Right, Jill, bear with me as I'm trying to remember.......... My parents had the same thing in spring. Like Wendy, our house is too old with solid walls, so can't have wall insulation, but we had the loft done. Our loft barely exists. It's very hard for a slim person to crawl in and the workmen used...

Thanks Melons. You'll have to let us know if it lives up to it's expectations Anna. There is a link on the site for stockists, I think. I have tried putting plastic sheeting and newspaper down, for ease of cleaning, but they just scratch it up and eat the paper so I stopped as I didn't want them eat...

I must admit Richard, that I liked the look of the plastic ones too at first. And the no red mite worries was a great attraction. But looking at the pics on the website, I also got a brochure too, they didn't look very roomy and the perches were right there as they walked in. I like to think that ch...

Reading the 'Autumnal Habits' thread and the cleaning posts got me wondering...... At the moment, we are using only straw (or hay. The one you are allowed). We tried lining with newspaper, but that got ripped up in seconds and flew around the garden. I have been on Freecycle and have been offered so...

As long as you are clearing daily I think you may be making a lot of hard work for yourself (not a criticism) Thank you for putting that Anna. I have found on forums that it can sometimes be quite difficult understanding the tone in which something has been written, understandably. Although to make...

Ohhhh. lol I wasn't sure if you meant the way the feathers were gathered on the actual chicken!!! Silly me!!!! I've found that my neices and nephews are young enough, and the chickens new enough to still be a novelty, that they like to pick them up for me and take them home!! I'm sure it'll be diffe...

I keep a close eye on them throughout the day, as you know, they are being mean to each other lately. But I thought I was going mad when I kept seeing feathers all over the garden!! At least I know that I'm not seeing things! What do you mean, "the gathering of the feathers"? Am I being du...

Forgive me for being so dumb but is autumn also the time for the annual moult? I know that my chickens are being nasty blighters to each other, but the wing area on them looks like the feathers are moulting and I keep finding the clipped feathers around the garden! I also read that the moult can tri...

I'm so sorry Verity (((((hugs)))))

You did what you could and Henrietta knew that.

Hope you feel better soon

xxx

When we picked up our chickens, we had an introduction, how to hold them, feed them etc etc and we were told to put a couple of inches of the red mite/lice powder into their dustbath and they will work it in for themselves better than we could. We haven't tried this yet though, as our chickens are g...

LOL wendy

Hi Verity, sorry to hear about Henrietta. The book I have is called "Starting With Chickens" by Katie Thear. She has a section on ill health. She does stress the point that she is not a vet, but this will do no harm to her: "Trickle in a teaspoonful of olive oil to lubricate the crop ...

I know. It really is hideous. We took that picture when it was at it's worst. We clean her twice a day, like I said, then dry her with the hairdryer, (on low temp and sound, of course) and she is on her own. She is fine in herself and is still laying. There are a few differences in size still as she...

This is (hopefully) a pic of my poor Delilah's bum. It is a lot better now though. At first, she looked as though her vent was inside out, she was so covered in blood. :( We are washing her in an antiseptic wash twice daily that we got from the vet, but she seems to have a discharge from her vent, w...

UPDATE Well Delilah was seperated today and was fine. Bluebelle kept pecking the others so was put into a (big) cardboard box for a while. We covered Delilah's rear end in vaseline and put her back in the run to see what they would do. They all had a bit of a peck and all but Lucy actually liked th...