Poultry Central - The New Zealand Poultry & Chicken Forum

So it seems that the quake might have just delayed the hatch?? I'll keep that in mind if we ever have a quake up here........crossing fingers we never do!

Definitely perfect for game birds (pheasants) and Ok for chickens - they just have a higher protein %. I've used meat bird crumbles a lot in my pheasant/guinea fowl/partridge hatches.

That must be very disappointing! The usual accepted temperature for incubation is 37.5C so the slighter higher 38C could have made a difference. Also I always use between 45 and 55% humidity for the first 18 days then around 65 - 70% for the last 3 days. So your temp and humidity would have been a b...

There are now 14 eggs in the nest! I suspect 2 of the females (maybe 3?) are laying as the number goes up more than 1 a day. Very pleased. Obviously they don't think it's enough for a clutch as none are sitting yet. It may not be rats getting eggs laid on the ground - my partner has seen a stoat on ...

We've tried traps and the rats seem to get wise to them pretty quickly - the blocks work better. And I've found another egg in the elevated nest so hopefully the rats will concentrate on the ones laid on the ground only - crossing fingers! Yes they are pretty birds and the range of noises they make ...

Don't know eae. I always feel they need more space so I need more cages. I move the cages around as much as I can but they eat grass so fast the ground is bare very quickly. Would like to keep them and breed with them but still waiting on that!

eae here's a photo I took today of 3 of the partridges. One is having a dirt bath - they are loving the soil being dryer - they just love their dirt baths!

I have found a couple of eggs lately - yay! But looks like the rats might have got there first as there were a couple of empty shells as well. I have seen rats going in there to eat the food so I'm assuming they spotted the eggs and had a feast. Darn rats - as soon as I plug a hole another one appea...

I had a similar problem when I hatched partridge chicks. They are shocking at pecking each others toes till they were swollen and bleeding like this. I think it's the pecking in your case. He's probably a shy type of rooster and lets the hens do what they want - and some hens can be quite bossy. I'v...

My first hatch, of my own Orpington eggs, was great. Set 20 eggs and 19 were fertile and grew to full term, though 2 just didn't hatch. 1 had a hock problem and had to be put down, so I was left with 16 good ones. I was very pleased with that result. And I didn't have to assist in any of the hatchin...

Thanks for that wolga! No, nothing happening yet. Maybe this very wet weather is telling them not to nest yet as the area I have them in is a sea of mud at the moment. Still crossing fingers .........

If you have pukekos around, they DO snatch and eat the eggs! Have caught them in the act.....

I do have several types of feed in the feeder - chook chow, whole maize and sometimes pellets. My chooks just love the maize and they probably are digging in to get that and turf out the rest! You may be right there Marina!

I have a Grandpas feeder but the rats are still around as the chooks seem to knock a lot of feed out of it and the step usually has feed on it, so I often see rats. And I have found sparrows in it - both alive and dead. And this feeder is INSIDE the chook house so rats and sparrows still come into t...

Thanks for that Foehn. I've had a quick look at those articles but will read them more deeply later! I've only had the perosis situation in newborn chicks. I assume that having free range chickens means they get all they need but of course the ground they range on can get deficient in some things ov...