Reviews by Shadrach

True, not a riveting fun topic. But, BYC gets lots of questions asking about correct temperature and humidly for optimal hatching.

Strangely even here in Spain frostbite can be an issue.

I use pruning shears. It's one of the worst aspects of hatching. Even harder when you've watched a mother hen leave her nest with a sick chick struggling to survive and mum isn't interested. Yes, you could probably save some but then what. I tried it once and the mother just drove the chick away.
This is imo the best method.

I don't think there is a single article on BYC containing this much information on chicken anatomy.
It's very well put together. As good if not better than many of the books I've looked at about this subject. It's readable despite being 'scientific', something that often gets overlooked by many of those who write informative articles on BYC. While it's great to know your stuff, it's also important that people want to read it.
The article is well laid out and it's obviously had a lot of work put into it.
Every chicken keeper that doesn't have a book with all this in should read this. You should probably read it anyway and when you've done rate and comment. Good articles are a lot of work and this more so than most.

I don't know a thing about colour genetics and I don't really care what comes out of an egg.
I still found this article interesting. I've read a few 'how to' guides on genetics for chickens just out of curiosity. I'm often asleep at the end of the first paragraph.
I made it all the way to the end of this and enjoyed reading it. Great article.

I have to state that I don't incubate eggs and therefor know next to nothing about assisted hatching for incubated chicks. However, I have, and will in future assist a hen who may be having problems hatching her own eggs. It doesn't always go as planned and I have had two chicks that developed neurological problems from problems during hatching. I chose not to kill them despite knowing the hatch hadn't gone well.
Much of the advice in this article is very useful for those who let a broody hen hatch and run into problems.
I was lucky, I found the advice I needed elsewhere but this article would have taught me more when I first started. Great article and sensible easy to follow advice.

I'm a hatch by broody enthusiast. I've watched, and managed when necessary, lots of hatchings.
This article explains how it all happens very well. I particularly like the author mentioning something about how the 'natural' integration process works, although sometimes I have had to provide some assistance when the home coops have ramps.
Read this, have faith in your hens and chuck the incubator in the bin.

This is a good article. The author has obviously put a lot of effort into trying to find the best ways to manage male chickens. My approach has been entirely different but then I don't have the same number of chickens and I don't have the same keeping arrangements.
Any attempts to try and understand chickens and male chickens in particular I'm always going to be in favor of. I don't have to agree with the approach to recommend that this article is well worth reading and outlines someones experience rather than regurgitating some of the nonsense that can be found on the web.

Thankfully I don't have to deal with these temperatures.

What a great article. Just one thing that I can think of that is missing and that is some information on the banding/barring sometimes seen in feathers that can represent stress and/or poor quality diet.

I remember this thread.
I also remember asking Nksg75 if she would write an account of the treatment. Thank you Nksg75.
I'm very pleased to read that Mrs Lee is back with her friends and recovering.
There must have been many thousands of threads over the history of BYC where a chicken has fallen ill and advice from those at BYC who give it, has been sought.
How do we do? Do we get it right? So often we never get to hear what finally happened.
This when combined with the original thread makes fascinating reading.
I highly recommend any reader of this article to open another tab in their browser and read the thread in conjunction with this article.

I read this article and frankly I was appalled. It’s full of frightened old wives tales and what’s worse, dead roosters.
Normally I would just pass this by. However, people are going to read this nonsense given it’s a featured thread.
What has upset me most is you can write a good story which could be an enormous asset to teaching if the information was correct.
I’ve picked out just a few passages that I think are worth commenting on.



“because we all know hens wont lay eggs unless they have a rooster.”
This must be humor because as it reads it’s complete and utter nonsense.

"Then it dawned on me. Roosters just cant be pets.”
There are many people who keep roosters as pets here on BYC.

"Pretty soon, I felt an attack was imminent and banned my sons from visiting the coop.”
This is the most sensible part of the article and good advice for anyone who keeps roosters. Don’t let children near them.

"To that end, the roosters brain is on constant defense mode. Some roosters on the other hand, take it a step further, because fortune favors the prepared, they attack anything and everything that could be a threat.”
If only this was true; I would have less dead hens. Most roosters give the warning call and run. They’re not stupid creatures.

"But I am the one that gives him permission. I had Stinky trained to the point that he would stay squatting down, head to the floor until I nudged him.”
Just sad.

"Always show strength and dominance. You are the superior being, bigger and have the axe. Never forget it, and make sure he does not either.”
If only this was true. A superior bing wouldn’t have to kill a succession of roosters because they couldn’t handle them. Just being bigger and supposedly smarter should do the trick. You don’t need the axe.

I could write more but I would be wasting my time.

Really don't need much more than this.
I hope you make similar 'short but sweet' articles giving dosage for other medication.
A list of such articles would be really helpful to have on hand. So many questions on the forums regarding dosage.

I liked this. It's well written, has more information in the links and most of all doesn't encourage the hysteria often associated with this disease.

It's a lovely article but lots of the information is wrong.

As usual TwoCrows has produced a well written and informative article.
The advice against using chicken wire I particularly liked. I see lots of coops and runs on the forums where chicken wire is used and it’s inviting a disaster.
The article is mainly built around large coops and while ventilation is very important for small coops off the ground such as I use, 1 sq foot of ventilation per bird would leave me with a wall missing.
The explanation of how air flows using roof vents is good; it’s how I build my small coops.
I would have liked to see recommendations for using sheet material for construction; this makes coops easier to clean and provides fewer hiding places for pests.
I’ve become a fan of bare floors in coops. I’ve found bare floors much easier for poop checks but once again, the type of coop you build will have a major bearing on whether this is or isn’t practicable.
It’s an almost impossible task to cover all coop types and this article covers the important ideas which with some thought could be applied to any coop build.
All in all an excellent article.

There are quite a few how to feed your flock articles on BYC. Unfortunately many follow the feed your chickens commercial feed and anything else is treats dogma.
Comparatively few who keep chickens in the wider world feed commercial feed; many here and elsewhere I have been, would be feeding their flock much as this article describes.
Chickens are omnivorous, it's one of their great survival advantages.
This article is going in my must read section.

I liked this article.
I’m interested in what the chickens here eat as they free range. While they are moulting for example they eat stuff I don’t usually see them eating otherwise.
I’m prepared to believe that many herbs, roots and bugs play a role in keeping chickens healthy. I just know very little about the subject.
The article itself would benefit from a few more pictures of the plants mentioned, but reading the experiences rather than a long list is fine.

A bit more detail and this would have been 5 star material.
A realistic view of keeping chickens and trying to adapt to nature rather than try to kill every predator.
The netting made me think of fish nets for run roofs. I can see how this may work better than a tight chicken wire arrangement which I have seen fail a few times on local farms here.

This is a good article. Here in Catalonia Fennel is used to treat sour crop and it does seem to work.
Good instructions on how to make the ‘tea’ and decent information on alternatives.