Category Poultry

Quails are classed as a game bird and belong to the pheasant and partridge family. There are many different breeds, strains and colours of quail. They are bred for meat as well as for eggs. They make great pets, provide delicious and nutritious miniature speckled eggs and are very curious and flighty in nature.In the wild, common quail live in small groups and scratch for insects and seeds. Quail migrate to central Africa near the southern edge of the Sahara desert for winter and return to England in spring. The most common breeds kept for eggs are:

Japanese Quail or Coturnix japonica

They are known as the migratory quail. They grow to 20cms in height. This breed is ideal for aviaries and is proven to be less flighty if enough cover is provided for nesting.

Button Quail or Turnix sylvaticus

Button Quail come in a large variety of colours and mutations. Choose from buff, silver, barred, spotted, blue, and many more. They are smaller and flightier than Japanese quail. They produce smaller eggs too. Their lifespan is three to five years. Hens have a slightly shorter lifespan as it depends on how many eggs she has laid in her lifetime and if the required nutrients such as calcium were readily available. Button Quail chicks are very cute and look like bumble bees due to their striped heads.

Chinese painted quail or Coturnix chinensis

These are often thought of as Button Quail due to their size, but are a different strain as shown by the latin name. They are the original aviary cleaners. They are half the size of Japanese quail. Their lifespan is five to seven years. Females are usually light brown with speckled feathers. It is possible to tell which are cocks as they have a painted white bib under their chin. Domestic quail are timid creatures and if spooked, fly straight up into the sky. They can easily fly over six foot fences, so it is important to house them carefully. If they escape, it is almost impossible to catch them.

Delicious eggs

Quails are prolific egg layers and lay tiny speckled eggs that are the size of an olive. Quail’s eggs are a delicacy in some countries. They are much richer in flavour due to the higher yolk to white ratio and have a strong, gamey flavour unlike chicken eggs. They are rich in vitamin D and high in antioxidants. You only need to eat two quail eggs per day to reach fifty percent of the recommended dose of vitamin D. Quails start egg laying at six weeks old and are into full egg production at fifty weeks of age. Expect two hundred to two hundred and fifty delicious eggs per year.

Breeding Quail

Always keep quails in pairs or at least one male to three hens to prevent fighting. Quails nest on the ground and lay six to twelve eggs. They sit on them for thirteen days and if the amount of eggs is too large for the hen, the cock will join her on the nest. Chicks are tiny, but are able to feed themselves straight away. If you wish to breed quails, provide a secluded area for them. Cover a corner of the run with greenery, as they like to hide. Keep a close eye on the cock when the chicks hatch. If he attacks separate him. It is more likely he will find special treats for the hen and bring them to her. Provide a small water dish filled with marbles for the chicks to prevent drowning.Button Quail eggs hatch after twelve to thirteen days and the chicks are able to fly after two weeks. Choose extra small gauge weld mesh, as the chicks are tiny and can jump through the holes in the wire. Seven millimetres is ideal.

What type of housing do quail need?

It is ideal to keep quail in an aviary with budgerigars, doves or cockatiels, as they will clean up the dropped seed. If the quail fly up, they will have plenty of headroom to do so and will not bang their heads. They appreciate secluded corners, as they like to nest on the ground and hide behind plants and greenery. Place small, cut branches of conifer around the edges of the aviary for the quail.Wood chippings or soil on the aviary floor will encourage natural foraging behaviour. A mixture of wood chippings and soil would be perfect. They enjoy dust bathing in soil or sand.Quails do not need much space, therefore a rabbit hutch or a small weld mesh run with an attached coop, such as a broody coop that you would use for a hen, is fine to keep a trio or two. It is best to put the rabbit hutch inside another run as quail are flighty and may escape when you change the food and water. Put wood shavings on the floor for them and provide a sand bath, as they like to dust bathe.

Feeding Quail

Quail eat the same food as chickens; layers pellets, chick crumbs or layers mash. If you don’t have chickens, purchase mini quail pellets in small sacks. It is best not to buy 25kg sacks if you only have a few pairs of quail, as the feed will go off before you can use it all. Supplement their main diet with kitchen scraps such as left over vegetables, sweet corn, chunks of apple, grated carrots, lettuce, broccoli, chopped cabbage and peas. Millet or mealworms are ideal as a treat. The cock will not eat mealworms. He will usually present them to his hens to show his appreciation. Quail are fussy eaters and you will soon learn what they do not like. Do not feed any cuttings from the garden, as it is all too easy to mix in a poisonous plant. Do not feed avocado or chocolate – they are poisonous to all birds. Quails need grit to help digest their food. Always provide clean, fresh water.

