It’s quite a common term thats banded around, often by inexperienced breeders who are attempting to provide a level of confidence to unsuspecting, inexperienced buyers….

It’s also a case of a little knowledge can be dangerous, or in the case of those looking to make a quick profit, it’s a tool to confidently con a buyer by selling them chicks that are claimed to be females.

So what is feather sexing and how does it work?

It is a method of being able to tell the difference between male and female chicks based on the growth rate of their primary wing feathers. The wing feathers of the male birds grow slower than the females however this is only evident when the chicks are between one and three days old after which point the feathers of the male birds will catch up in size.

It is also only really possible to reliably do on hybrid chicks where a fast feathering cockerel such as a Leghorn is crossed with slow-feathering hens such as a Rhode Island Red.

Not all breeds or crossings will produce opportunities to feather sex
successfully nor will those that should provide variable feather growth rates work unless the male parent stock is carry the fast feathering genes.

Points worth noting if you buy young birds where the seller claims they know the gender of the chick as they have feather sexed the brood. A couple of well placed questions will soon expose the bluffer. As for those who claim to be able to vent sex with 100% accuracy… well thats a blog post for another day

Time will tell who is who

“If you like chickens, are interested in chickens, have chickens, want chickens,
live near chickens, or are a chicken – you should get this book.”

….and so the review concluded on Amazon. I felt rather proud to have been involved in the writing of that book even if the comment brought a chuckle to my face.

I have a lot of poultry books and obviously as a co-author of the above you’d expect me to say it’s a good book…. but it is! And whilst you might think this is just some PR to boost sales…. it isn’t, I’ve had my pay cheque already. Instead I’ll leave to another poultry keeper to share his review…

“I have a large collection of poultry books from the 1930′s through to the present day and I am always eager to open the cover of a new release to see what else I can learn about chickens which have become part of my working life as well as my passion.
There are so many very basic ‘how to keep chickens’ books out there and once you’ve seen one… it gets a little, well, boring reading another and lets face it there are some good websites out there these days with a lot of this kind of information available.
“The Chicken. A Natural History” is different. It is not a ‘how to’ book but is aimed at pretty much anyone interested in chickens, beginner or not. The first 4 chapters covers what science can tell us about chickens. From evolution and domestication to anatomy, biology, behaviour, intelligence and learning, all fascinating chapters that are well presented with no shortage of amazing photos.
From wattles and combs to hatching, flock formation to chicks imprinting on their mother, it really is all covered in this book!
The fifth and final chapter covers an introduction to the breeds which covers many of the different breeds you will come across. From layers to table birds, Game to ornamental breeds, each with their own photograph and breed profile covering their origins, some history and information about their behaviour and upkeep. This chapter is very well written and could make a small book of its own!
Overall, an excellent book. I think this could well be in my top 3 best books on chickens. If you want to learn about chickens and their breeds, don’t look any further, this is definitely the book for you.”

….and on that note, best I press on with writing the next book….. well maybe later, I feel the urge to go sit in the sunshine in the middle of the field surrounded by Brahma’s and read a book  :-)

It’s the third year the show has run and the size of the crowds on all three days (despite Friday being Red Nose Day and Saturday being the crunch match in this years Six Nations Rugby) were testament to the huge numbers of people who are electing to grow more of their own food.

For many years I’ve understood and appreciated the value of poultry as part of a productive garden and a self supporting lifestyle, and I’ve long being saying that the large increase in backyard keepers is not some fad but simply the fact it’s a natural step to take when you are a grow your veg sort of person. The amount of floor space & talk time at the show dedicated to poultry was a reflection of that, and the fact the planned surgeries dissolved into a full on, flat out Q&A session seemed to prove the point too. People are hungry for knowledge and are keen to get the best out of their birds and ensure the birds get the best out of their land.

