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Where to put feeders?

Our first ever hens are arriving on Wednesday and I am wondering where to put their feeder? Do they need one in their house and in their outside run? or just one in their house. Or when they are used to their new digs can they have feeder just outsid

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Lawn seed and hens

I see I need to re-sow some patches of my little lawn, but now we have free-range hens what will they make of the lawn seed? Any ideas? Fence small areas of lawn off while the seeds germinate, grow, etc etc. Buy pink seed? Help required! chooks.jpg

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Dispatching scaley leg mite

One of our 4 hens has had obvious scaley leg mite since we got them all 9 months ago. The other 3 don't seem to have caught them yet despite very iintimate dust bathing together and 'host' hen's infestation doesn't seem to have got much worse. Is it

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Laying off over winter

What's everyone's chooks' laying rates like this week, and how has it been over autumn leading into winter? 


Our three hamburgs were purchased last October as POL pullets, but it turned out one of them might have been a year older as she started moul

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Anti-Sparrow Measures?

We have lots of sparrows eating our chooks' pellets. The feeder was out under the henhouse, but seeing hundreds of passerines developing I moved the feeder inside the house. NOW the little sparrows are going inside the house! I first thought of hangi

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Hen not laying

I have 3 light sussex only i is laying and now has stopped for the 5th day, she looked sick 2 days ago and yesterday was wanting to lay as she was in the shed nesting. Her comb is red today as is scratching and eating any suggestions should i go to a

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Lethargic chook

Hi All,


I adopted 7 ex-battery shavers recently, wormed them when they got here and they've settled in well.  They came from a local farm where they were free-ranging and they are also free-ranging on our 1/4 acre here.  I've noticed, over the last c

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bossy chicken

Can anyone help ?I had 3 chickens 1 was a roster so replaced it with 2 hens.1 of my original hens became the MATRON.Then to my horror just when the order was back 1 new hen died.So now the other new hen is getting told off all the time and is on the

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settling in

I've just got my 3 new girls and wondered how long to keep them in the coop until it would be safe to let them out and have them come back to roost of their own accord. I have a big backyard for them to explore but it is not completely fenced and of

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Chicken coop design

Hi Ooooby-ites

I'm about to take the plunge and build myself a chicken coop (and then put some chickens in it, of course). I'm in suburbia, and want the coop to be more of a chicken tractor with and attached run, so I can shift the birds around and ev

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Babysitting chickens.

HELP! I'm off to Rarotonga for 6 days from 28/5/10 (yay!) I need someone with a secure backyard and no dogs who can mind my 2 chooks for me (I will feed them). They need to be kept separate from other chooks (both for potential attacking issues and b

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