Quails are classed as a game bird and belong to the pheasant and partridge family. There are many different breeds, strains and colours of quail. They are bred for meat as well as for eggs. They make great pets, provide delicious and nutritious miniature speckled eggs and are very curious and flighty in nature.In the wild, common quail live in small groups and scratch for insects and seeds. Quail migrate to central Africa near the southern edge of the Sahara desert for winter and return to England in spring. The most common breeds kept for eggs are:

Japanese Quail or Coturnix japonica

They are known as the migratory quail. They grow to 20cms in height. This breed is ideal for aviaries and is proven to be less flighty if enough cover is provided for nesting.

Button Quail or Turnix sylvaticus

Button Quail come in a large variety of colours and mutations. Choose from buff, silver, barred, spotted, blue, and many more. They are smaller and flightier than Japanese quail. They produce smaller eggs too. Their lifespan is three to five years. Hens have a slightly shorter lifespan as it depends on how many eggs she has laid in her lifetime and if the required nutrients such as calcium were readily available. Button Quail chicks are very cute and look like bumble bees due to their striped heads.

Chinese painted quail or Coturnix chinensis

These are often thought of as Button Quail due to their size, but are a different strain as shown by the latin name. They are the original aviary cleaners. They are half the size of Japanese quail. Their lifespan is five to seven years. Females are usually light brown with speckled feathers. It is possible to tell which are cocks as they have a painted white bib under their chin. Domestic quail are timid creatures and if spooked, fly straight up into the sky. They can easily fly over six foot fences, so it is important to house them carefully. If they escape, it is almost impossible to catch them.

Delicious eggs

Quails are prolific egg layers and lay tiny speckled eggs that are the size of an olive. Quail’s eggs are a delicacy in some countries. They are much richer in flavour due to the higher yolk to white ratio and have a strong, gamey flavour unlike chicken eggs. They are rich in vitamin D and high in antioxidants. You only need to eat two quail eggs per day to reach fifty percent of the recommended dose of vitamin D. Quails start egg laying at six weeks old and are into full egg production at fifty weeks of age. Expect two hundred to two hundred and fifty delicious eggs per year.

Breeding Quail

Always keep quails in pairs or at least one male to three hens to prevent fighting. Quails nest on the ground and lay six to twelve eggs. They sit on them for thirteen days and if the amount of eggs is too large for the hen, the cock will join her on the nest. Chicks are tiny, but are able to feed themselves straight away. If you wish to breed quails, provide a secluded area for them. Cover a corner of the run with greenery, as they like to hide. Keep a close eye on the cock when the chicks hatch. If he attacks separate him. It is more likely he will find special treats for the hen and bring them to her. Provide a small water dish filled with marbles for the chicks to prevent drowning.Button Quail eggs hatch after twelve to thirteen days and the chicks are able to fly after two weeks. Choose extra small gauge weld mesh, as the chicks are tiny and can jump through the holes in the wire. Seven millimetres is ideal.

What type of housing do quail need?

It is ideal to keep quail in an aviary with budgerigars, doves or cockatiels, as they will clean up the dropped seed. If the quail fly up, they will have plenty of headroom to do so and will not bang their heads. They appreciate secluded corners, as they like to nest on the ground and hide behind plants and greenery. Place small, cut branches of conifer around the edges of the aviary for the quail.Wood chippings or soil on the aviary floor will encourage natural foraging behaviour. A mixture of wood chippings and soil would be perfect. They enjoy dust bathing in soil or sand.Quails do not need much space, therefore a rabbit hutch or a small weld mesh run with an attached coop, such as a broody coop that you would use for a hen, is fine to keep a trio or two. It is best to put the rabbit hutch inside another run as quail are flighty and may escape when you change the food and water. Put wood shavings on the floor for them and provide a sand bath, as they like to dust bathe.

Feeding Quail

Quail eat the same food as chickens; layers pellets, chick crumbs or layers mash. If you don’t have chickens, purchase mini quail pellets in small sacks. It is best not to buy 25kg sacks if you only have a few pairs of quail, as the feed will go off before you can use it all. Supplement their main diet with kitchen scraps such as left over vegetables, sweet corn, chunks of apple, grated carrots, lettuce, broccoli, chopped cabbage and peas. Millet or mealworms are ideal as a treat. The cock will not eat mealworms. He will usually present them to his hens to show his appreciation. Quail are fussy eaters and you will soon learn what they do not like. Do not feed any cuttings from the garden, as it is all too easy to mix in a poisonous plant. Do not feed avocado or chocolate – they are poisonous to all birds. Quails need grit to help digest their food. Always provide clean, fresh water.

If you fancy doing something a little bit different when it comes to pets and have some space outside, you might be considering keeping a few chickens. Keeping your own chickens is generally fairly low-maintenance compared to other forms of livestock, and as well as meaning that you might be able to have free eggs on-tap at all times, you can also help to give a retired battery hen a second chance at life, and provide a free-range, happy space for them during their retirement.

As with any species of animal, it is vitally important to do plenty of research into what is involved in keeping chickens before you go ahead, which will mean leaning more about different chicken species, what they need to eat, and how to provide the most suitable living environment for them-and also, how to keep them healthy and well, and know how to spot signs of illness or problems.