Some of us are even dreaming of more land and more chickens (my apologies to Alys Fowler, it was a momentary lapse in concentration)

Hatching season is now upon us and if you decide to try your hand at hatching this year for the first time then the first rule of thumb is ‘sit on your hands’ during the process. Many folks find their first venture into incubator hatching doesn’t quite turn out as it should. Even if the eggs are fertile and candle well, the hatch rate is not quite the bundle of fluff that was expected. More often than not it’s the fault of the operator and not that of the eggs or the chicks.

Artificial incubation isn’t a dark art but it equally it isn’t an exact science. The bottom line is you are trying to get the incubator to the right conditions to enable the embryo to develop fully and the egg to lose 15% of its mass over the designated incubation period (21 days in chickens). Slight fluctuations in those conditions can result in earlier or later hatches and this is where as a first timer you can start to get anxious. It starts with checking the incubator, initially this is looking through the window, next its opening the machine itself (bang goes the optimum conditions when you do this and it will take time for those conditions to return). Next might be to add more water because you don’t think it’s humid enough and then finally it will picking at the shells of the eggs that look like they might have started to pip and its day 21 and thats what the instruction book says is the day the chicks hatch.

Don’t. Sit on your hands or better still go away and do something less destructive because destructive is what you are likely to be if you start to assist in a hatch. You might well break out a chick which goes on to live healthily but by the same measure you can cause leg problems (the chick needs to push itself from the egg to stretch its leg tendons) or worse still kill it by either causing excessive membrane bleed or extracting the youngster from its shell before it’s absorbed all the yolk.

Let nature take its course, some chicks hatch quickly, others slowly, and ducks are down right lazy, rarely though does your intervention in the process result in useful assistance.

This gosling died in shell however you can see the unabsorbed egg sac quite clearly

I wouldn’t describe ourselves as being particularly house proud, in fact with the number of children, chickens and a messy collie dog, its like shovelling snow in a snowstorm trying to keep the place tidy. We do however try to avoid traipsing in half the garden on the bottom of wellies and the like and this is where these two for the projects come into play.

Both are very simple, very easy to make and cost pratically nothing! The boot scraper is a pleasantly rustic design built of a log from the wood pile and a roof slate, both appearing for free in the garden following the recent high winds blasting in from the Berwyns. The boot pull, or boot jack is an age old idea yet one that is seldom seen in a average porchway, surprising considering its efficiency in not only removing a wellie boot but the fact its completely hands free.

Both the projects can be completed in a spare hour at the weekend, and need very little in the way of DIY skills. The simplicity of the build also means you can go to town decorating them if that’s your thing, alternatively you leave them with the rough rustic look.

What you will need

Boot Scraper
• Saw or chainsaw
• Chisel and mallet
• Glue
Boot pull
• Power drill
• Jigsaw
• Countersink drill bit
• Screwdriver
• Sandpaper or electric sander

Materials
Boot Scraper
• A reasonable sized log
• A old roof slate
Boot pull
• A short length of board or plywood
• A couple of screws

Boot Scraper
Step 1
Using the saw or a chainsaw remove one third of the diameter of the log in order to create a flat surface

Step 2
Using a saw make two cuts a couple of millimetres apart along the length of the log and chisel out the waste. Alternative make a single cut with a chainsaw.

Step 3
Slot the roof slate into the gap leaving about 10cm to stand out from the log. Use small chips of wood to pad the gap if the slate wobbles at all.

Boot Pull
Step 2-1
Using the cutting template, mark out the design and cut it out using a jigsaw. Cut the rest section out also, allowing for the slight angle.

Step 2-2
Using sandpaper or an electric sander smooth the edges down, pay particular attention to the mouth of the pull.

Step 2-3
Drill and counter sink the main pull just below the mouth. Attach the rest using a couple of 40mm wood screws

Job done. No need for mud or muddy hands thanks to a couple of chunks of wood and a bit of roof slate

As your chickens come back into lay then there is always a chance you might stumble across a soft shelled egg but what precisely are these, why do they occur and how can you prevent them?

