The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham. Essential Products for your Feathered Friends
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Poultry Nutrients galore!
Give your girls a boost after the cold blast x
Poultry M8
1.5kg pack of over 20 nutritious ingredients!
Only $28.95 with $10 flat shipping rate over NZ.
Purchase on Trade me under Poultry M8 or visit The Chook Shed website.
Your girls will love it and give you a big feathery hug!
Winter has arrived here in style!
When sitting in a nestbox while snowing is a risky business! ( Had to release her from her prison and pop back inside the coop with the others )
No chance of eggs going off in heat today :)
Benefits of a Sandpit in with your Chooks ✅
1. A dry place to bathe. Feather quality is super important & needs to be maintained with regular preening & birds need to be able to keep feathers free moving & fluffed up have better feather & insulative qualities.
2. Sea sand is the gold standard as it generally holds a good range of fine - coarser sand particles. Birds love fine sand for bathing & fluffing feathers in.
3. Red mites & lice hate salt & of course, fine dust. This is why birds roll & bathe in a shallow dusty depression, coating their feathers & skin in fine dust in a natural effort to rid themselves of unwanted hitchikers.
4. Diatomaceous earth is 70% silica. Sand is silica & my birds eat sand all the time & fluff their feathers in it daily. They are very healthy!
5. Birds require a range of grit levels for correct gizzard function & efficient feed grinding. The birds pick out what they need - clever things!
6. Chicks to adults love sea sand or sandpit sand. Pop it in a designated tyre or build pit so they have some available at all times.
7. Sand drains quickly & provides a constant dust bathing area. DE can be dusted into this & mixed in if required in a well ventilated area. DE is full of highly beneficial minerals for your Chooks to eat!
Go grab some sand today & watch your birds delight in it!
The girls are looking good!
Time to spread lime around the heavy use areas 👍
WHY? I hear you say...
1. To reduce the pH in the soil around where heavy faecal load occurs. Due to the acidic nature of Chook p**p, these areas become ' poultry sick' over time & nothing but the hardiest of weeds will grow. Increasing the pH goes a long way to correcting the imbalance & improves the soil in these areas.
2. Lime used at high application rate ( covering by hand heavily enough to create a white area ) has been shown in studies to greatly reduce worm egg survival in these heavily faecally contaminated areas.
Reducing worm egg levels is always a good thing when animals are kept in a confined space for domestification purposes. The less parasite challenge the better.
3. Garden Lime is non toxic & great for grass growth. It is fabulous for stimulating healthy soil life in your run area.
4. Green grass provides vitamin A & other nutrients & my chooks love to peck away at it. Greenery also provides associated bugs & protein for your girls as part of a healthy diet.
5. Apply Lime around feeders, drinkers, run doors & anywhere there is heavy traffic. Apply in Spring & Autumn.
Girls starting to look better on the outside?
What about the inside?
Winter Checklist ✅
1. Worming🪱 - Aviverm Broad Spectrum wormer ( best done twice at 7 day intervals )
2. Lice check 🪳- warm coop & cold outside encourages sparrows to your coop area and resulting lice outbreaks in August/September/October time. Check your girls around their vent area. Our Koop M8 powder can be used safely for this.
3. Start increasing nutrient levels before laying starts in spring. Build your hens up before they need it.
4. Increase protein levels by feeding meat scraps, mince, Poultry M8 and High protein feeds now are a great idea!
Check out our Protein and Nutrient boost pack with over 22 ingredients delivering nothing but goodness to your hens!
www.thechookshed.co.nz
The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham.
Essential Products for your Feathered Friends
Considering alternative nesting box solutions? Evaluate the selection at The Chook Shed for high-quality options.
The Chook Shed
Ashburton Show on this weekend!
Need Leg Bands?
We have the usual size of 16mm spiral bands for your medium and larger breed girls and 20mm click together bands for Larger poultry and Fowl.
Why do we need to be plain & boring? Jazz it up a bit with these awesome leg bands! Go all sparkle and let your big girls ( and boys! ) strutt their stuff with glamour and glitz!
Bling bands 20mm only at this stage 🎉
Check them out on our website - The Chook Shed or flick me a message on numbers and colours required.
Bling bands - White, Red, Orange and Baby Blue available.