In this article, we will share a short introduction to keeping chickens healthy and trouble-shooting any potential problems early on, in six easy-to-follow steps. Read on to learn more.

1. Get to know your own flock

One of the best ways to be able to spot if something is wrong with any sort of animal before the problem becomes pronounced is to get to know them, and learn about what is normal for them. This is especially true for chickens, and while to the uninitiated a few chickens together will all look the same, people who keep chickens soon learn to tell one from another, and learn about their unique personalities too.

Get to know your flock so that you can tell them apart, and come to recognise what is normal for them-taking into account every element of each bird, including their standard behaviours, which chickens they get on with and which they might have the odd spat with, their weight, condition, and how they look.

2. Keep their home clean

Nobody enjoys cleaning out the cages of their pet, but keeping your chicken’s home clean is vitally important if you want to keep your birds healthy. Dirty, unkempt conditions can easily lead to problems with your birds’ health and condition, so set up a routine for cleaning them out, and stick to it!

Check the structure of their housing daily to make sure that there are no sharp edges or potential breaches that could admit a fox, and remove dirty bedding and other mess daily too.

Regularly clean out and replace the bedding and disinfect the cage, and clean and refill the food and water bowls daily too.

3. Ensure that they always have access to fresh water

Because the domed containers usually used to provide chickens with water are very large and will usually last several days between top-ups, it is all too easy to let this slip and inadvertently leave your chickens without water, or with the same water for so long that it becomes stagnant and unhealthy.

Empty the water container, clean it properly and replace it at least every other day-every day is even better-and ensure that your chickens are never without clean, fresh water in a place that they know where to find it.

4. Make sure that they can live a natural lifestyle

Seeing ex-battery hens getting a whole new lease of life when they are rehomed and able to wander around freely, scratch about and graze can be really rewarding, and it may be tempting to just leave your chickens to their own devices in this respect.

However, your chickens should have safe, fox-proofed housing that they can access whenever they want to, and it is also a good idea to shut them in at night to keep them safe.

During the day however, allowing your chickens to wander around in a safe, secured yard or garden that provides a range of things to do and grit to scrape about in is great, and allowing your chickens to live at least a partially free-range life will go a long way towards keeping them happy, which will in turn have a positive effect on their health.

5. Monitor your egg yield

Many people like the idea of having chickens in order to get eggs, and this is definitely one of the main bonuses of having your own flock! However, not all hens lay, and the yield from bird to bird can be highly variable, depending on their age, health, condition, and living situation.

Getting to know what is normal for each bird when it comes to their laying habits-such as how often they lay, where they are apt to lay, and if they ever have any problems-can help you to keep the eggs coming, and also, give you a heads up on any problems in the making with your flock.

6. Check them over regularly

Finally, like any animal, it is important to check your chickens over from time to time to look for potential signs of problems, such as bald areas, plumage that is in poor condition, or any other issues. Scheduling each bird for a check-up once a week can help you to nip any problems in the bud early on, and keep your flock happy, healthy and well.

Letting chickens run free around the place is great, especially if you’ve rescued some commercially bred hens. It’s a wonderful feeling as you watch them and a cockerel or two busy themselves around the backyard or garden. They can be very efficient at keeping a lawn down too.

However, you need to keep an eye on just what your flock might be tucking into, and this is especially true when the summer really gets going because there are a few plants that can be deadly to chickens. But then the same can be said of the colder winter months when there’s not so much around for chickens to eat!

One thing that many people who keep a few chickens as pets, or that aspire to doing so often envision is keeping a pot for scraps in the kitchen, and giving these to your chickens as a treat or to supplement their diet. This might seem totally natural and a good idea to both help to keep your food waste down and reduce the cost of your chickens’ feed; and indeed, this was commonly how chickens were fed in a large number of cases historically.

However, part of being a responsible chicken keeper means finding out about all of the rules and regulations that accompany keeping animals such as chickens at home, and ensuring that you do not fall foul (no pun intended!) of them.

DEFRA (the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) actually dictates a range of common-sense rules for people who keep chickens when it comes to what they can be fed; and these rules apply to not only chickens kept commercially for their egg and meat yield, but also, chickens kept as pets in a small group by people with a little yard or garden.

In this article, we will look at the various rules and regulations that dictate what you can and cannot feed to chickens-and why they are in place. Read on to learn more.

What should chickens eat?

Keeping your flock healthy is of course very important, and an integral part of this means feeding them an appropriate diet that is safe for them, and that contains everything that they need.

Buying a complete feed such as chicken pellets that are the right type for your chicken’s age, condition and laying status is important, and generally, your chickens will get most of the protein and other nutrients that they need from this.

They also need to be given greens, such as cabbage, weeds and grass, as well as the occasional treat like mealworms, which chickens usually get very excited about!

Your birds also need access to clean, fresh water at all times, and grit too, something that is often overlooked.

