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1. POULTRY HOUSE
We need a nice 'airy' house with a window to make it light,
so that 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 in 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
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).
Flubenvet 1% 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 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 to prevent us from
laying after one 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 backside while we lay and make us bleed.
12.
NO
CUT GRASS OR LAWN MOWINGS!
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 mowings 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). 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 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. |
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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. |
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
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SPR Centre wish it to be known that although David Bland of SPR
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'.
SPR 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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