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In my experience you can't tell the males from the females with Polish until you start to see the behaviour. Little Roos will start to rush out where angels fear to tread, and face up to other members of the flock. Little hens stay close to Mum. They all have long tails, at a 45 degree angle...

Hi, all chicken lovers. In this sad world it just feels so great to have tiny, new life. I would just like to comment that, if your chicks don't have a Mum to sit on them when they are cold, the risks of raising them outdoors are massive. Wee chicks not only need heat top-down, but they need...

I appreciate your reply. I am glad you recognize this, but neither parent has a pea comb, so I wasn't sure where it came from.

Just wondering where genes come from? I have a light Sussex hen who produced chicks by a dark Polish cockerel There were four cockerels and one hen out of this hatch. All of them suddenly decided to roost up an apple tree, although Mum and Dad roosted in the hen shed. The chicks had been...

In this deeply uncertain world, where there are people trying to harm you, there are wars going on, the world is moving into a different climate zone, just take a half-an-hour each day to catch up with the people in your life who are totally wholesome, mean no harm, will not steal your identity...

I have a large chicken hut. I also have two smaller pens.hutches where the mums go when they have small chicks. These chicks are now 4 months old. The chicks were hatched under a broody. Hope this helps.

Hi all, We have 3 chicks in a maternity pen, and we need to get them into the main chicken hut before winter. They never go into the main pen, where the hut is. Feeding them out hasn't worked. They were born in the Summer and are now fully feathered. None of them are mature yet. The father...

Not only informative, but deeply amusing! Viva la chicken personalities!

It's early times. Give them time! Chickens need to grow before they get fertile. Probably all the energy is going into growing!

Don't fuss. Many hens born this year won't be fertile until Spring. She looks like she's a different breed from the others. Chickens are like humans. Some get their period before others. My earliest chick this year, born on 6th May, is not laying. I would give it time.

Not sure why I would be botheed? I have one hen who roosts up a tree, and she is perfectly safe. She lays eggs on the ground and produced 7 chicks this year. We put them all in a pen but, as soon as they were loose, she taught them all to fly up the tree. None of my other chickens do this so...

Hi all, I only write from my own experience of keeping chickens for 13 years and observing their behavior. This experience has taught me that a mother hen will come out of her separate pen when the chicks are about 4 weeks old, but she will not fully integrate with the main flock. She keeps...

I love this! It's true! However, in my experience when the males mature they become a pain in the ass!

This is REALLY helpful! Our Polish rooster (black and red) produced 4 white sons out of our Light Sussex hen, and one brown hen! Couldn't understand it, but now I know we could have sexed the chicks by colour!

This is a strange one. First thing to say is don't blame yourselves! It can't have been the cold. Cold chicks huddle and they don't jump around and interact as you have described. It can't have been a germ that you introduced. If they were healthy when you got them then it takes longer for...

Hens vary wildly in how prone to broodiness they are. My polish hen never goes broody, my pekins cannot be stopped from going broody. I haven't kept the breed you have, but I would suggest bringing in a couple of Pekins, and then you can put the eggs from the other hens under them. I would...

Totally agree. I like that nothing goes to waste from the kitchen when you keep chickens. I put the left-overs out in bowls, so the chucks know it is food. Mostly the bowls are cleaned out instantly. Anything that is not finished I bin. If your run is properly protected from predators, i.e...

Hi, Don't worry! They will soon tell you if they don't have enough space by ganging up at the gate into the run and/or you will see them pecking each other, which chickens do when penned too closely. Chickens are hugely sociable animals and normally love to be together. We also have had to...

When I started my flock I did not understand how close a relationship a human could have with a bird. We both seemed such different beings. Over the years I have learned better. My big, black, beautiful senior hen loves nothing more than to stand beside me, and peck my boots. If I am wearing...

Just a quick tip on trapping red mites. I put 8 bricks in the chicken hut on the newspaper I use to remove faeces below the perches. The red mites gather on the underside of the bricks during the day, when the chickens are outside. I then turn the bricks over, and scrub them with a stiff...