Hints and Tips

Cold Cold Cold...

Lots of chickens are perfectly hardy and can withstand the cold weather, however there are some things you can do to ensure they're happy, warm and safe from frost.

1. Use an old carpet / blanket etc. to cover your coop at night. This will extra insulate the birds helping to keep them warm.

2. Use extra straw / shredded paper each day to insulate inside the coop.

3. Feed extra - allow your birds to free feed on higher fat foods over the winter - corn, bacon rinds, bird fat balls etc. This gives them some extra fat that will help keep them warm over the colder months

4. Fill their water container every morning with hot water - this will give an extra hour or so of drinking before it freezes over. Change regularly if possible, but don't panic if you can only do it every morning.

5. Bring all the birds together in one shed - not possible for everyone, but putting a small coop in the conservatory or a garden shed will help protect young or less hardy birds over the winter. We currently have a 2 month old silkie cockerel sleeping my husbands bathroom as he's too small to be outside

Ill Health / chickeny oddments

1. Orange faced chickens? Don't panic. Your birds will generally moult 2 or 3 times per year. Assuming all else is well, an orange face simply means they're not currently laying, or they need a little extra protein in their diet! (try a can of tuna....)

2. Scaley legs doesn't mean you've got sick birds. Unfortunately it's quite unsightly and not really very pleasant for your chooks, but a few sprits with some scaley leg spray, or a vaseline wrap (literally, wash legs in warm water and thickly apply vaseline) and the mites will die and the nasty scales will drop off! Spraying with kids savalon spray afterwards to protect against infection will only help the healing process!

3. When you're introducing new hens, there are many different schools of thought. After 3 years of trial and error, we've come to the following conclusion - providing you're introducing similar sized birds - just let them squabble! They'll very quickly establish the pecking order and without intervention - it's done a lot quicker on their own.

4. Diorreah in a chicken doesn't mean the end of the world. Try putting them on a strict pellet or corn only diet for a few weeks so their tummys can adjust. Sometimes they eat bugs and plants that don't agree with them!