A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens (62 page)
Read A Family Guide To Keeping Chickens Online
Authors: Anne Perdeaux
Pencilled
Fine lines either around or across the feathers
Pin feather
Small growing quill
Pipping
When a hatching chick pierces the eggshell
Point of lay (POL) hen
Female approaching the age when she is able to lay
Pop-hole
Small door used by chickens to access the henhouse
Pot egg
Imitation egg
Poultry saddle
Device to protect the hen’s back from the cockerel
Preen gland
Organ producing oil for conditioning feathers
Preening
Using the beak to tidy and oil the feathers
Prolapse
When the oviduct protrudes outside the vent
Pullet
Female before her first adult moult
Pure-breed
Bird with defined characteristics, able to reproduce offspring that closely resemble the parents
Red mite
Parasite that lives in the henhouse causing serious debility
Rollaway nest-box
Nest-box where eggs roll out of reach of the hens
Rooster
American word for a male chicken
Roosting
Sleeping on a perch or branch
Rose comb
Flat, knobbly comb finishing in a spike
Salmonella
Bacterial intestinal disease that can be passed between chickens and humans
Scaly leg mite
Parasite that lives under the leg scales, causing irritation and lameness
Single comb
Upright serrated comb
Soft-feathered
All breeds other than game fowl
Soluble grit
Usually crushed oyster shells to provide extra calcium
Sour crop
Yeast infection of the crop
Spangled
Contrasting colour at the end of each feather
Spurs
Sharp horn-like growths on the legs of males and some hens
SQP
Suitably qualified person to sell chemical wormers
Still air incubator
Has no fan to regulate temperature
Strain
Breeding line showing particular features
Tower drinker
Central water reservoir with surrounding trough
Treadle feeder
Releases food when the chicken stands on a metal plate
True bantam
Small breed of chicken with no large equivalent
Utility strain
Birds bred for productivity rather than showing
Vent
Opening through which droppings and eggs are passed
Vetwrap
Animal bandage that does not stick to hair or feathers
Waterglass
Sodium silicate – used for preserving eggs
Wattles
The flesh hanging under the beak
Wing clipping
Trimming the flight feathers to prevent flying
Witch/fairy egg
Tiny egg without yolk
Worm-egg count
Laboratory test for worm-eggs in droppings
Organizations
Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (Animal health and welfare, public health, egg marketing queries)
British Hen Welfare Trust (Campaigns for better welfare for commercial layers and organizes re-homing of ex-battery hens)
Hope Chapel, Ash Moor, Rose Ash, Devon EX36 4RF
Tel: 01884 860084
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR
Email:
[email protected]
Tel: 08459 335577
Egg Marketing Administration Team – AHVLA
Block C Spur 10, Government Buildings, Whittington Road, Worcester WR5 2LQ
Email:
[email protected]
Tel: 01905 768770/768787
North Wales AHVLA Field Services
Crown Buildings, Penrallt, Caernarfon, Gwynedd LL55 1EP
Email:
[email protected]
Tel: 01286 674144
The Poultry Club of Great Britain (Safeguards the interests of all pure and traditional breeds of poultry)
Keeper’s Cottage, 40 Benvarden Road, Dervock, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim BT53 6NN
Tel: 02820 741056
Scottish Government Egg and Poultry Unit
Food Standards Agency Scotland, St Magnus House, 25 Guild Street, Aberdeen AB11 6NJ
Tel: 01224 285154
(Contact The Poultry Club of Great Britain for details of breed societies without websites)
Appenzeller Spitzhauben Society of Great Britain
www.appenzellerspitzhauben.co.uk
Araucana Poultry Club of Great Britain
Autosexing Poultry (i.e. Cream Legbar)
www.autosexing-poultry.co.uk/wordpress
Booted Bantams Breeders Group
www.bootedbantamsgroup.webs.com
Brahma Club of Great Britain
British Belgian Bantam Club
British Faverolles Society
Dorking Club
Laced Wyandotte Club
Leghorn Club
Marans Club
Orpington Club
Partridge and Pencilled Wyandotte Club
www.partridgewyandotteclub.co.uk
Pekin Bantam Club of Great Britain
Plymouth Rock Club
Rare Poultry Society (Covers breeds that don’t have their own club or society)
Rosecomb Bantam Club
Sebright Club
Serama Club of Great Britain
Silkie Club of Great Britain
www.thesilkieclubofgreatbritain.co.uk
Welsummer Club UK
(These publications are either exclusively about poultry or regularly include poultry articles – many have useful websites and forums)
Country Smallholding
(Includes a pull-out poultry magazine)
Fancy Fowl
(Magazine for the poultry fancier)
Home Farmer
(Regular features on small-scale poultry keeping)
Practical Poultry
(For all levels of poultry-keepers)
Smallholder
(Includes a section on poultry)
Your Chickens
(For the back-garden hen keeper)
(This is just a small selection of suppliers – there are many others and these are not intended as personal recommendations)
Black Rock Hatchery (Sole breeder of Black Rock hybrids)
R. & A. Lovett, Muirfield Hatchery, Crosslee Poultry Farm, Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire PA11 3RQ
www.theblackrockhatchery.co.uk
Tel: 01505 613075
Chicken School (Bespoke chicken-keeping courses for small groups or families, egg-hatching for schools and consultancy service)
Dark Brown Eggs (Breeder of Marans, Cream Legbars plus hybrid layers of speckled and coloured eggs)
