“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 :-)
When I set off writing this blog my aim was try and remain as impartial as possible providing constructive commentary on chickens, ducks and a self-supporting lifestyle. I didn’t want to litter it with adverts that had click through URLs that paid me when a purchase was made.
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.
The snow is falling outside and for us its been a few years since we have any of any significance. I use the word ‘significance’ though not in the manner of a weather forecaster, a few inches of snow isn’t a lot to fall. Instead I mean that there is enough for it to be a valuable aid to the poultry keeper.
Snow means easily visible tracks!
If you think you might have a pest or predator problem then a few inches of snow can help in proving their presence. Rats will take the same routes they always do each night and they will leave a muddy track leading right back to their nest making it easy to target. Perhaps best of all though is the way the snow will help you find out a) if you have foxes visiting overnight and b) precisely where they are breaching your fence.
Fox tracks are easy to identify, they make a single set of prints where the back feet are placed in the print made by the front feet and this morning I located my breach which has now been repaired.
So before you go rushing into all that fresh virgin snow to build a snowman, take a quick moment to have a look around and see if anyone else has been there already.
Last year I blogged some hints and tips to help your chickens get through the winter, and whilst it’s true that they can survive without very much additional care, it is with little more attention to the husbandry of the birds that you can ensure your stock comes back into lay in peak condition. These next 10 tips take a closer look at the outdoor living space, winter pests and how to give the birds a bit of health boost.
Standing water, boggy or poached areas in the run should be avoided as chickens can’t resist drinking from puddles and these could be contaminated with droppings. Remove the temptation by digging over patches that become overly muddy or sodden and add some sharp sand or grit to aid the drainage.
A sheltered area in the run where the birds can get out of the rain, wind and snow is essential. A piece of corrugated roofing leant against a fence or wall facing towards the prevailing wind will work quite well if weighted into position. Alternatively if you have an old table simply remove two legs to create a freestanding shelter.
Ornamental bark chippings might seem like a good idea to put down in the run to help with wet conditions but don’t do it. They decompose quickly and as they rot down fungi and mould grow on them. The resulting spores can cause respiratory problems for chickens. The classic example is aspergillus which thrives on bark, if ingested by poultry it can cause aspergillosis which is difficult to treat successfully and will cause the slow death of the infected bird. Instead use hardwood chippings with as little bark present as possible.
A moveable ark is a good compromise for the winter. It can mean the chickens are a little more restricted in terms of the space they have to range but it does mean that they can be moved to fresh ground regularly.
The Red Mite might be a pest of the summer months and whilst it may not be active during the colder weather be sure to clean the coop thoroughly as they can survive for over 6 months without feeding.
Northern Fowl Mite is active during the winter and unlike the Red character, these mites do live entirely on the birds. The first signs can be greasy looking feathers on the back around the base of the tail. This is caused by excrement from the mites and is a sure sign your chicken is carrying passengers. If the birds remain untreated it will result in fatalities. (Take a look at my Guardian blog for a case in point)
Rats often seek out a cosy chicken run during the winter. They are looking for food, water and shelter so make sure that’s not available for them. Don’t leave feeders outside, empty the drinkers each night and refill in the morning, and if you can raise your coop off the ground by at least 8 inches you stand a good chance of removing the shelter option (and the bonus of providing outdoor shelter for your chickens).
Multivitamins for poultry come in many different types and each poultry keepers have their own preferences however all agree that these natural vitamins and minerals definitely give the birds a boost both during the moult and throughout the winter.
Frostbite can be a problem, particularly in birds with large head gear. If a prolonged period of sub-zero temperatures is forecast then a coat of Vaseline on the comb will help protect it.
Oregano is an excellent source of antibacterial, antifungal, anti-parasitic and anti-oxidative help, and has an all-round positive effect on the immune system of poultry. Hanging a bunch of fresh oregano up not only provides the health benefits but also provides your chickens with some greens and entertainment.
