Recent content by Phenomenon

I know this is bad but I have 3 hens and 5 roosters Firstly, your hens are not hens but pullets. As for 5 cock birds and 3 girls, the maths are all wrong! Way too many cocks to girls, this will always lead to bullying one way or the other.

Would be mad to throw out your first eggs! They may be small, but they're as good for you as any other.

By the time worms appear in their poo it's highly likely they will have a fairly severe case! Prevention is always better than cure. Bare in mind that many herbal wormers are available, so need to worry about toxic chemicals.

Chicken run with fence, gate and roof = cage.

Never been a great believer in the "25 hour" cycle. If it were so the egg laying would move on one hour per day, hence my girls would not be laying at the same time of day, which they do. One of my girls lays through the night, two others lay before 10, as for the marans, when they feel like it...

I pay £9 for a 25kg bag of layers, £7 for a 20kg bag of mixed corn.

Definitely berries! My girls have an elderberry bush near their run, I've never seen so much purple poo. lol!

I reckon it would be extremely cold in the winter months as apposed to wood and chippings.

One of our pullets loves feathers! Particularly if it comes from one of the marans.

We split our run in to two sections. The first section is now pretty much all mud and nothing else which gives them plenty to dig through. The other section is wood chip which gives them somewhere to dry their feet. Fortunately the farms and sawmills here sell sawdust, clippings and the like for...

One of our pullets - Hilda - does the same thing. She was first to lay and knows exactly how she wants her nest box to look and feel. Even when I'm cleaning the nests out she'll be in them kicking the straw in to the coop.

Do they have access to unlimited pellets? If not, they're hungry. You may also find that one or two may not be getting their fair share. The pecking order can often leave a hen or two feeling quite hungry.

Pullet eggs are always small, unless you get a double yolker! As the pullet matures the eggs will increase in size. By the time they become a true hen, 12 months, they'll be what most would call a normal egg. You should see some of the eggs the farmer at the back our house gets, they're...

Quote: It can also be a sign of a bad winter just passed. Our apple tree barely threw out any blossoms, net result...3 apples!

For a novice, what's a foo-foo breed?