Soft shell eggs are those which are laid with only the inner and outer membrane in place. In fact the term ‘soft shell’ is actually incorrect as the egg is laid with no shell at all. They can occur in two circumstances, firstly when the hen is rushed into laying her egg meaning it is laid before the shell is formed. This can occur due to a sudden stress or shock but also in a period of excitement. Secondly these sorts of eggs can be laid as a result of a deficiency in calcium or vitamin D within the diet. This can occur during warm weather when the hen is eating less and isn’t getting sufficient calcium in her diet to produce the egg shell so supplements of liquid calcium can help. It’s not unusual for a hen to lay one or two ‘softees’ in a season however if a hen consistently lays eggs like this there could be an underlying viral condition that will need checking.

One important thing to do if you have a ‘softee’ layer is to ensure you remove the ‘egg’ as soon as possible after laying. If not it may get broken under the feet of the other hens or possible eaten. If the former occurs then it could result in further ‘egg eating’ but that’s an issue for another post.

Are they safe to eat… well yes, just not all that appetising to look at or very easy to crack open on the edge of a pan.

A soft shelled egg, or more accurately, an egg without a shell!

It gives me great pleasure to provide a guest blog spot for Grant as I have immense respect for his understanding, knowledge and experience in the world of poultry breeding and genetics. So over to Grant who has also kindly offered copies of his E-book “Making New Colours 2″ to 5 randomly selected readers who contact him.

Grant’s E-Book full of photos and explanations – a great read for the poultry breeder

And if that’s not enough, ALL people entering will receive a copy of one of his other E-books “The Newcomers Guide to Poultry Breeds.”

Grant’s E-book for the newcomer to Poultry – FREE with every competition entry

All entry details are at the bottom of the blog post and the deadline is midday Friday 15th Feb 2013…. Over to Grant to explain more

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A pair of Partridge Wyandotte bantams

A flock of Welsummers

Grant’s self-created Chocolate-Partridge Wyandottes, the ancestors of which are on the cover of his E-book: Making New Colours 2

I am however delighted to announce the Chicken Vet as blog sponsors. You will see their logo on the front page and if you click on it you will be taken to their website www.chickenvet.co.uk , there’s no kickback for me or tracking cookies involved, just a simple link to their website. Have a look around, sure there’s a shop where you can purchase products but there is also a mass of other useful information including articles on poultry diseases and husbandry along with a comprehensive list of poultry friendly vets.

The St Davids Poultry Team are a commercial poultry vets whose work covers the majority of commercial flocks here in the UK. They realised the increase in backyarders though meant scalable solutions were required for smaller flocks. So they established “The Chicken Vet”, an online resource that provides a service to those of us who can count the chickens in our flocks. This gets my vote and I’m very pleased for this blog to be associated with them.

I’ll always give the stuff a good go and let the supplier know my thoughts, no matter how candid. Lets face it, there’s a lot of chickenailia hitting the market, some of it produced by people trying to make a quick buck but by equal measure a fair chunk is produced by people or firms genuinely trying to aid the backyard keeper and only when give some good honest constructive feedback will they be able to improve or enhance the product.

It’s nice though to be simply sent something that needs no testing, doesn’t need dragging through a field or pouring on a pile of red mite and that’s just what I got sent from Sarah McKenzie at Stopham Garden Poultry (@stophampoultry). Sarah is an illustrator who takes on commissions for pet portraits but also produces greetings cards which I have to say I rather like as they do capture the attitude of one or two chickens I know! Here’s a few of her pictures.

1. Find a table or work surface with a clear right angled edge
2. Hold the chick in the fist with your thumb up as if hitching a ride so the chicks head is just above the tip of your thumb
3. Place the thumb against the neck of the chick and put the other side of the chicks neck against the table edge
4. Press firmly and quickly with the thumb against the table edge
5. You will feel the neck of the chick dislocate. It is now dead.
6. The chick will be moving in your hand (as if struggling). This is involuntary muscle contractions and not actually struggling
7. Hold the chick in position until the movement subsides.

Brown Leghorn Bantams – the males have very poor table properties

Note:

Following a few queries about precisely how the chick is held heres an image to help (no stuffed animals were injured during the taking of this shot)