Winter for any animal can present its challenges and it’s no different for chickens and the keepers of chickens. Providing the optimum conditions for your flock is essential and whilst they may not be laying at this point of the year effort still needs to be invested in their upkeep so they can start the new laying period in prime condition. Here’s 10 tips to help when you are out and about with your flock
1. Ventilation in the house is essential for your poultry throughout the year so don’t be tempted to block up every hole in the house in the belief it will keep the birds warm when the wild weather comes along.
2. Bedding and litter should be of an adequate depth to provide a level of insulation but don’t be tempted to stuff the house full of straw thinking it will create a cosy house.
3. Mucking out should be at least a weekly task but during the winter due to the birds spending longer in the house (and therefore fouling the litter more). To help try a quick spot of ‘poo picking’ each morning or place a sheet of newspaper under the perch that can be removed when you let the birds out each day.
4. Try to keep the entrance to the house dry or free from standing water or mud. A couple of old pallets in front of the pop hole might look unsightly but they will help.
5. Dampness can occur on the floor of the chicken houses despite your best efforts so winter is a good time to invest in a powder type disinfectant such as Stalosan F.
6. Disinfecting the feeders and drinkers on a weekly basis is advisable now as they will be getting dirtier due to the wetter weather.
7. It’s worth considering giving your chickens free access to feed during the day as opposed to measuring out a specific amount. This is because their consumption rate will vary depending on how cold the weather is, they will manage this accordingly.
8. A handful of corn or other ‘slow burn’ grain per bird given as a scratch feed an hour or so before they go into roost will provide some extra energy to keep the birds warm during the night.
9. Bring drinkers indoors at night or empty them completely. Its far easier to fill an empty drinker in the morning than wander around with a kettle of boiling water trying to defrost a solid drinker
10. Check the drinkers regularly during the day or keep them in a frost free place. Chickens will drink a significant amount of water even in cold weather.
They might have built in snow shoes but winter can present its challenges for Sabelpoots
Twitter sure is a curious thing…. not long after my Guardian blog on ‘rescue hens’ was posted on their site Gavin Loughlin dropped me a tweet about a song and video that he has on YouTube. Its a pertinent and quirky song with an excellent animation, and certainly one any chickeneer should take a moment to watch… hope you enjoy it.
You can find Gavin on Twitter as @GavinLoughlin or @Finding_Violet
Earlier in the year I was approached by a publishing house to collaborate/contribute to a new book on chickens and after some incredibly tight deadlines, and burning a bit of midnight oil I’m pleased to say its complete… well put it this way, the authors are now complete though we are yet to see the final version in the flesh (or should I say paper). Anyway, due to the clever cross section of poultry people the publishers asked to get involved with the book, it promises to be a slight different read to the usual keeping chickens style book described as
“a timely, encyclopedic, science-based study that offers a true understanding of the species, reclaiming it from its commercial status as a mere egg and meat provider. Topics include anatomy, developmental biology, ancestry, breeding and origins, and there is a comprehensive look at chicken behaviour . The book’s final chapter is devoted to a beautiful visual study of the characteristics of particular breeds, providing quick-reference information on husbandry, particulars and appearance.”
Its available on pre-order from Amazon and is due for release later this year.
My thanks to those who helped me along the way on the sections I wrote, both in terms of images and sense checks – very much appreciated.
….but perhaps not for chickens. The last week or so it’s been pretty much persisting it down, which whilst it’s no bad thing for the garden or the ducks in the garden, it can have its pluses and minuses on the chicken front.
A gold brahma cockerel (not quite) singing in the rain
Chickens don’t mind a bit of rain, in fact it’s fairly safe to say that they do seem to welcome a bit of a wash down and don’t mind getting wet, having a good preen afterwards. Despite looking like drown rats they do actually dry out quite quickly given the right sort of shelter.