Can you feed your chickens scraps?

Given that things like cauliflower and cabbage are appropriate to feed to chickens, many chicken owners automatically assume that giving their birds vegetable scraps from the kitchen and possibly, compost bucket is fine too-but this is not the case. As mentioned above, DEFRA have placed restrictions on what and how chickens can be fed, in order to ensure the health of all of the flocks in the UK, and the people that might consume their meat or eggs.

It is important that all chicken keepers make themselves aware of these things, and follow the DEFRA regulations-it is, after all, the law.

In simple form, the DEFRA regulations state that chickens of any type-commercially kept, pets, layers, non-layers, those intended to enter the food chain and those that are not-cannot be fed kitchen scraps and waste, even if you only keep a couple of chickens and have no intention of ever earing them or selling them.

The only exception to this rule applies to households that are 100% vegan, and that never have any meat or dairy products within the home (even if they are kept well away from anything fed to the chickens).

This means that you cannot feed scraps of any type-even vegetables that have not come into contact with any meat or dairy products-to your own chickens, and you cannot feed them such scraps from any other source either, such as commercial kitchens, even if said kitchens produce only vegan food.

Why are these rules in place?

By enforcing fairly strict rules such as those outlined above, DEFRA can help to protect the health of all of the chickens in the UK, including those entering the human food chain. As well as the obvious potential issues that feeding scraps in general can cause for people that eat the eggs or meat of their flocks, keeping to the regulations will also help to ensure that your flock eats an appropriate diet of foods that are designed specifically for them, or bought just for them in the case of certain greens, and this helps to keep them robust and healthy.

A great number of human foods are either unsuitable or outright dangerous for chickens, which is also worth bearing in mind-even foods as innocuous as bread are too high in salt to suit chickens, and keeping a clear boundary between your household’s human food and chicken food is important.

If you fancy doing something a little bit different when it comes to pets and have some space outside, you might be considering keeping a few chickens. Keeping your own chickens is generally fairly low-maintenance compared to other forms of livestock, and as well as meaning that you might be able to have free eggs on-tap at all times, you can also help to give a retired battery hen a second chance at life, and provide a free-range, happy space for them during their retirement.

As with any species of animal, it is vitally important to do plenty of research into what is involved in keeping chickens before you go ahead, which will mean leaning more about different chicken species, what they need to eat, and how to provide the most suitable living environment for them-and also, how to keep them healthy and well, and know how to spot signs of illness or problems.

In this article, we will share a short introduction to keeping chickens healthy and trouble-shooting any potential problems early on, in six easy-to-follow steps. Read on to learn more.

1. Get to know your own flock

One of the best ways to be able to spot if something is wrong with any sort of animal before the problem becomes pronounced is to get to know them, and learn about what is normal for them. This is especially true for chickens, and while to the uninitiated a few chickens together will all look the same, people who keep chickens soon learn to tell one from another, and learn about their unique personalities too.

Get to know your flock so that you can tell them apart, and come to recognise what is normal for them-taking into account every element of each bird, including their standard behaviours, which chickens they get on with and which they might have the odd spat with, their weight, condition, and how they look.

2. Keep their home clean

Nobody enjoys cleaning out the cages of their pet, but keeping your chicken’s home clean is vitally important if you want to keep your birds healthy. Dirty, unkempt conditions can easily lead to problems with your birds’ health and condition, so set up a routine for cleaning them out, and stick to it!

Check the structure of their housing daily to make sure that there are no sharp edges or potential breaches that could admit a fox, and remove dirty bedding and other mess daily too.

Regularly clean out and replace the bedding and disinfect the cage, and clean and refill the food and water bowls daily too.

3. Ensure that they always have access to fresh water

Because the domed containers usually used to provide chickens with water are very large and will usually last several days between top-ups, it is all too easy to let this slip and inadvertently leave your chickens without water, or with the same water for so long that it becomes stagnant and unhealthy.

Empty the water container, clean it properly and replace it at least every other day-every day is even better-and ensure that your chickens are never without clean, fresh water in a place that they know where to find it.

4. Make sure that they can live a natural lifestyle

Seeing ex-battery hens getting a whole new lease of life when they are rehomed and able to wander around freely, scratch about and graze can be really rewarding, and it may be tempting to just leave your chickens to their own devices in this respect.

However, your chickens should have safe, fox-proofed housing that they can access whenever they want to, and it is also a good idea to shut them in at night to keep them safe.

During the day however, allowing your chickens to wander around in a safe, secured yard or garden that provides a range of things to do and grit to scrape about in is great, and allowing your chickens to live at least a partially free-range life will go a long way towards keeping them happy, which will in turn have a positive effect on their health.

5. Monitor your egg yield

Many people like the idea of having chickens in order to get eggs, and this is definitely one of the main bonuses of having your own flock! However, not all hens lay, and the yield from bird to bird can be highly variable, depending on their age, health, condition, and living situation.