Domestic Fowl Trust & Honeybourne Rare Breeds (Housing, supplies, hens and visitor centre)
Station Road, Honeybourne, Evesham WR11 7QZ
Tel: 01386 833083
Flyte So Fancy (Chicken houses, poultry supplies)
The Cottage, Pulham, Dorchester, Dorset DT2 7DX
Tel: 01300 345229
Happy Hens in Herefordshire (Breeder of Silkies and Pekins – large selection of colours)
Hugo Wells Poultry (Breeder of Brahmas and Pekins; supplier of several varieties of hybrid; advice freely given and chicken-keeping courses also available)
W & H Marriage & Sons Ltd (Miller of animal feeds)
Chelmer Mills, New Street, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 1PN
Tel: 01245 612019
Mother Hen’s Poultry (Breeder of rare and traditional poultry, also several types of hybrid hen, as well as feeds and equipment)
Newland Poultry (Selection of hybrids and some pure-breeds; housing, equipment and feed; short ‘taster’ courses; chicken boarding services)
Omlet (Housing, equipment and supplies)
Tuthill Park, Wardington, Oxfordshire OX17 1RR
Tel: 0845 450 2056
Rosie’s Rare Breed Poultry (Pure-breed chickens and bantams, also housing)
http://rosiesrarebreedpoultry.weebly.com
Wells Poultry Housing & Equipment (Online store with large selection of items)
Tel: 0800 118 5995
(There is plenty of information on the internet, not all of it reliable – some websites are based overseas, where laws and climate are very different. Here are some useful UK websites)
www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/pat_glover
(The full story of Pat Glover and Myrtle, the parachuting chicken)
www.vwt.org.uk
(Vincent Wildlife Trust for details on stoats, weasels, polecats and pine martens)
www.wildlifeonline.me.uk
(Extensive articles on foxes, with suggestions for deterring them from your garden and protecting poultry)
www.ukpetsitters.com
(Online directory of pet- and house-sitters)
www.club.omlet.co.uk/forum
(Database of Omlet members prepared to help with chicken care during holidays)
www.chickenvet.co.uk
(Advice on care and health, list of chicken-friendly vets, worm-egg counts, shop, forum)
www.poultrykeeper.com
(Contains a wide variety of information and resources on all aspects of poultry keeping – there’s a forum too)
www.vicvet.com
(Website of poultry vet, Victoria Roberts – care and health for all poultry, bespoke advice service available)
My profound thanks and admiration to Jess Goodman, who created the delightful illustrations while dealing with the arrival of twins two months earlier than expected.
Thank you to Susannah and David Fielding for all their helpful suggestions, as well for demonstrating how chickens can be kept in a small garden. Many thanks also to Anne Harding, who is always happy to share her years of experience with chickens, and provided an insight into managing a larger flock.
Numerous people have generously contributed photographs, and I am most grateful for their help. In particular, I would like to thank Hugo Wells, of Hugo Wells Poultry, who went out of his way to obtain so many excellent pictures, and also my sister, Judith Bryant, who overcame her feather phobia to help with sourcing photos.
Thank you to Mark Hickman from the Pegasus Archive, for allowing use of his extensive research into the story of Myrtle the parachuting chicken.
My immense gratitude to the editorial team at How To Books and Constable & Robinson for giving me the opportunity to write this book, as well as for their ongoing help and advice.
Finally, thank you to all my family and friends for their continuing encouragement. Most of all I appreciate the constant love and support of my husband, Martin, who delights in turning my dreams into reality.
The author would like to thank the following for kindly providing photographs:
Marc Baldwin of Wildlife Online:
wildlifeonline.me.uk
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pages 139
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140
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141
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144
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145
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Bethed Photography:
www.facebook.com/BethedPhotographyByEdCole
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pages 93
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113
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122
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238
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British Hen Welfare Trust:
www.bhwt.org.uk
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pages 16
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56
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79
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Michael Bryant –
page 92
Chicken School:
www.chickenschool.co.uk
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pages 6
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112
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131
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223
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Amber Cooke –
pages 11
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159
(top left)
Tim Daniels of
Poultrykeeper.com
:
http://poultrykeeper.com
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pages 59
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