Reviews by ManueB

I'm grateful that you took the time to share in depth the life of Mr. Chips, and once again in awe of your ability to turn grief into reflection and knowledge for the future. Hopefully your article will also help to counter-balance for some newcomers to BYC the point of view often loudly expressed that roosters, and cockerels especially, are expendable members of the flock. We won't forget Mr. Chips, that's for sure.

Concise but clear, and very convincing to show that it can be quite simple and worth it to change a small shed into a coop. It makes me almost wish we had done that for our small coop instead of building from scratch.
I do have two questions : did you use a wood stapler or just hardware staples that are hammered in ? And, is it not too annoying to clean the back of the coop since it's not human sized, so I suppose you can't just walk in ?

This article did a very good job of taking the key substance from several scientific articles to show that the role of the crop in digestion is much more complex than usually mentioned. But what I really appreciated was the writer's original contribution to put this in relation with very practical questions for backyard chicken keepers : such as how to feed and how soaking food should be taken into account ; the possibility that feeling out a "full crop" may not always be pertinent to evaluate either nutrition in the evening, or a blockage in the morning. I read only the first reference which I found instructive and rather accessible, but appreciated the bibliography, which I will take the time to read more thoroughly.

I'm one of the person who asked the author to write this article so I may be slightly biased if I find it wonderful. It is a perfect mix of the theory that led to choosing this way of feeding, and a detailed practical description of how it is done. The method in itself may probably seem not convenient in it's entirety for a number of chicken keepers who work full time or don't have sufficient space for their chickens to forage all day. However, I think it makes a convincing statement that considering real food as a treat potentially harmful for chickens and commercial food as the only safe and healthy way to feed them, is a rather biased point of view. I hope it will encourage chicken keepers in thinking that introducing diversity in types of food and not limiting strictly to commercial food can really be healthy for their flocks.
This matter is sometimes a heated debate on BYC (just like BARF diets for furry people has been when it began gaining popularity) and I think the article form is a useful way to explain things more in depth.

Thank you for the detailed article.
I also need help with the math and some advice. I'm using this paste meant to be given directly with a syringe. It contains 44 mg of Flubendazole per ml of curry paste, and the amount of paste should be measured depending on the chickens weight.

Since it's given directly to the chicken and not mixed in feed, should I still use the dosage given in the Merck's manual you link to : Flubendazole (1.43 mg/kg) for seven days ?
Is the safety margin lessened by the fact that the paste is not mixed in feed or does it change nothing ?
Thank you.

Thank you for this detailed article. It deals with an essential aspect of those pre-made coops that is rarely talked about- their sustainability and how to deal with discarding them.
The economic context, with the conjonction of so many new people wanting to begin to keep chickens and price of materials having gone up to the sky, will mean plenty of new buyers for these. It's just not realistic to expect all new chicken keepers to spend a 1000 bucks and to have the time and skill for building a coop.

I hope some of the future reviewers who have owned pre-made coops that were not over populated, will mention how long theirs lasted.

When I was in my last year of junior high I had a clash with my dreaded physics teacher Madame Delpozzo. Ever since I skipped anything related to science in school and have been unfortunately unable to understand most physical events in everyday life. Repecka, however, is an excellent teacher and I think I more or less understood how air should circulate in a coop and how one should adapt ventilation in the coop to the environment. Thank you so much and I wish Madame Delpozzo had been a chicken.

I loved reading this article, in part because it was so well written it read like a fairy tale with a sense of humor. The photos made it very lively. And it went against a few stereotypes ! Now I would like to know more about these five senior ladies, if they have required special care, and if and how they have passed since this article was written.

The part on oxalic acid and phylate was very interesting. It could have mentioned that oxalates are reduced by cooking and phylates by soaking for several hours. Many garden weeds that people would feed their chickens, also contain high level of oxalates. I think the article would have been even more interesting if it had mentioned the different forms of calcium and their degree of bioavailability for hens, and also questioned the damage calcium can do to non-laying hens, roosters and chicks.

I read this article before integrating my bantams into my standards ex-batts flock and it didn't prevent things from turning into hell. All the points mentioned are useful, but they are not enough if things go wrong. My number one advice would be to choose wisely at which time of year you integrate it can be very complicated if there is only one place to shelter from rain, snow or storms, even with separations.
If I ever write an article one day it I'll be on the lessons I took from our integration disaster.

Very interesting article with the photos, the details and the follow-up on what this chick became. I don't know if assisted hatching always end like this, but I think it would be useful to read for anyone confronted to a difficult hatch so as to make an educated decision.

A very useful article that could have been made better by actually putting out a list of the definite plants to keep in the chicken garden -the bold police system makes it not very easy to read the whole list through. Also, I have reservations on some of the plants that are mentioned as useful or able to exist with chickens. For example Artemisia is a poison if eaten in sufficient dose and is also very invasive. Borage is great but it does not stand a chance with my chicken, they eat it down before it even blooms.