Poultry Central - The New Zealand Poultry & Chicken Forum

I trim our Houdan. She ends up with an Araucana style punk rocker hair do. The only thing I watch out for are the pin feathers - ones that still have a blood supply in them. I can't imagine plucking them - it sounds like torture!

My latest lot of chicks around here have two mums. It started out with two hens sitting on two nests right next to each other and eventually hatching out some chicks. (P.S. I don't recommend letting two hens sit next to each other like this - these girls kept stealing each others eggs and eventually...

I probably should mention that "window" in my case is actually totally open, with square steel mesh over it to contain the chooks. Plenty of ventilation, but careful positioning required to keep the strong winds out of it. There's a picture of it here: m This one was built from a kit set, ...

1. I love our walk-ins. No needing to crawl in/around/over/under to get chooks. If you do opt for a smaller coop/run, then plan to be able to access the hens wherever they are inside it - if there's a spot where you can't get to, guess where the chooks will run to should you need to catch them... 2....

I know others have said this, but if you open them, open them outside! I can't say this loudly enough. They are probably rotten by now and will smell abominably. How were you measuring the temperature? The integrated thermometer I found to be inaccurate. It also measured the temperature several cm a...

Caramello (the one at the back) seems to be eyeing up my hat for eating!

The one and only hen I've ever had raising ducklings spent the best part of six weeks chasing around after her flock of 12. They did not listen to her at all and would usually wander off as a troop in the opposite direction to wherever she wanted them to go. She hasn't been broody since.

They're Japanese Quail, which come in a bazillion colours apparently, so I'm assuming I have multiple colours. Some of the yellow ones have black spots on their heads -- wondering if that will indicate boy/girl at all.

Couldn't resist this picture of one of our goats wearing a sun hat

At the farmer's market a few weeks ago on a whim I bought a box of 12 quail eggs to pop into the incubator. No idea if the eggs had been in a fridge or not, but I did at least have the foresight to check if there was a male with the hens. Fast forward two and a bit weeks, and we have this: http://ch...

Sandra @Kamo vets also works with birds. She's been very good with ours.

Incubators; I'm of the opinion that you get what you pay for. I've got an R-Com 20, a Brinsea Ova-Easy 100 with humidity pump, and a cheap chinese incubator (CCI) from TradeMe. I'd use either the R-Com 20 or the Brinsea (depending on number of eggs) by preference. The CCI would be the last one to co...

I've never tried to upload an avatar but when I look at other people's avatars I can't see them. Anbody else can't see them? To be honest, they seem to have disappear about since this thread was started - spooky! It certainly looks that way. They were visible yesterday. Mine which was set in my use...

Awesome. Unpowered cat. Powered cat.

I used it last year with the first (and only hatch so far) in my Brinsea cabinet incubator. Not enough data to recommend for or against it, but certainly no concerns about it from the results.