I have a vsb pop hole opener which had been working perfectly for a couple of years. The other day my chickens hadn't appeared at breakfast time and on investigation I found that the door was down and the line from the vsb unit completely unwound and slack. I've tried to reset the device and swapped...

Thank you to everybody for all the advice and especially to Richard for putting up the picture. Sadly Maggie didn't make it and passed away in the night. With hindsight and Dom's insight I think that egg yolk peritonitus could have been the initial problem as she laid what looked like a piece of coo...

I have a large Sussex hen who I'm really worried about. She laid for the last time around six months ago and has steadily gone down hill since then. We bought her as point of lay around two years ago and she was happy and healthy until recently. She is very lethargic but does still eat pellets from ...

What a coincidence. I logged in to ask about a very familiar looking thing in my nest box today. The only difference being what I found looked more 'meaty'. It was exactly the same shape but paler in colour!

I've just lost my first hen to a fox and want to invest in electric fencing to keep them safe. My hens live in an old shed at the bottom of the garden and have an automatic pop hole opener that lets them out into a large and rather overgrown area. I intend to put fencing around the perimeter of thei...

One of our hens has developed the unpleasant habit of feather pecking. She is picking on one poor hen who is developing a bald patch on her back. I've increased the area they live in hugely and tried isolating the offending bird during the day time but so far this hasn't made any difference. Do anti...

Apologies for taking so long to post an update! Blackie has settled in perfectly and made himself right at home. We conducted a vote to give him a new pc name and the children voted overwhelmingly for Rocky so that is what we now call him. After half term we are going to increase his flock with two ...

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad356/jaf4004/IMG_2507.jpg http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad356/jaf4004/IMG_2509.jpg As I'm sure you can see from the photos Ali, Dom and their girls dropped off their truly magnificent cockerel today. He settled in amazingly easily and when it came to putting...

http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad356/jaf4004/IMG_2507.jpg http://i951.photobucket.com/albums/ad356/jaf4004/IMG_2509.jpg As I'm sure you can see from the photos Ali, Dom and their girls dropped off their truly magnificent cockerel today. He settled in amazingly easily and when it came to putting...

'Totally Scrambled' you have PM!

It's two reasons really, we have a large area for the chickens and want to expand our flock of four and thought that a cockerel would help us to bring in new hens without too much fighting. Also we have a friend at a local farm who is happy to take chicks we hatch so we won't have to worry about any...

We need a cockerel to join our chickens living happily at our Primary School. We have four hens who are around a year old and would like a cockerel to keep them company. We tried introducing a Bantam cockerel but unfortunately he wasn't big enough to look after himself and he had to go back to his o...

My chicken run is infested with flies at the moment. I put this down to my council only collecting my rubbish every two weeks now but suppose my chickens may also attract them a bit. Does anyone else have this problem and any ways of reducing the numbers of flies? Ebay lists these [url] m" oncl...

Once a hen is broody and is happily sitting on eggs how long should she come off for each day. A book I read suggested 20 minutes to feed, drink and pooh before hopping back on the nest. It also suggests that a broody hen should be encouraged back onto the nest if she stays off longer than this. My ...

I was leaving the pop hole open and letting the hens come and go into their secure run as they pleased which seemed to work fine except that they would roost in their nest box and not on their perches. I put this down to them wanting to be as far away from the open pop hole as possible (my theory an...