Getting to know what is normal for each bird when it comes to their laying habits-such as how often they lay, where they are apt to lay, and if they ever have any problems-can help you to keep the eggs coming, and also, give you a heads up on any problems in the making with your flock.

6. Check them over regularly

Finally, like any animal, it is important to check your chickens over from time to time to look for potential signs of problems, such as bald areas, plumage that is in poor condition, or any other issues. Scheduling each bird for a check-up once a week can help you to nip any problems in the bud early on, and keep your flock happy, healthy and well.

Letting chickens run free around the place is great, especially if you’ve rescued some commercially bred hens. It’s a wonderful feeling as you watch them and a cockerel or two busy themselves around the backyard or garden. They can be very efficient at keeping a lawn down too.

However, you need to keep an eye on just what your flock might be tucking into, and this is especially true when the summer really gets going because there are a few plants that can be deadly to chickens. But then the same can be said of the colder winter months when there’s not so much around for chickens to eat!

One thing that many people who keep a few chickens as pets, or that aspire to doing so often envision is keeping a pot for scraps in the kitchen, and giving these to your chickens as a treat or to supplement their diet. This might seem totally natural and a good idea to both help to keep your food waste down and reduce the cost of your chickens’ feed; and indeed, this was commonly how chickens were fed in a large number of cases historically.

However, part of being a responsible chicken keeper means finding out about all of the rules and regulations that accompany keeping animals such as chickens at home, and ensuring that you do not fall foul (no pun intended!) of them.

DEFRA (the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) actually dictates a range of common-sense rules for people who keep chickens when it comes to what they can be fed; and these rules apply to not only chickens kept commercially for their egg and meat yield, but also, chickens kept as pets in a small group by people with a little yard or garden.

In this article, we will look at the various rules and regulations that dictate what you can and cannot feed to chickens-and why they are in place. Read on to learn more.

What should chickens eat?

Keeping your flock healthy is of course very important, and an integral part of this means feeding them an appropriate diet that is safe for them, and that contains everything that they need.

Buying a complete feed such as chicken pellets that are the right type for your chicken’s age, condition and laying status is important, and generally, your chickens will get most of the protein and other nutrients that they need from this.

They also need to be given greens, such as cabbage, weeds and grass, as well as the occasional treat like mealworms, which chickens usually get very excited about!

Your birds also need access to clean, fresh water at all times, and grit too, something that is often overlooked.

Can you feed your chickens scraps?

Given that things like cauliflower and cabbage are appropriate to feed to chickens, many chicken owners automatically assume that giving their birds vegetable scraps from the kitchen and possibly, compost bucket is fine too-but this is not the case. As mentioned above, DEFRA have placed restrictions on what and how chickens can be fed, in order to ensure the health of all of the flocks in the UK, and the people that might consume their meat or eggs.

It is important that all chicken keepers make themselves aware of these things, and follow the DEFRA regulations-it is, after all, the law.

In simple form, the DEFRA regulations state that chickens of any type-commercially kept, pets, layers, non-layers, those intended to enter the food chain and those that are not-cannot be fed kitchen scraps and waste, even if you only keep a couple of chickens and have no intention of ever earing them or selling them.

The only exception to this rule applies to households that are 100% vegan, and that never have any meat or dairy products within the home (even if they are kept well away from anything fed to the chickens).

This means that you cannot feed scraps of any type-even vegetables that have not come into contact with any meat or dairy products-to your own chickens, and you cannot feed them such scraps from any other source either, such as commercial kitchens, even if said kitchens produce only vegan food.

Why are these rules in place?

By enforcing fairly strict rules such as those outlined above, DEFRA can help to protect the health of all of the chickens in the UK, including those entering the human food chain. As well as the obvious potential issues that feeding scraps in general can cause for people that eat the eggs or meat of their flocks, keeping to the regulations will also help to ensure that your flock eats an appropriate diet of foods that are designed specifically for them, or bought just for them in the case of certain greens, and this helps to keep them robust and healthy.

A great number of human foods are either unsuitable or outright dangerous for chickens, which is also worth bearing in mind-even foods as innocuous as bread are too high in salt to suit chickens, and keeping a clear boundary between your household’s human food and chicken food is important.

Geese have got themselves a bit of a bad reputation as being large and aggressive birds. However, if you raise them from very young, they make loyal and quite affectionate characters to have around with the added bonus that they are quick to let you know when there are strangers or predators around. This is especially useful if you keep chickens, ducks or other types of poultry that you like to free range.

Other reasons for keeping a pair of geese include the following:

• Geese can be extremely funny and they are incredibly inquisitive by nature
• They are low maintenance because they are pretty self sufficient in that most of the nutrients they need come from the grass they eat
• Geese are very beautiful birds with some breeds boasting gorgeous plumage

Keeping Geese is Easy

If you already have a few chickens around the place, having a pair of geese will help protect them because they are fantastic alarms should any predators be about which includes foxes or larger birds of prey. Because they are pretty low maintenance, it means you don’t have to spend a fortune on feed for them either. As long as they have some good grass to graze on, these large birds are happy.

