I have) coop on Sunday August 30th all the girls came out but I noticed blood on the coop floor and on one of the nest boxes. Quickly looking around I saw Henrietta pecking at Winniefred’s rear as she was trying to get back in to the coop. I could see that the blood was coming from Winnie so I picked her up and put her out of the run and into the garden while I cleaned and fed the rest of the girls.

On closer inspection I could see that her vent was protruding and cut from what I assumed was due to her being pecked at. I bathed the wound and put back down in to the garden.

I did not have a clue what was wrong so I went on-line to search for an answer. It wasn’t long before I came to the realization that Winnie was suffering from a Prolapsed Oviduct (also known as prolapsed vent or blowout). Unfortunately I don’t have an image as I was far too stressed to get the camera.

According to what I had read this could have been caused from her age (but I was told she is only 1 year old when we got her 4 months ago), from laying large eggs (but to the best of my knowledge she has not laid an egg since we got her, although there has been the occasional egg with no shell or part shell and for which I was treating her) or that there may be an egg lodged inside her which I checked for as soon as I discovered her condition and found none. Another reason that has been cited is the size of the bird but although all my girls are spoiled a bit she is the same weight and size as the other two old girls at around 2 Kg.

All that aside I have started treating her according to the information I have obtained.

I bathed her again and wiped away any blood and the white substance around her vent. Next I gently pushed the vent back in but it came back out after a few seconds. I tried pushing it again but it came back out. So as not to distress her anymore I then put some Vaseline around the vent and put her back in to the garden.

As it was not a very good idea to put her back with the rest of the girls for fear of them pecking at her, and at worst killing her, I put her in a box in the shed and left her there to rest and after reading more I discovered that she should be kept separate from the rest of the girls for at least 2 weeks and to cut down her diet to just a little corn so as not induce her into laying.

Later that day I check on her – she did not look well and was just standing still in the box. I had read that she may die or if she got worse the best thing to do was to put her down so that she would not suffer. I can tell you now … I was not very keen on the idea of putting her to sleep without giving her the best chance possible, but of course if she did show signs of being in pain I feared there may be no alternative.

I gave her a little sweet corn and some water, talked to her for a while, then left her alone until morning.

The next day, after a worrying night thinking about her, I got her out the box and gave her a bath, removing the dried feces and discharge from around her rear. I then dried her off and let her in to the garden making sure she had access to clean water and some grain. While watching her I noticed that there was flies continually landing on her so I decided that rather than have flies around her and the danger of her getting infected with maggots to put her back in the box in the shed with a cover over it. Over the day I continually checked on her making sure she had water and that the box was clean. Each time I looked in on her she didn’t move much and made a low clucking noise – like telling me she was not well.

Tuesday morning I took her out of the shed and bathed and dried her, after which I coated her vent with sugar as I had read that sugar or honey can help to reduce the swelling by drawing out the excess fluid. I then cleaned out her box put in fresh straw, water and grain and returned her to the shed looking in on her over the day to make sure she was OK

I repeated the treatment as on Tuesday for the next 3 days giving her a little time in the garden to stretch her legs and see her old friends. She didn’t do much around the garden but walk slowly around a small area giving the occasional peck at something in the grass – over these 4 days I noticed that her vent was slowly dripping a clear/white substance. This I assumed was the result of the sugar I had being putting on her.

On Saturday I decided to take Winnie out the box in the shed and make a little run for her in the Garden. This I did by adapting a babies cot and a child’s tidy bin for a bed (as can be seen in the picture below). She seemed to like it and soon settled down to the environment and at night went into her bed.

Sunday I let her out in to the garden while I cleaned out her little run and did look a little perkier. Later that day when I looked out she had managed to get up on the bird bath eating the bird feed I leave there. At dinner time when I went up to fed the rest of the girls I gave her a little chopped up fruit which she enjoyed and when I later went to lock up the girls for the night she had already gone to bed.

Monday morning Winnie seemed a little better but not really doing much, drinking alright but not eating her corn. I gave her a bath around mid-day and there was still a slight discharge from her vent. At dinner time I gave her a little of the Yorkshire Pudding and veg I was giving to the other girls which she ate all up.

Tuesday was a good day as by all accounts Winnie does seem to be on the mend. Early in the morning I let her out in to the garden while I cleaned out her run and bed and, as it was a nice day, left her to roam around the garden. The mess in the run was more normal than it has been and she does look a lot better, she even went up to the gate of the ex-bats and gave Braveheart a peck as he poked his head out. Around 1pm I gave her some fish which she readily ate, coming to me for more. I then bathed her bottom and was so pleased to see that her vent seems to have gone back in and there is no more discharge. I will let you know how the rest of the days goes on my next post.

Don’t forget you can read more about my girls on my Ex-Battery Chicken Diary at www.stand1.co.uk

These ‘Chicken Dispatchers’ actually kill a chicken by crushing the neck and spinal cord rather than dislocating it which can cause a great deal of unnecessary suffering before death. I found out that the Humane Slaughter Association (in the UK) didn’t recommend these devices.

So What about the Neck Dislocation Method?

I was then surprised to find out that the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) had ‘reservations’  about the neck dislocation method however it is legal to use this method in the UK.