Things to watch out for are ventilation in the chicken coop. Don’t be tempted to seal the house up against the elements in an attempt to stop the birds ‘getting a chill’ by going to bed wet. Poultry generate an amazing amount of heat when roosting and if you’ve sealed the house up the birds won’t dry out at all, instead the coop will become a warm damp environment – an ideal breeding ground for disease. So keep the ventilation clear and let the birds air dry overnight.
Boggy ground can be another problem for chickens in wet weather, not only will they potentially be standing in a mass of mud, but they could well be traipsing the mud into their living quarters. Whilst not quite a designer look, putting old wooden pallets down in the run and near to the pophole will help get the chickens out of the mud. If possible you could also add a porch to the pophole. Ok, they are unlikely to wipe their feet before entering the house but it will at least keep the mud down a bit.
If pallets aren’t your thing and you prefer something a bit more pleasant looking then a good thick layer of hardwood chips will be help lift the ground level and aid the water drainage. Don’t be tempted to put ornamental bark chippings down though, these will begin to rot down quickly and the resulting fungal growth will mean the chickens are at risk of inhaling large quantities of spores. These spores are bad for the birds health and can in turn cause respiratory problems for them. The classic example is aspergillus which thrives on bark, if ingested by poultry it can cause aspergillosis which is difficult to treat successfully and will cause the slow death of the infected bird. Hardwood chips can often be source cheaply from a local tree surgeon and if that’s not possible then consider putting down sand instead.
As for the ducks…. leave them to it, the saying goes “as happy as a pig in muck” well there’s nothing much happier than a duck in rain & muck too!
Whilst doing some research recently for an upcoming poultry book I’m involved in writing I was reminded about the “The Chicken-of-tomorrow” contest. For those not familiar with this ‘contest’ you may well have just missed the biggest social, agricultural, food based event of the last 1000 years.
You don’t believe me? Watch these two video’s if you have the time and you may be surprised and you may just find the 20minutes you spend watching them somewhat thought provoking.
The film is an element of what was perhaps the most potent Public Relations exercise ever to have hit the world.
Let me explain a little. The Post War Western world was suffering a significant shortage of meat, meat being an essential source of protein in our diets. Chickens at this time were invariably kept for egg laying (eggs being a cheap, accessible source of protein). Chicken meat wasn’t as readily consumed in the early 20th century as it is now; it was a case of eating surplus cockerels or hens that had passed their laying best. Some table fowl existed but these were a luxury item, so invariably the chicken that reached the pot was either scrawny or a tough old bird; many urban households preferring instead to ignore chicken as an option.
During the war eggs and chicken meat came under more scrutiny as a source of essential rations. “A million eggs for a million soldiers” ran one headline in the US National Poultry Digest and demand for eggs and broilers grew. Consequently the humble farm chicken switched to chicken farming in less than a decade. It was however in 1946 when the major stakeholders converged and the shape of poultry, the poultry industry and the waistline of the world was to change forever through the birth of “The Chicken-of-Tomorrow” contest.
Agriculturists, scientists, breeders, farmers, and grocers all combine together in one very subtle but very deliberate PR exercise to not only promote poultry as an excellent source of protein but also to change attitudes toward the chicken. I won’t deny it, I do like a good conspiracy theory but I’m not going to build this in to one, in fact it could almost be said that it was ‘pioneering’ work that took place. The intent behind the contest was to produce ‘improved’ chickens, chickens that carried more meat, grew quickly and gave a more efficient yield in terms of feed conversion.
This could be frowned upon but ultimately it was a funded exercise to accelerate what any smallholder would be trying to do in their backyard. When the farmyard chicken became more focused upon as a source of food during the 19th century the objective was, and still is (outside of the poultry exhibition circuit) to produce good utility strains or breeds of chicken. The difference here was that through clever and careful publicity, coupled with prize funding and a foresight beyond what most of today’s corporations are capable of, the full range of stakeholders became engaged in process that went on to change the world, but far more imperceptibly than an iphone or even the internet.
