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1. POULTRY HOUSE
We need a
nice 'airy' house with a window to make it light. That way we can see to
perch in the dark.
Please make sure that our nest box has a cover and is very dark.
2.
LITTER
We would
like wheat straw or wood shavings on the floor and in the nest box. Each
time you clean us
out, please liberally scatter
Diatom all over the house to help prevent
us getting covered in lice
or mite. This is unless you have a slatted floor house. If so, just keep
the slats clean, and change
the litter (wood shavings only) in the nest box regularly, adding
Diatom powder on top.
3. INTRODUCTION TO HOME
When you
first take us home, please keep us shut in for up to two days, so that we
know where we are supposed
to live. Otherwise, we may get lost if you let us out the same day! If you
put us in with other birds, please
make sure there is enough in 'our gang' to stop us being picked on and
pecked (at least 50/50). Put an extra
drinker and feeder in the house until we settle down with the others.
We don’t want any bovver!
4. FEEDER POSITION
If possible,
we would like our feeder suspended in our house - preferably so the bottom
is level with the tops of our backs, and kept topped up with a good
quality
Layers Mash.
Layers Pellets are boring and we may peck one another if we are
given them to eat.
5. MIXED CORN
You can give us a
little
Mixed Corn in the
afternoon if you like, but only after we start to lay and
no more than 28g (1oz) each, spread over a fresh bit of run, or during the
winter on the floor in the house.
Don’t mix this in with our daily feed, or we won‘t lay very well.
6. HEN GRIT
To help us
digest our food, please keep a very small pile of special
Hen Grit in the run.
28g (1oz) per month is enough. It’s very cheap to buy!
7. OUR HEALTH
If you think
that one of us is a little bit off colour,
please contact the poultry man at
S.P.R. Centre as soon as possible.
And don’t wait a week or two!
He can be contacted on: 01243 542815
or you could send him an email by clicking
HERE!
You could also pick us up first, to see if
our body feels OK and look into our eyes and nose.
We love being picked up when we
get use to it!
8. LOOSE DROPPINGS
When we are coming into
lay, our droppings will be very loose.
But do not worry about it - no one gives us an enema before we
start to lay!
We will start with very small eggs that get larger as we mature.
9.
HOUSEWORK
Please keep
our house clean and tidy, and if possible, spray it with
S.P.R. Poultry Shield from top to
bottom regularly. We also need to be wormed at least once a year, but
twice is better! (Please don’t wait
until there are too many worms in our gut for us to cope with).
Janssen
Flubenvet 1% Medicated Premixture
is medically approved and will kill ALL our worms and our eggs can still
be eaten during and after worming!
10. COMMENCEMENT OF LAY
We will normally start to lay in about 3 to 4 weeks after we have settled
into our new
accommodation, although it will also depend on the time of year as to how
quickly this is.
When we start to lay, we will talk to you and each other, a great deal!
Please collect our eggs as frequently as possible.
This will prevent us from laying eggs one after another on the floor.
11. NEST BOXES
We do not
like individual nest boxes as we will all crowd into one section, so no
partitions please!
We also prefer to lay in the dark, so please make the nest box very
dark.
If you do not, then one of the others may peck our backsides while we
lay our eggs and make us bleed.
12.
NO CUT GRASS OR LAWN MOWING'S!
Please do not let us roam on uncollected cut grass, especially when dry.
We cannot break
it off like we can with growing grass, it may make us “Crop Bound”, for
which there is no cure.
We cannot deal with grass mowing's as they bung up our grinding stomach
(Gizzard).
This is because we cannot grind
it up quickly enough.
13. SCRAPS?
While we may like having a
few scraps in the afternoon, they must not contain any salt.
And if you choose to feed us your waste, then do not expect us to lay at
our best.
14. NO OYSTER SHELL
PLEASE!
I don’t need, or want to be given Oyster Shell, as this will
unbalance my 'Calcium Phosphorous Ratio'
and make my bones as well as my egg shells weaker. An don’t even think of
giving me crushed egg shell.
Its my wastage, and could be better used crushed and sprinkled in the
garden to help prevent slugs and snails.
15. KEEP US SAFE AT NIGHT
Make sure you shut us in the house each night as soon as we go to bed, to
protect us from Master Fox.
Do not let us out too early in the morning either, as he may still be
lurking around!
16. MOULTING
When I
become tired and my ovaries need a much deserved rest, my feathers will
become tatty and
broken with possibly a few bald patches on my chest and bum, and I will
stop laying nice shelled eggs
(lack of Calcium Phosphate). Some of us will grow new feathers between the
old ones, they are normally
those of us which lay fewer eggs, whilst I (being the best layer), could
be nearly completely bald!
My skin will look very red and sore but it isn’t, that is my natural
pigmentation covering the bald patches.
* Although I am resting, you will still need to feed me with the best
quality food, so that I may be
able to recover more quickly and lay you plenty of nice hard shelled eggs
during my next period of lay.
