Keeping Chickens
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Chickens are amazingly complex creatures. . . with their hollow bones, intricate feathering and four-chambered heart, with continuous air intake, high metabolism and complex brains' providing them with excellent hearing, and superb colour vision.. They can often be seen chasing an almost invisible insect that we ourselves would normally struggle to see.. Domestic chickens are not very good flyers, especially the heavier breeds, having been bred to "stay at home" - everything about the chicken suggests very careful design.. Even a chicken's egg is well designed, as the embryo nestles safely inside, surrounded and cushioned by amniotic fluid while nourished by the yolk. Metabolic wastes are insulated from the rest, while oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged across the hard porous shell. A healthy female chicken produces just such a clever system almost daily, and is also capable of preserving the males' sperm inside her body to continue fertilizing her eggs for up to a week or more after mating.. |
Below : Gold Laced Wyandotte Cockerel 
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Housing Requirements : Your new birds will require a warm, but well ventilated house to sleep in with adequate perching room for all.. It is also recommend to put insulation under a hot tin roof, as this is very important, so houses do not become a bake house in the summer time.. Hens' do not require a nest box each, depending on how many birds you have will depend on how many nest boxes will be required. i.e. a flock of 6 birds really only require two nest boxes.. One small tip - don't put your nest boxes above your perch or your birds will likely end up sleeping in them which will result in soiled eggs.! For larger / heavy breeds we recommend a perch only 500 - 600mm off the ground, which should be of a good thickness of at least 50mm or more. Birds do not sleep with their feet wrapped around the perch like aviary birds do.. but actually sit flat on top of their perch. |
We feed all our growing birds ad lib while they are growing, (filling their feed dishes twice a day) once they start laying we put them on once a day feeding. Be sure never to feed your young growing birds any 'Layers' feed/s, until they are actually laying! Always feed a grower product and always use crushed grains (i.e. Kibbled Maize, as large whole kernels may clog up their crops, and unrolled barley cannot be digested!). |
Caring for your new growing (birds) Pullets :
When taking your new growing birds home for the first time, it will often be their first time outside. . They will need a warm / dry, safe house (with dry untreated shavings inside on the floor and in the nest boxes) with a small attached run area (separate from any other birds) to start off with, so they are not too overwhelmed and have time to grow! Moving to a new home and environment can all be quite stressful for them initially, so quiet handling and time to settle into their new home is very important ! When you arrive home with your new birds - pop them straight from their cage (carriers) into their new house (sleeping quarters) and let them come out into their run area in their own time to have look around. . You will need to check on dark that they have gone back into their house at night, as often when they go back into their house they will come out again because it is darker inside, and then they may huddle in a corner of their pen outside (and they will not move again once it is dark outside) so it is very important to check them to ensure they have gone back into their house at night, to keep warm and are out of any bad weather! If you have a raised house with a ramp they will often huddle under the ramp (or house) so you must check them and will likely need to pick them up quietly and pop them at the top of the ramp into the hole of their new house, to teach them what to do. All the best with your new birds and enjoy watching them go about their business as they grow! |
What you need to know about keeping Chickens. . .
Often birds can seemingly become sick over night, so if you notice any change in any of your birds, they will most likely be unwell, and may have been for sometime.. If for instance you notice a hen is off colour, has isolated herself, not eating, is fluffed up, or generally sitting around not doing what she normally would be doing you will need to act quickly, as she would most likely have been ill for sometime and just can not hide it any longer..
Primarily all fowl from way back in prehistoric times are predisposed to mask any illness until such time they just cannot hide it any longer, so they are not easily picked off in the wild or by the other chooks in the run! Hence why fast action is of the essence if you do not want to lose any bird from an early and often avoidable death..
One of the main things I hear from some chook owners is; "my chook was good one day, then 'bang' dead the next" with no apparent sign of sickness.
More often than not, all it takes is to pick your bird up and check for parasites, such as creepy crawly's like lice or red mites !
Often they may have become very light in condition as a result, this is not a good sign and only goes to show long they have been suffering in silence..
Fast action is required, using a dusting power to dusting your birds and also putting in their nest boxes, as mites live in their housing cracks &
joins and feed on your birds blood..
It is advised to clean the entire chook house out completely & thoroughly spray with either a strong industrial strength Rip-cord or insecticide spray first, then let dry in the sun & dust with DE and fill with lovely clean fresh untreated shavings.
It may also be very likely you will be required to do this all again in a week to ten days later to get all the newly hatched mites as well..
Diatomaceous Earth can also be used for parasite control and worm control, feed grade is the only safe DE to use & should illiberally puffed
in and around the entire chook house & next boxes, paying very special attention to all the corners & nooks and cranny's.!
We would also recommend using an ivomectin based / pour on product for a quick and effective way of controlling both internal [worms] & external parasites [blood sucking lice and Mites]. However most of these products do have a withholding period so it would pay to stop eat any eggs with the time frame recommended.. Eprinex cattle pour-on drench however has no withholding, so it does pay to check what product you are using..
Often birds can seemingly become sick over night, so if you notice any change in any of your birds, they will most likely be unwell, and may have been for sometime.. If for instance you notice a hen is off colour, has isolated herself, not eating, is fluffed up, or generally sitting around not doing what she normally would be doing you will need to act quickly, as she would most likely have been ill for sometime and just can not hide it any longer..
Primarily all fowl from way back in prehistoric times are predisposed to mask any illness until such time they just cannot hide it any longer, so they are not easily picked off in the wild or by the other chooks in the run! Hence why fast action is of the essence if you do not want to lose any bird from an early and often avoidable death..
One of the main things I hear from some chook owners is; "my chook was good one day, then 'bang' dead the next" with no apparent sign of sickness.
More often than not, all it takes is to pick your bird up and check for parasites, such as creepy crawly's like lice or red mites !
Often they may have become very light in condition as a result, this is not a good sign and only goes to show long they have been suffering in silence..
Fast action is required, using a dusting power to dusting your birds and also putting in their nest boxes, as mites live in their housing cracks &
joins and feed on your birds blood..
It is advised to clean the entire chook house out completely & thoroughly spray with either a strong industrial strength Rip-cord or insecticide spray first, then let dry in the sun & dust with DE and fill with lovely clean fresh untreated shavings.
It may also be very likely you will be required to do this all again in a week to ten days later to get all the newly hatched mites as well..
Diatomaceous Earth can also be used for parasite control and worm control, feed grade is the only safe DE to use & should illiberally puffed
in and around the entire chook house & next boxes, paying very special attention to all the corners & nooks and cranny's.!
We would also recommend using an ivomectin based / pour on product for a quick and effective way of controlling both internal [worms] & external parasites [blood sucking lice and Mites]. However most of these products do have a withholding period so it would pay to stop eat any eggs with the time frame recommended.. Eprinex cattle pour-on drench however has no withholding, so it does pay to check what product you are using..