16mm Spiral bands - $1.50 each
20mm plain bands - $1.50 each
Bling bands 20mm - $5.00 each
Poultry Shows are often a good place to find birds to purchase ( for sale section )& it's great to connect & talk to breeders about certain breeds you are interested in 👍
Poultry fanciers put a lot of time & effort into breeding & rearing poultry that align to the Poultry Standards & love to talk about their journey.
These shows run up & down the country in each region, mostly through winter so pop along to one when you can & take the kids....and some earmuffs!
The birds can be a bit noisy! 📣📣
Oamaru coming up & Christchurch Poultry Bantam and Pigeon Club is at the end of June.👍
...Nothing as daft as a wet chook...
Very true..chickens are classed as Endothermic & modulate their own heat. They rely on being able to fluff up their feathers to create a series of insulating layers. These layers trap air & hold in warmth.
This is why chicks need to be able to access external heat for the first three weeks of life as they do not have sufficient feather/down layers to maintain body temperature.
A chickens body temperature sits between ( 40.6 - 41.7 ) is quite a bit higher than ours ( 37oC ). They need this to heat the feather layers & incubate eggs for reproduction purposes.
With rain wetting the feathers & dampening the downy underlayer, the insulating capacity is greatly reduced & the Chook becomes chilled.
Hence regarding the saying, the chooks become hypothermic with their body temperature dropping which is coupled with reduction in body movements resulting in a cold & 'daft' looking chook.
www.thechookshed.co.nz
The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham.
Essential Products for your Feathered Friends
NEW!! Scaly Leg Mite Spray - Get those legs in shape before summer arrives :)
A great light oil for leg mite control. Smells lovely with Eucalyptus & Clove Essential oils added.
Get started today! $17.85
Visit www.thechookshed.co.nz to grab yours and get into it.
Mareks Disease... The nitty gritty facts.
Lets have a look at this disease in chooks. It is a bit of a dirty secret and no one likes to admit they have a problem with this at grass roots level but most people will meet Mareks at some stage. Whether you realise that is what is occuring, will be the question.
Mareks is everywhere for a start. The more you breed chooks, the higher the level of contamination and the more disease you will notice.
Having purchased some chooks over the summer due to being too busy to breed anymore, I obtained some 12-16 week pullets from different places. In my mind, purchasing chooks from a backyard breeder that is just having the odd chicks to serve as replacements, is the way to go. Less pressure on disease levels and often, you can get away with very low levels of disease resulting in your stock due to low environmental challenge.
Mareks is a Herpesvirus. It causes T cell lymphoma cancer in chickens. The main clinical forms noted include, Gastrointestinal, neurological, limb paralysis, eye form & skin forms.
The virus is spread in the dander ( fine flakey dust/skin ) of the chooks. Most chooks are exposed as chicks if present in the environment. Some will succumb to infections, others will become carriers of the virus and will show disease once pressure is encountered. This pressure, going on experience, is usually as the pullet approaches the Point of Lay and the initiation of the laying cycle.
There are vaccines ( I used to vaccinate all my chicks as day olds and was meticulous about cleanliness at this time. New batch in, new batch out. Virucidals used and fresh everything to reduce disease transmission and load in the environment ).
Mareks management is a large part of control. If you repeatedly hatch using broody hens in the same place, the disease levels will rise. You will see this with breeders over time. Start off ok and then more and more pullets will succumb. The problem being, if you are selling these pullets, you will get more and more people ringing you to say the pullets have died around 18-26 weeks of age.
The more you breed and produce, the higher the virus level on your property will be. Especially nearer to the end of the breeding season.
You can't hatch in an incubator, vaccinate the chicks and then put these chicks under a broody hen as you will immediately introduce these chicks to Mareks virus present in the environment and the soil. The chicks need to be reared under a heat lamp, in a clean environment. The chicks need to have two weeks free of viral exposure to form an immune response to the vaccine before being environmentally challenged in the big wide world. A big committment and management is key to the vaccines success.
Note: Obtaining vaccination is not easy. In NZ currently, only 1000 dose vials are available due to hatcheries not needing smaller doses.
Back to the two batches of pullets I purchased. These were all wormed on arrival with Aviverm Wormer and held in quarantine away from my adult chooks for 7 days. Checked for external parasites also occured at this time.
One out of each batch has recently gone downhill ( 3 months after purchase )
Both birds symptoms were the same.
Evidence of faeces around the vent - emerald green faeces.
