As hens get older they have a tendency to develop problems when laying eggs. As they approach the end of lay stage shells may begin to display full or partial wrinkling. This is caused by reduced elasticity of the tubes which the eggs travel down as ...
This can be a traumatic experience for both chickens and owners alike. As you probably know chickens establish a hierarchy or ‘pecking order’ in any flock and newcomers will quickly be shown their place – sometimes with quite violent ...
I have often been asked why I adopted ex-battery hens, after all they are worn out before I take them home, according to people who have never kept chickens. What can I say about these little brown hens who have lived all of their lives standing on a ...
When I am out at shows and events around the country talking to prospective keepers about chickens it’s invariably the same questions that keep arising. With that in mind I thought I’d answer some of the most common ones in a Pocket Farm chicken ...
Chickens love greens just offer them a head of cabbage, floret of broccoli or even a handful of fresh grass clippings and see how eagerly they consume them. Many of you will know that greenery imparts the intense yellow to the yolks of eggs from hens ...
Feeding your chickens a balanced diet is a very straightforward affair these days. With the advent of properly formulated mashes and pelleted feeds (pic above) we have a convenient and clean way of providing a perfectly balanced diet whatever the ...
If you decide you would like to hatch some chicks and don’t happen to have a broody hen to hand then you will have to consider using some artificial method of incubation and brooding. These days there are all manner of high tech devices that ...
If you are hatching chicks in an incubator you are going to need somewhere for them to go when they pop out of the shell. Brooder boxes are simple affairs that just need to provide a warm, safe, draught free environment for the crucial first few ...
They still provide by far the most popular Christmas feast and the meat is gaining general acceptance throughout the year too but turkeys are often overlooked by the small-scale keeper in favour of chickens or other livestock so I decided to take a long overdue look at these portly, puckered ...
Well, what have we here? You could be forgiven for thinking the Transylvanian Naked Neck is some sort of chicken/turkey hybrid, indeed many have, which has lead to its common nicknames ‘Turken’ or ‘Churkey’ but, be assured, that this unusual ...
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