Keeping Chickens
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.
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, 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 perches/roosts or your birds will likely end up sleeping in them as they feel safest higher - 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. Please sand off sharp edges on your perches. Nice smooth edges will prevent bumble foot.
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 pullet grower product as the higher levels of calcium in layer feed can cause kidney issues in young birds. |
Caring for your new growing (birds) Pullets :
When taking your new growing birds home for the first time, please give them time to adjust - it will be a big scary new place. 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 some time. 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 quite a while 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 one of your lovely ladies.
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.
There are many many things that can ail a chicken, from parasites to diseases, to reproductive disorders and even simple things like a bee sting. The best thing is to observe your chickens regularly, so you can pick when one isn't behaving like she usually does. Handle your chickens regularly too - sometimes weight loss is the only indication of a problem and they can hide complete emaciation under all those feathers.
the most common issue - especially in summer - are 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.
For lice - using a dusting power such as dog flea powder to dust your birds. Especially around the vent, around the neck and anywhere the bird has trouble preening. Snip off any large egg clusters with sharp scissors. Mites live in their housing cracks & joins and feed on your birds blood when they come out at night. You may find them crawling on your skin or your fresh eggs after you have collected or been inside your coop. It is very easy to miss an infestation of these horrid wee critters as they are super tiny. If you discover a mite infestation it is advised to clean the entire chook house out completely & thoroughly spray with a strong industrial strength Rip-cord or residual spider and insecticide spray (made up to the strongest recommended concentration), making sure to flood all the joins and under perches etc, then let dry in the sun and refill 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.
Exzolt is a wonderful new product that controls red mite exceptionally well. It is a veterinary only medicine and you may have to call a few vets to find some but it is worth the effort. Avivet will dispense and post out the correct amount for your flock if you cant find a local vet that holds it. It can be given directly to each hen into their mouth or can be administered in drinking water.
If you prefer a natural method to eradicate the beasties then Bio Force sells a predatory mite that feasts on red mites! Do not use both predatory mites and chemical treatments together though or you will kill your good guys!
We would also recommend using an ivomectin based / pour on product for a quick and effective way of controlling both internal [worms] & external parasites [ red and scaly Mites].
Please be aware that most of these products have a withholding period so it would pay to stop eating any eggs for the time frame recommended - usually 10 days.
We do not recommend the use of DE (diatomaceous earth). The silica content is not safe for birds or humans to breathe and can cause permanent damage to lungs.
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 some time. 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 quite a while 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 one of your lovely ladies.
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.
There are many many things that can ail a chicken, from parasites to diseases, to reproductive disorders and even simple things like a bee sting. The best thing is to observe your chickens regularly, so you can pick when one isn't behaving like she usually does. Handle your chickens regularly too - sometimes weight loss is the only indication of a problem and they can hide complete emaciation under all those feathers.
the most common issue - especially in summer - are 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.
For lice - using a dusting power such as dog flea powder to dust your birds. Especially around the vent, around the neck and anywhere the bird has trouble preening. Snip off any large egg clusters with sharp scissors. Mites live in their housing cracks & joins and feed on your birds blood when they come out at night. You may find them crawling on your skin or your fresh eggs after you have collected or been inside your coop. It is very easy to miss an infestation of these horrid wee critters as they are super tiny. If you discover a mite infestation it is advised to clean the entire chook house out completely & thoroughly spray with a strong industrial strength Rip-cord or residual spider and insecticide spray (made up to the strongest recommended concentration), making sure to flood all the joins and under perches etc, then let dry in the sun and refill 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.
Exzolt is a wonderful new product that controls red mite exceptionally well. It is a veterinary only medicine and you may have to call a few vets to find some but it is worth the effort. Avivet will dispense and post out the correct amount for your flock if you cant find a local vet that holds it. It can be given directly to each hen into their mouth or can be administered in drinking water.
If you prefer a natural method to eradicate the beasties then Bio Force sells a predatory mite that feasts on red mites! Do not use both predatory mites and chemical treatments together though or you will kill your good guys!
We would also recommend using an ivomectin based / pour on product for a quick and effective way of controlling both internal [worms] & external parasites [ red and scaly Mites].
Please be aware that most of these products have a withholding period so it would pay to stop eating any eggs for the time frame recommended - usually 10 days.
We do not recommend the use of DE (diatomaceous earth). The silica content is not safe for birds or humans to breathe and can cause permanent damage to lungs.