Start Off with Goslings

Geese are robust birds even when they are young which is why it’s a good idea to invest in a couple of goslings rather than invest in adult birds. When raised from young, geese grow up to be just as friendly towards you as a dog or a family cat. The one difference being that geese would not be so friendly towards any strangers that show up at your door!

A pair of geese would certainly let you know when someone is around and they usually succeed in stopping anyone they don’t know from getting too close without raising the alarm.

What Breeds are Best?

One very popular breed is the Embden because they boast nice natures and are more likely to enjoy interacting with people. However, White Chinese are very attractive and the same can be said of Africans. Other breeds worth considering include the following:

• Toulouse
• Pilgrims

The reason these two breeds have become popular is because they are calm and gentle by nature which means they are not the best choice if you are looking for a couple of geese that act as brilliant guard dogs too! Both breeds are too laid back for that sort of behaviour although they might “honk” if something they don’t like is going on.

The best time to get your goslings is in the spring time which is when most breeders start their hatchings. However, you may need to place an order quite early because some breeds are very much in demand so it’s best to get in there early to avoid disappointment. You would need to keep the goslings much as you would young chicks which means setting up a nice sheltered and warm brooding area for them. They would need to stay in this area until their feathers have grown through before being let out into the great outdoors.

Once ready to go out, geese like to be outside as much as possible, but you should always shut them up at night for safety. This means providing them with a nice largish garden shed to sleep in and unlike chickens, they don’t need perches. Although they are large birds they still run the risk of being attacked by a fox at night when they are unable to see as well as they can in the daylight.

You don’t need to have a pond or a stream for your birds, but you do need to provide them with large bowls of water. These need to be kept fresh and clean so your birds can get in them, drink from them and basically mess about in water when they want to. The key to keeping happy geese is to provide them with lots of deep, fresh water to play in!

As previously mentioned, keeping a couple of geese whether a male and a female or a pair of females is very economical because most of their diet consists of grass. The other great thing is they tend to get on well with other poultry including chickens, although geese can be a little possessive over water dishes and not allow your hens to drink. The solution is to ensure there are lots of water sources around the place for your birds to drink from. A pair of male geese might end up fighting although this is not always the case, but it’s best to avoid the risk because they could end up injuring each other quite seriously.

The only time you really need to think about feeding your geese is during the winter time when there’s no grass about. You can source good quality goose food from a feed merchant or even from large pet superstores.

Lastly, Geese are Not Necessarily Aggressive Birds!

It really does depend on the breed, their gender and the way a goose has been raised as to how aggressive they are. However, the one time you do need to be a little more careful around any geese, is during the breeding season when a female might be sitting on eggs. They are great at protecting other poultry even from cats that might stray into their territory and will certainly see any dogs off including your own pet if they feel threatened in any way!

The key to successfully raising friendly geese is to make sure they are socialised from a young age and then to keep interacting with them even as adult birds. This way, you’ll find they follow you around much like a dog, nibbling on your coat tails in a rather endearing and friendly way in order to get your attention and as a bonus, most geese make the best guard dogs ever!

Keeping chickens is great fun and if you own a few of them, you soon realise each bird has their own character and personality. Some hens are bossier than others, whilst others tend to know their place in the pecking order and keep well away from them.

If well cared for and kept in a hygienic environment cockerels and hens can live to ripe old ages. However, as with most other animals they may suffer from some unexpected health issues, one of which is called canker. It’s a particularly nasty condition that attacks a bird’s upper respiratory tract which could eventually end up causing them to choke.

There are certain antibiotics and drugs that can be given to chickens suffering from canker, but there’s always the issue of resistance to consider. Some poultry keepers prefer to go down another route which is to use a product called Bluestone otherwise known as Copper Sulphate.

However, Copper Sulphate should never be given to poultry in powder form on it’s own because just a tiny amount of it will kill a chicken. It has to be diluted in water and mixed in with apple cider vinegar before being given to birds. Birds should be given the mixture for anything between 4 to 7 days. It’s also really important to take out any other sources of drinking water to ensure your chickens only drink from a medicated water bowl.

Another benefit of giving Copper Sulphate to chickens suffering from canker, is that by doing so you correct any copper deficiencies they may be suffering from which often occurs when birds are kept in areas where the soil is acidic.

The correct mix to give to chickens is as follows:

• 2 ½ litres of water
• 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
• 1 gram of copper sulphate

Adding Cranberry Juice Makes it More Palatable

Some chickens might not like the taste and refuse to drink from a water dish with the mixture in it. One way of tempting them to drink is to add a little cranberry juice to the mixture which makes it a lot more palatable.

A four day treatment will help ensure your hens don’t develop canker but a 7 day treatment will effectively treat birds already suffering from the condition by killing off all the nasties that cause it.