The ‘contests’ ran in three year cycles from 1946 to 1961 and went through regional heats on to national competitions. This wasn’t however a case of playing one breed off against another, it was about hybridising existing breeds and then submitted 400 eggs to a fully controlled hatchery in each region where the birds would be hatched, monitored and slaughtered ( where upon the results would be declared in terms of the ‘best’ chicken). Hundreds of thousands of chickens, in fact it’s probably safe to say millions of chickens, were a part of this process. The objective was understandable and quite possibly well intentioned; it was however how it evolved that becomes the leg bone of contention.
It was only a matter of time before the chicken ceased to be livestock and became a crop. Maximising yield became the governing factor, and quite possible because the PR promoting chicken meat was hugely successful, then the drive to produce quick growing eating machines that converted cereal feed into protein rich meat flicked a switch that spelt out a welfare disaster for the animal.
A meat bird now can be table ready in under 8 weeks, it can be bought for £4 (or 2 for a fiver in some supermarkets) and it will weigh around 4lb in weight (Back in the 70’s the drumsticks or leg bones would be invariably broken. This may have been down to the post slaughter handling but if you looked closely (using what you might have learnt from CSI) you would have seen it was a pre mortem injury… the bird had literally converted its feed into flesh instead of bone resulting in its legs being weak and breaking under the weight.)
I started this out with a bold statement saying this contest changed “the shape of poultry, the poultry industry and the waistline of the world”. The first two points hopefully now speak for themselves but what of the final point, waistline. A simple wander through a high street or supermarket will highlight this. What are chicken nuggets? When did buffalo wings become the meal of the Super Bowl? Popcorn chicken? Chicken fingers? Chicken in hotdogs? The list could go on, there’s no denying that ‘chicken’ once either a scrawny addition to the table or a luxury most couldn’t afford, now appears to be consumed on a titanic scale and all this has come about in the last 50 years – a global consumption acceleration matched by no other meat product on the planet.
And so to the question, has the “Chicken-of-tomorrow” become yesterday? Animal welfare is certainly an agenda item. In recent decades we once again see clever and careful publicity working but this time bringing welfare to the fore. Slowly consumers are becoming more aware of food production, and slowly attitudes are changing. This year 2012 saw the banning of battery cage egg production systems, a small but positive step that can’t help but make you think the tide might be changing. Pioneering as the poultry contest initiated in the 1940’s might have been, the time has come for another rethink. Poultry are one of the few creatures we openly consume before they are born and after they are dead. Spend time around poultry and they seem quite content with this lot, albeit it having little choice but what does the future hold for yesterday’s chicken of tomorrow?
Husbandry of poultry is very much ‘by eye’. Only by spending time around your flock will you pick on potential problems as chickens are very good at disguising illness which is quite possibly a survival mechanism to mitigate the risk of predation common in many species of bird.
Sick birds may emerge from the coop in a flurry with the other hens but then spend the day skulking or hiding out of sight, so be sure to do a head count periodically during the daylight and investigate any bird that seems out of sorts.
The nature of many poultry diseases is such that the symptoms can appear more or less the same which can leave you, the keeper, at a loss as to what might be the issue but by carefully observing your flock you can pick up on certain diagnostics that may help isolate the problem.
This BVA Animal Welfare Foundation pdf file was put together in conjunction with the Poultry Club of Great Britain and provides an excellent early diagnostic crib sheet and is well worth downloading and printing off. Stick it on the wall of your chicken shed or feed store and familiarise yourself with the basic symptoms, likely causes and possible treatments.
As mentioned earlier, birds can and do disguise illness, consequently when it becomes obvious that there’s a problem it can often be too late to treat them. Early identification of diseases or disorders therefore can be the difference between life and death.
It goes without saying that the crib sheet provides only a guide but it can be essential in collecting the right information about the problem your bird maybe suffering and this will help immensely should you need to refer to a poultry vet.
If you are a twitter user then its well worth following two such vet establishments on there, namely @avianvets and @chickenvet , or alternatively visit their web sites ( AvianVets and ChickenVet ) as both are frequently available to help and advise the online poultry keeper.