Poor wattle colour and growth.
Dull eye.
Fluffed up - sick look
Slow movements.
Removing themselves from the flock and sitting on their own. ( Bullied out as noted to be sick/weak by the flock )
Minimal interest in food.
When held, pectoral muscles very wasted and keel ( sternum ) very prominent.
Death imminent - weakness, unable to stand.
You may also experience limb weakness with a drooping wing or leg. Often people think the chook has broken a leg or wing but upon inspection there is nothing obvious to see visually. This is due to cancer cells proliferating in the nerve causing paralysis ( see photos ).
Poultry Vet Neil Christiansen ( Massey University lecturer ), poultry expert in NZ for many years ( unfortunately now passed away ). He noted that over 98% of undiagnosed chicken deaths were due to Mareks Disease, this is how prevalent this disease is amongst poultry.
Often when a chook has Mareks, due to the weakened immune system, they will have worm burdens, lice etc also & succumb to other illnesses which can cloud or divert a diagnosis.
See pictures below
Ear lobes in chickens, maybe something you haven't thought about? Have you noticed they are different colours in certain breeds?
There is a bit of a general rule that chooks with red/brown coloured lobes lay brown eggs and white lobes lay white eggs. But, as we all know there are always exceptions to the rule!
Our Silkie from Chinese origin, Doris, has very pretty blue lobes but she lays a white-ish egg.
Chilean Araucana's lay a blue egg and sport reddish lobes sometimes with a splash of blue/green irridescent colour over the top of the lobe,
Silkie chickens have black skin as well whereas most other mainstream breeds sport white skin.
The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham.
Essential Products for your Feathered Friends
Follow us this month as we look at Amazing Chook Features...
Number 1
Nicitating Membrane - ( 3rd Eyelid ). Due to Chooks being closely related to the reptilian line, they have retained the third eyelid. This often moves too quickly for us to notice with the naked eye.
The camera caught it and I thought I would share.
This serves to clean the eye and moves from the front ( rostral ) corner to the caudal part of the eyeball rapidly.
Advantage: It is transparent meaning the chooks can blink yet not lose sight compared to blinking with the normal lids.
Helps the chook look for bugs and potential food as well as allowing cleaning to occur when other animals might have to blink with the usual lids , thereby increasing the risk of predators moving in to attack.
Clever things these chooks....
Moulting time in Autumn
This is the time at the end of the laying season that the hens shed their old feathers and grow new feathers for the season ahead. It always amazes me on how scraggly they can look and then within a month, they are looking stunning again!
A new feather is over 70% protein! They need boosted at this time.
Did you know, this is a great time to worm your birds? As we are at the end of the laying cycle they are not producing that many eggs. This is a great time to use your broad spectrum poultry wormer - Aviverm poultry wormer. ( 50ml - $25 )
But I haven't seen any worms?
* Worms are not shed into the faeces, only eggs. These are microscopic and cannot be seen with the naked eye. You will get the odd worm being shed when a broody hen is sitting and does her once a day passing of a motion and feeding/ drinking etc off the nest.
* Symptoms of parasite infestation?- often a hen showing ill thrift, poor comb colour, slow movements, poor laying, evidence of loose faeces around the vent, loose motions on the coop floor or evidence of liquid motions around the walls.
* One poorly hen is often the tip of the iceberg.
* But my hens free range so they don't need wormed. Roundworms are more prevalent in confined poultry. Tapeworms in Free ranging poultry. ( the tapeworm cysts are present in worms, beetles and free range insects )
* There are lots of 'natural' remedies it seems that have antiparasitic properties & are suggested as effective for worming your hens but most of these don't work well enough to actually rid your hens of internal parasites. They help or encourage an environment that is not welcoming to parasites eg apple cider vinegar, but studies have shown that they do not consistently rid poultry of their worm burdens as there are multiple factors at play.
* If your hens immune systems are functioning at an optimum state, they will actually be able to naturally ward off internal parasite burdens. If they are stressed due to being in an area of high worm egg levels eg confined to a smallish area with constant faecal matter under foot and are not being given access to a wide nutritional variety ( Like we provide in Poultry M8 ), their immune systems will not be functioning at full capacity and they will be more prone to being affected by parasitism.
* Now is also a great time to clean out your coop and spray your coop preservative oil { Koop M8 oil } and Koop M8 Powder to ensure Red mites do not get a chance to survive in your coop cracks over winter ready to hatch & cause problems in spring once the temperature s warm up.
