Poultry Central - The New Zealand Poultry & Chicken Forum

All sorted now - thanks!

Looking for day old bantam chicks Oamaru area for a broody hen who has been sitting on eggs that didn't hatch.

Hi Pravin,
Great to have you along! What birds do you keep?

Thank you Marina for your advice. I culled the chick this morning. I only had two pullets from this batch so am now down to one, I really hope she will be okay! Of course there were plenty of roosters.....

I have a question about Marek's disease - is it always best to cull as soon as you see symptoms of this, or is recovery possible? I have read conflicting things about this, on this forum and elsewhere. Last season was the first time I saw what I suspected to be the neurological form of Marek's: I ha...

Hi Sputnik, and welcome!
I love bantams too. The OEG must be very striking birds . How many do you have?

The advice I have read is that this really all depends upon what genetic faults your birds are carrying, which may be fixed or exacerbated by inbreeding. In terms of health and vigour and productivity, it is best not to mate brother to sister, and best not to mate parent to offspring for multiple ge...

Could it maybe be a mite infestation in their coop? They could be being bitten when in the coop and not want to go back in there during the day to lay. At night they may have nowhere else to go and so have to return in there. So perhaps check and treat the coop. I would think that, as you say, it mu...

Thank you Marina for your help!

Hi Marina, Thank you very much for your reply, that info is very interesting and helpful. Another novice question: why are they not real millie fleurs if they have columbian? All the things I've read online about making millie fleur say they have to have columbian, mottling and genes for a red/buff ...

Hi everyone, I was just wondering about the colours of Wyandotte bantam we have here in NZ. There are many colour varieties listed in the standard, but not many breeders of these mentioned on the rare breeds website. I can only see (specifically listed) breeders of partridge, silver pencilled, laven...

Thanks for the thread link - fascinating reading. It's a shame about the dearth of activity on here... especially as I don't have facebook! I like the Waipahis as they are an example of somebody trying to do something different and interesting. The top-knotted ones look the nicest - but, I think the...

Out of 14 chicks under two broodies we had 11 hatch out - a pretty good hatch rate I think. Some chicks from my pekins and some mixes. I am very happy as there is a super array of colours - one pure white, some white and black, some brown, and other mixed colours. We had an accident when one of the ...

Appletons stock this online and will post- this adds to the feed cost but it is still not too bad with bantams as they do not eat much. I am trying this feed as chick crumbles so hopefully it is as good as it is reputed to be! My bantam chicks seem to love it so far and it is the right size for them...