If you have a lot of wild birds around your chickens, they may be suffering from canker too, so if they drink from the same water bowl as your hens, they too will benefit from the treatment and as a bonus will not pass on the condition to your hens!

Make Up a New Mixture Every Day

It’s important to put out a fresh mixture every day when treating your chickens and not to just fill up a water bowl that already contains some of the mixture left over from the day before. It’s also very important to use a plastic water bowl and not a metal one.

Other Conditions that Copper Sulphate Effectively Treats

Apart from beinga really effective way to treat canker in poultry, copper sulphate is extremely good at treating the following conditions:

• Roup
• Trichomoniasis
• Mould infections of the crop – Mycosis
• Thrush
• Candidiasis
• Moniliasis
• Sour crop

All too often a hen might be suffering from a suspected crop impaction which usually means they may well be suffering from one of the conditions listed above too. A crop impaction can occur due to a very small amount of canker having developed in their crop which results in a chain reaction that ends up with a food impaction forming.

In certain instances, you may think a bird is suffering from an impaction, but in actual fact it is a build up of canker that is preventing any food from passing out of their crop. The result is a nasty, smelly and mushy feeling crop. A seven day treatment of copper sulphate will help clear this up although you may have to use a syringe to get a bird that doesn’t want to drink any water to take the mixture being extra careful not to get any of it into their lungs.

If you decide not to use copper sulphate to treat any birds with canker, you should discuss the problem with your vet who might suggest giving them the following medication:

• Nystatin
• Carnidazole – sometimes called Spartrix which is normally in pill form
• Metronidazole – otherwise known as Flagyl which can be in injection or pill form

Conclusion

If left untreated, canker can really take hold and will eventually make it harder and harder for a chicken to breath, all too often they die of asphyxiation. The earlier the condition is caught, the easier it is to treat and it’s always worth treating all your chickens even if only one of them are showing any signs of a problem with their breathing. If you suspect a chicken is suffering from an impacted crop, it’s a good idea to give them the copper sulphate solution because the chances are it’s canker that may be the root cause of the problem.

Keeping chickens in a back garden is very popular these days which is great because these lovely birds are real characters! This is one fashionable trend that is definitely worthwhile too because of the fresh eggs you get to pick up on a daily basis.

However, it’s important to know how to look after your birds so they remain happy and healthy. Below are a few tips and some advice if you are thinking about keeping chickens and are new to the whole concept of doing so.

Start Off With Young Chicks

It may sound like a good idea to invest in an incubator and then hatch out the chicks yourself. However, it’s not as easy as it sounds because a lot can go wrong which could lead to heartache and disappointment.

It’s a much better idea to buy in some chicks making sure you contact a reputable breeder who is known for breeding healthy and strong birds no matter what breed they happen to be. The best time to get chicks is in the spring which is when breeders start their yearly hatchings.

Another option is to buy in some adult hens that are already laying, but you have to be careful not to get other people’s unwanted birds which they want to get rid of for one reason or another! You need to make sure the hens are healthy and disease-free which includes checking them over for things like bumblefoot!

Choose to Keep Hardier Breeds

It is far better to choose hardier more robust breeds when you first start out keeping chickens. The more delicate breeds like Silkies are often much fancier looking but they tend to be harder to look after and they need more in the way of being cared for simply because they are less self sufficient than hardier breeds.

Choose a Simple Chicken Coop

The ideal chicken coop is actually a converted garden shed. Sheds are large and easier to clean out which is crucial because hygiene is very important to your flock. You can walk in a shed and you can treat the wood more easily with mite powders and other necessary treatments to reduce the risk of your birds being infested with parasites.

Perches can be placed up high which all chickens like because the higher they are at night, the safer they feel they are away from predators. It is also that much easier to build a chicken run on to the front or the side of a garden shed which allows your birds can go outside when you are not at home without the fear of being taken by any predators!

The other advantage of converting a garden shed into a chicken coop is that you can fit it with electricity so that on the darker winter afternoons, you can still clean the shed out and your birds can be put under heat lamps if you want them to carry on laying for a while during the winter.

Keep Things as Green”” as Possible

If possible it’s a better idea to keep things as “”green”” as possible which means more affordable too! The way to do this is as follows:

