Poultry Central - The New Zealand Poultry & Chicken Forum

food scraps for extra calcium

might be better to have a separate bowl of oyster grit for extra calcium?

I've had our Silkies start trying to look at you from upside down (rolling their head/neck round) and it was only the Silkies (and not all of them) - fed them an added vitamin/mineral & they straightened up my conclusion was the Silkies are a bit sensitive/soft all the birds were eating the same...

with your young Wyandotte - what colour fluff did it have as a youngster? cream/brown with darker brown stripes or creamy white? I ask because it doesn't look Silver Pencil to me I haven't hatched Silver Pencil Wyandottes, but I have hatched SP Pekins and Columbian Pekins and that looks like an over...

so many variables and sometimes it just doesn't quite work out! I have a Silver Spangled Hamburg that's made a nest in one of the sheds - she's not with the right rooster, so I had no intention of hatching those eggs, but I thought, great, I can use her to incubate some eggs for me (natural is alway...

she's very pretty - that's why I have the Spangles/Mille Fleur Pekins, they're hard to resist (but so far eluding me with any sort of decent type)

Yep, no blood implies she was dead before she was nibbled - not nice to find though
rat traps a good idea

We've just been studying our Silver Appleyards too - tricky to decide, but I typed out the description of the colours, might help you to decide.... Drake: Head & Neck: black-green with a silver-white flecked throat. Faint eye brown and cheek markings in silver. A silver-white ring completely enc...

I'd check for red mites too - I like to dust my sitting hens once a week (I use a cat/dog flea powder - permethrin, others use diatomaceous earth)
if she's getting bitten sitting on the nest, she would be getting off more (and eventually won't get back on)

our ducks are moulting

we haven't had a summer yet?????

I haven't had much luck with ducklings and lots of adults - the adults gobble everything up
so getting somewhere the ducklings can get to but the adults can't might be the way to go

with angel wing - generally I get rid of any out of the breeding group - it seems to improve your odds the only other observation I've made, any ducklings raised by their mother, especially free ranging, (i.e. they gallop around the place all the time, don't grow as fast as the ducklings kept in a p...

how old is she? if she's young, it could be Mareks - she doesn't come from a commercial hatchery (she doesn't look like a Brown Shaver/Hyline) I've had birds come down with Mareks and they lose control of their limbs, but generally its a paralysed leg (in the worst cases, they sit with one leg forwa...

When I wrapped a duck, I went round the body as well, kind of figure 8 around the other wing - it generally fell off within a day or two (was using that cohesive self sticking horse bandage) - but you're meant to keep taking it off to check if its worked From what I've read, angel wing can be a bit ...

very nice!

Yeah, rough handling is not good - so even though they didn't crack it can rupture the insides if you think there's a chance of quickly getting some replacement eggs, I'd give it a go - these ones have to stay there till the replacements turn up anyway - but yeah I prefer to check at a week (or late...