The Chook Shed

30/06/2025

Time to start thinking about springtime nutrition levels and getting the girls ( and roosters ) as healthy as you can before laying and hatching kicks off.

Healthy chicks don't just happen. Your hens need to be in the best health to produce healthy chicks.

Poor overall health and nutrition can result in the following...

* Poor fertility of roosters
* Poor laying production or egg shell production
* Low fertile rate in eggs
* Weak embryo resulting in death early on when hatching
* Weak chick emergence at hatching ( pending hatching parameters are correct )
* Poor robustness of chicks post hatching
* Weak immunity and succumb easily to diseases in environment
* Low immunity in hens/roosters harbouring parasites, underlying disease.

An interesting study found birds that ate a healthy range of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, electrolytes including Diatomaceous Earth ( High Food Grade contains over 70 beneficial minerals ), were able to fight off parasitism to a much higher degree vs birds that were not in good general health. It was not due to any abrasive effect of DE which people claimed for a long while ( a claim that was unsubstantiated in trials), but the fact that the Algal Diatoms and surrounding minerals were paramount in making those birds immune systems much healthier and therefore, being able to fight off infections and diseases to a much higher level.

Want to get your birds healthy and ready to lay?

Shoot to www.thechookshed.co.nz and grab yours today.

Start your season off right...

1.5kg

30/06/2025

Haven't seen this so much in heritage breeds. But the girls don't like to rush anything! :)
More of an issue in commercial laying breeds? Someone might confirm or deny this with their Hylines or Brown shavers?

30/06/2025

Misshapen Eggs are definitely a common occurrence. Broken and mended before lay, not so much. As it says, immature shell gland is an underlying cause. Often the pullets are the ones that are laying these or birds near the start of end of a new laying cycle.

23/06/2025

Does your shed have enough ventilation? Is it over - insulated?

Overheating chooks is a common mistake when designing backyard poultry houses.

* Chickens are designed to ruffle up their feathers which provides a highly effective insulating layer around the chook to keep them warm when required.
* They have a downy feather layer which helps under the main feathers.
* Feeding a wheat feed at night grinds away in the gizzard overnight helping keep the birds warm through the night also.
* The key is ventilation but not drafts running through the shed. Plenty of light is great (depending on how your nest box configuration is setup - mine is all on the outside so it yours in inside, you will need the nestbox area darker to encourage entry and privacy.

23/06/2025

Very interesting to see how an unbalanced system either nutrient or immune wise can affect the egg shell so much. It is a fine art for sure!
What goes on in the bird, definitely shows on the output eg Eggs and Faeces.

23/06/2025

11/06/2025

Shell- less Eggs - Interestingly EDS (Egg Drop Syndrome) is caused by an adenovirus which is carried by wild ducks and spread in the birds faeces. If you have an area that is near a creek or pond that is frequented by duck populations, this can be a concern for young birds being reared and definitely a reason to deter ducks from your pens.

The Soft Shelled Eggs - become more common as the birds age and the Egg gland starts to wear out. This is more noticable in Commercial laying breeds eg Hyline, Brown Shavers where the shell gland works very hard in the first few years. The incidence of this occuring leads to broken eggs and then egg eating.

11/06/2025

Bit of a delay until the second shot! Life has been busy lately :)

Overweight pullets - usually occurs when diets are fed with whole grains present. These feeds naturally lead to birds picking out the high energy, most palatable grains or legumes. Maize is a prime example of this. If you do feed a whole grain diet, often the birds will head directly for the maize which is high fat and calorie rich. This can lead to a fat bird syndrome leading to fat being deposited around the cloaca and internally which leads to pressure and microbleeds as an egg passes through - hence blood on the egg.

24/03/2025

Who loves an exploded Schematic of Assembly instructions for a nestbox? Looks sooooo easy! and it is once you have done a few of them of course, but the first one!!!