New hens not going into Eglu Go Up

[koo2cat]

There is a chap up the road from me who keeps chickens and has done all his life (he is in his late 60's now). He has 20 hens in quite a confined space and hardly ever cleans them out! He doesn't worm them or de-lice them either! He hatches his own chicks too. I have never seen such healthy looking hens !

 

If I need him to help me with mine he comes over and then continually makes fun of me saying mine live in Five Star luxury and yet don't look as good or lay as well as his girls!

 

Maybe we have become a bit too kind with our girls? I do tell him mine are more like pets but he still thinks I'm bonkers!

Edited February 17, 2012 by Guest

[chickenanne2]

Am sure some is perception! We remember deaths of pets much more than you'd remember livestock deaths.

Also, lots of pet chickens come into lots of contact with garden birds (mine do, anyhow!). I'm not sure that ones kept on smallholdings 30 or 40 years ago would have done, simply because feeders would be kept safe from garden birds so that they didn't eat the chickens feed. So chickens now come into frequent and relatively close contact with pathogens from garden birds.