They say ” it is difficult to consistently achieve an immediate loss of consciousness” which I would totally agree with. If you don’t get it right, there certainly is suffering. So because of this, I certainly would urge people to try to get an experienced poultry keeper to show them how to practise neck dislocation properly. A friend of mine had me practising on pheasants that had been shot – when you get it right, you can feel the neck stretch and then feel the gap between the vertibrae afterwards so you know you’ve done it correctly.  The HSA recommends that the neck dislocation method should only be used in emergencies or for very small numbers of birds where no better method is available.

So what is the correct method of dispatching a chicken?

The HSA advises that when it is possible, other more humane methods should be practiced such as using electrical or mechanical concussion stunning. This should be followed immediately by a killing method like bleeding or neck dislocation whilst the bird is still unconscious.

The hand-held electrical stunners and mechanical percussive devices are available but they do cost approximately £500 to £700 which is out of reach for your average poultry keeper.

The neck dislocation method still seems to be the best approach for us to dispatch a chicken at home. The key factor is the time it takes for a bird to lose consciousness so that it is not suffering which means you might want to think about practising on a few dead pheasants too!

So I wrote my article and have uploaded to the poultrykeeper website: How to Kill a Chicken

Dealing with a serious Red Mite outbreak.

So how do you deal with such a serious red mite infestation? Normally, for small numbers I would wash the house down with poultry shield and use a number of other red mite products here and there to kill off these unwanted visitors but with so many mites in the chicken house, more serious action was required. Here’s what to do:

Allow yourself a good couple of hours…

• Clean out the house, remove all loose bedding material. Strip the house down as much as you can. Remove as many parts as possible including pop holes, automatic pop hole openers and anything else that will unscrew easily.

• If you have a felt roof, remove this – yes, unfortunately you will need to re-felt the roof. If you don’t you will find millions of red mites will still live happily under the felt.
  

  Cleaning the chicken house to remove red mites

• Using a high pressure hose / pressure washer, wash the house and parts down. Get the spray in every crack and crevice. This will take about 45 minutes if done properly. If you miss a crack, hundreds of mites could be hiding in there so it’s really important to ensure you get into everywhere possible. The spray will bounce back and soak you at times so wear old clothes and be prepared to get wet.

• Wait for the house to dry 10 to 15 minutes. Now look at it carefully – you should see red mites crawling around. These are the guys you missed that are coming out because they have been disturbed and are wet.

• Go over the house again from top to bottom, again concentrating on the cracks.

• 

  Spread generous amounts of Diatom on the bedding material.

  Repeat the above process as many times as necessary until there are very few mites coming out. The more you remove, the better. Even small populations can multiply quickly.

• Put your house back together. If you had a felt roof, leave re-felting until you are mite free for a couple of weeks. A temporary waterproof material should be used – plastic is ideal.

• Add fresh bedding material as you would after cleaning normal.

• Sprinkle a generous amount of diatom onto the bedding. The manufacturers recommend 500g per M2 which is quite a lot.

• Put a handful of diatom into your hand and rub it
  

  Diatom should be rubbed into perches

  into each perch, taking particular care around the ends and the underside. Whenyou have finished it should be white and smooth, like a gymnasts bar.  Red mites have to crawl over this to get to the chickens at night.

Monitor the house for a few days, particularly on perch ends and re-apply diatom to the perches every couple of days or as soon as it starts to wear off.

If you have got into all of the cracks successfully, you should notice a drastic reduction in the number of red mite in the house – if you still find reasonable numbers, make up a spray mixture of poultry shield and spray onto these areas using a hand held plant mister.

Continue using diatom for a few weeks until there are no more signs of red mite.

You will find an article on Red Mite with lots more information on the main poultrykeeper site.

If you have any other tips on controlling red mite or would like to leave a comment then please feel free to do so below.

Yes, we have picked names!  Boris (chosen by my sister) and Jalfrezi are the Marans, Dumb and Dumber for the Light Sussex, Kentucky for the Welsummer and Nando for the Minorcan (not Portugese as posted earlier!)

As for the crow, that was Nando…  I took him / her back to the breeder today after speaking to her on the phone.  The crow has been progressing for a week or so and today at 4:30 in the morning after lying there and counting at least 20 crows, I wandered down having tried to convince myself that it couldn’t possibly  be one of our hens.  Nando was on the top of the coop and looked at me as only he / she could.  So talking quietly I asked if it had been her that was making such a noise, at which point she bobbed a little, went up on her toes and proved that it very definitely WAS her!

So, consultations later it was deemed that Nando was very likely a Rooster, and her behaviour back at Jen’s proved it – squaring up to every other Rooster she could find – which were all safely in their runs!  Apparently Nando was very handsome and Jen is likely to breed him next year, which is better than a destiny involving the pot!

So, a Minorcan pullet was exchanged and named Nando II and is currently in a little sectioned off run so that the other chooks can get used to her.  I did try a bit of supervised introductions but it was predictably unfriendly…  So the plan is that when the others have gone to bed they’ll all get doused in lice powder, as will Nando II and then she’ll be added into the coop.  Around 11pm tonight so that the others don’t get too excited.  Hopefully this will help ease her into the group and is what the breeder recommended…

I feel kinda mean introducing her on her own, and the sussex and welsummer will probably be OK after a little while, it’s Jalfrezi I worry about as she is definitely boss chicken.  Hopefully the re-establishment on the pecking order wont be too brutal…  On the plus side Nando II is eating and drinking in her little run and the others are showing an interest without throwing themselves at the side, so fingers crossed!