Please don’t just give me corn, I need a proper balanced ration!
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Please note: This
moulting period takes from 10 to 12 weeks and I will need all this
time to recharge my batteries! |
17. BROODY
Well, some
of us fancy having a new brood of chicks, so to do this we become
‘broody’. We will stop laying
and swear at you every time you take us off the nest! If you leave us
there, we will remain broody for a very
long time and encourage our sisters to do the same. (Frequent egg
collection does help prevent this state of mind!)
As soon as possible, put the 'broody' in a small box with a wire or
slatted floor (ideally an all wire cat cage).
The nice people at S.P.R. Centre have a
Broody Coop Carrier available if you do
not have one. This must be off
the floor, by resting the corners of the cage on bricks, for example. Give
us water and feed for 5 days and then
we will have forgotten what we were doing in the first place! Put us back
in with the other hens during the evening
and with luck they will not have missed us. To delay such treatment
only makes the problem worse!
Caution: There
may be one or two of us that will swear at you, even when we are laying an
egg.
That is because we hate being disturbed!
If in doubt, ring S.P.R. Centre on 01243 542815 who
understand our little idiosyncrasies!
19. UPSET STOMACH? DIARRHOEA?
I can
sometimes suffer from an upset stomach and diarrhoea during stress from
change of food, or gut
infections due to mixing with older birds, or eating something which has
been bacterially infected,
sometimes pecking for worms infected by wild bird droppings, or infected
scraps. Such infections may
be caused by one or other strain of Salmonella or E-colic. You can avoid
this by giving me, on a monthly
basis
Beryl’s Friendly Bacteria in my drinking
water. This kills off over 200 harmful bacterial gut
infections and all known types of Salmonellae and E-coli. No other
product, including Probiotics, on
the market is able to do this. It is more affective than the Salmonella
Vaccine so lauded by the very
large commercial laying units, stamped as Lion Eggs and with up to a 30%
failure rate. On the other hand,
the large commercial laying units using this product under another name,
still maintain a 100% pass rate.
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These eggs you may
find in the more 'discriminating' shops such as
Laid in Britain. |
Beryl’s Friendly Bacteria is very safe
and is also approved
by the Organic Farmers Growers and the
Organic Food Federation.
For my health and your
peace of mind why not give it a try?
19. EX-BATTERY BIRDS
There are now several
people selling
Ex-Battery Hens and providing little if any formal advice
to the customer.
My sisters when re-housed in their new alien environment need a little
extra treatment and understanding.
Firstly, they need to recover from the shock and stress of being
re-located, and secondly, they will need help
to stop laying so they can rest and recharge their batteries. If this is
not done, then a few of them may pass
on to 'Chicken Heaven' or continue to lay very thin shelled eggs 'as and
when' they feel they are able to.
There is no secret potion or feed which will help them to grow back their
feathers or thicken their egg shells,
and please, for heavens sake don't start giving them oyster shell grit or
any other type of calcium.
On their
arrival, please put
Stressless in their drinking water for
the first five days, then for two days each week
until you think they are over the stress and are looking fine. This will
provide them with the necessary multivitamins
and chelated minerals to alleviate the stress caused from moving from one
environment to another.
Secondly, please encourage them to moult
(see section 16. Moulting).
And
finally, they will need some assistance in adapting their house or night
accommodation.
Perches for them to sleep on need to be much lower to the floor in case
they have difficulty
flying up to the normal height. Also make sure that any litter put in the
house (either in the
nest box or on the floor) is short so that it does not bind up in their
crops which will kill them.
20. STREAKERS
If you see
some us streaking - bare bums and bare breast, then you know that we are
the very best
layers in your flock and our feathers have become brittle and broken off
from laying so many eggs.
These feathers will not be replaced until we come into a full moult (see
section 16. Moulting).
This is also the time when we take a well earned rest from laying eggs for
you.
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If you have any problems concerning your birds,
please email me at the
S.P.R.
Centre
so that I (or a highly trained and specialised poultry vet) will be able
to assist you.
We don’t like forums (where
every Tom, Dick or Martha proceed
to make guesses, or recite the many myths that surround us).
Mrs. Chicken. |
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S.P.R .Centre wish it to be known that although David Bland of S.P.R.
Centre writes a monthly Poultry article for Feathered World Magazine
entitled 'Poultry Talk', and has done so for many years, he has no
connection to this new Forum which has the same title 'Poultry
Talk'.
S.P.R. provides a direct and confidential advisory service to all those
who email or telephone concerning all matters relating to poultry.
It is impossible to generalise and in many cases answers given in
forums are provided by untrained personnel. Owners may
experience problems with their birds which may be affected by
different conditions and it is only by dealing directly with the
owner, as David Bland does, that such
problems can be efficiently resolved and treated. |
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All other enquiries to:
info@sprcentre.com
www.sprcentre.co.uk
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