• Free range your hens as much as possible because not only will they enjoy life a lot more, but it will help keep your feed bill down too. However, your hens need to be kept somewhere safe and out of the reach of predators, namely foxes and larger birds of prey!
• Use natural products wherever possible and try to avoid using any “”chemicals”” on your birds or to clean out their chicken coop
• It’s a good idea to feed your birds some crushed egg shells as a way to supplement their feed with calcium. However, make sure you boil the shells to avoid any harmful bacteria getting into your hens digestive systems
• Feed as many kitchen scraps as you can to your hens – they will love you for it! This provides a lot of diversity to their diet as well as providing lots of extra nutrients and goodness. The bonus being you will have less waste to put in the dustbin!
• Try to avoid leaving your birds under lamps all year round because they do need a break from laying! However, if the temperature really drops very low, it’s always a good idea for your birds to have some heat on them to prevent them from getting cold or suffering from frostbite
• Make your own nesting boxes by recycling old furniture drawers which are ideal for your birds to lay their eggs in. You don’t have to spend a fortune on buying lots of expensive equipment when you first start keeping hens because most of the things you need you can make yourself by recycling things you already own!
• Hens love a routine so by setting one up which you can keep to, you will have a very happy flock. Happy hens lay lots of eggs which is the real bonus!
• Hygiene is crucial! It’s really important to keep your hen’s environment as clean as possible as this will reduce the chance of them developing any nasty health conditions and diseases. Cleaning out nesting boxes is also essential because it keeps eggs clean and your bird’s underside dirt-free too!
• Deep littering a coop is fine as long as you turn the top layer every day after letting your hens out to scratch around in the morning!

Conclusion

You don’t have to spend a fortune when you first start keeping chickens in a back garden. The biggest expense is the coop and the ideal chicken house is by far a converted garden shed. Letting your hens free range also helps keep your feed bill down, but it does not mean you don’t have to give your birds either some mixed grain or layers pellets/mash on a daily basis. By following the tips and advice listed above, you’ll soon find your feet when it comes to looking after your chickens and you will enjoy every minute of it!

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Keeping geese is becoming more popular than ever and as long as you have enough outdoor space, they not only make wonderful guard dogs, but they can help keep grass under control without making a mess of it too. If you are new to keeping these large birds, the good news is that they are relatively healthy birds which don’t suffer from many of the illnesses and diseases that afflict other types of water bird and poultry.

It’s always better to keep geese in either pairs, small or large flock and as December fast approaches, it’s that time of the year when the colder weather and the shorter days makes looking after animals a little tougher all round. However, if you are hoping to keep geese, mid December is the time of year when breeders start pairing their birds up ready for the mating season the following spring, which makes it the best time to buy geese in.

A lot of people like to keep one gander and two or three geese and this is especially true if you are planning to keep heavier breeds. If you have set your heart on lighter breeds however, you might like to consider putting either four or five geese with one single gander. Breeders usually try to have their mating pairs set up by mid January in Northern hemisphere countries so the group are used to being with each other in their environment before the mating season gets under way in the spring.

Introducing a Gander to Geese

Ganders when first introduced to geese will normally be okay with the females and things tend to go pretty smoothly. However, if you already have a flock of birds, and are thinking about introducing any new stock, this can be a little problematic. The rule of thumb if you are not buying in breeding pairs, is to get your females first and to let them get used to each other before bringing a gander into the flock.

Unlike with chickens where it is best to give your birds as much space as possible when introducing any new birds into a flock, the reverse is often true when it involves geese. The best way of introducing new stock into a flock of geese is to take the gander away and to put the females in a more confined space. This seems to work well when it comes to encouraging the females to bond with each other than if they are left in more open spaces.

Females for some reason are far less likely to fight with each other if they are kept in a smaller area than they would if they had more area to roam around in. After two weeks or so, you can let them out as a group in their usual environment. However, you should wait a few more days before re-introducing the gander back into the flock and keep a close eye on things to make sure he accepts his “ladies” and that none of the birds start fighting with each other.

First Year Matings

When spring arrives and the mating season begins, you may find that the first year is not always that good and incubated eggs are harder to hatch. If any goslings do hatch out, whether in an incubator or under the goose, they can be quite weak birds. Again, the rule of thumb is that first year ganders don’t tend to mate as much as a second year gander, which is another reason why it is so hard to hatch any eggs out. With this said, you should not be too disheartened because it’s in the second year that results start to happen and that a gander’s fertility seems to be that much better.

Keeping Several Ganders Can be Problematic

If you end up with a large flock of geese that includes several ganders, they might start fighting with each other, but this should not be too much of a problem as long as they are the same size and well matched. If ganders grow up together, they don’t normally fight and if they do, it would be far less than birds that are introduced to each other when they are older.

Geese Mate on the Water

You have to bear in mind that geese much prefer to mate when they are on the water and although you can keep these large birds on land without a deep pond or other body of water, you might find your birds don’t mate and therefore their eggs will not be fertile. This is especially true of the heavier breeds. Having access to deeper water not only allows the birds to mate property, but it also means they keep their feather in much better condition so if a female does sit on her eggs, they are kept that much cleaner and therefore this reduces the risk of any infections in goslings.

Conclusion

Geese are large birds and they can be a little aggressive if you don’t get them used to being around you when they are young. They make fantastic guard dogs and will soon let you know when there is someone or something around. With December fast approaching, it’s the time of the year when breeders start matching and pairing their birds up ready for the mating season next spring. This is because the geese need to get to know each other and that ganders accept their mates. Introducing the birds early helps them establish a strong bond with each other which is important when it comes to the mating season.