AVIVERM POULTRY WORMER 50ml - $25
POULTRY M8 NUTRIENT MIX 1.5kg Pack - $28.95
KOOP M8 OIL - $59.95 - 1LT SPRAYER PACK
KOOP M8 POWDER - $38 - 600GMS
www.thechookshed.co.nz Visit our website to view & purchase.
KOOP M8 OIL - Wood preservative oil for your coop. From $59.95
This oil works fabulously in conjunction with Koop M8 powder. The oily base is great to make sure the powder sticks to the coop and the powder stays in place so it is effectively working to kill those RED MITES 🕷️
KOOP M8 POWDER is a powder mix that works via mechanical means vs chemical. Safe for you, your chooks & the environment. From $38
* Chooks & human respiratory tracts are sensitive to powders. Wear a mask when applying & ensure your chooks are out of the coop when you are puffing away!
Just dusting it around can be hit & miss as the chook movements wear it away quickly from where it needs to be. To work mechanically, it needs to be in place, this is where Koop M8 oil comes in. An awesome oily base for your powder to stick to 🎉 AND it's made from recycled oil so a big ✅ for helping reduce waste.
Visit www.thechookshed.co.nz website to grab your Oil & Powder today!
Few photos from home. Welcome to Roger, the new Plymouth Barred Rock Rooster. Roger is a West Coast Boy so used to a bit of damp & should be a hardy soul xx ( the Girls love him already )
Eggs wonderful eggs!!
Girls looking a bit rough? We have just the thing!
Time with this heat arriving for poultry Red Mites to start rapidly multiplying!
Signs you might have a problem looming....
🔴 Girls combs looking pale?
🔴 Laying production dropped off?
🔴 Feathers in the coop & girls looking a bit rough?
🔴 Noticing lots of dust bathing?
🔴 Girls reluctant to go in the coop to roost or lay in the nest boxes?
Identification: Put on your headlamp & visit your coop after dark. You will see the mites moving around & your girls will be restless & scratching. Run a white tissue along under your perch rail to detect mites as there will be blood streaks & mites on your tissue.
Best approach..
Red Mites live in the coop vs on your hens. They breed rapidly with heat & come out after darkness falls to feed on your hens when they are sleepy & an easy target.
1. Clean out coop of bedding & wash out with normal hose pressure. Scrub out p**p on walls etc as mites love p**p & dust.
2. Let it dry.
3. Spray around all the perches & Nestbox areas with Koop M8 wood preserver oil. Nil HSNO rated recycled canola oil. ♻️
4. Puff Koop M8 powder around the Nestbox & perch rail ends.
5. Sorted! ( Apply powder weekly to ensure a residual amount of powder is always in situ )
🔴Koop M8 - MPI approved! Safe & natural! ✅
Purchase The Chook Shed website or on trade me 👍
The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham.
Essential Products for your Feathered Friends
Chooks looking a bit tired after spring & a bit of hot summer? Need a boost?
Build them up with nutrients, electrolytes, minerals & protein packed goodness - Poultry M8!
Your girls will love it & love you 💞
Head to The Chook Shed or trade me to purchase 👍
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as we wave goodbye to 2023 and welcome in 2024.
Keep an eye on your coop for Red Mites building ( consistently hot days coming up )
We have plenty of coop M8 powder ready to go!
Often first sign is feathers moulting as the girls over-groom and egg production drops...
You will also notice them trying to bathe more and if things get worse, spending more time outside the coop to the stage of perching outside the coop at night.
The best way is still to pop out at night after dark with a headlamp and firstly listen to the birds as they will be restless and itching vs perching quietly and still.
You will see the mites under the birds and moving along the perch rail as they usually nest at the end of the perch rails so they are close to the birds.
Happy holidays and catch up next year!!
Don't know what to buy your chicken mad friend or partner? Hard to buy for and have everything they need?
What about one of our Gift Certificates!
The perfect gift for the chicken lover and its something practical that they need or want that ticks the chicken box!
Contact us today to sort out your voucher so it arrives in time for Christmas!
The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham.
Essential Products for your Feathered Friends
POULTRY M8 Nutrient Mix
* Nutrient mix of 20+ ingredients chosen to provide a large range of nutritious & delicious elements to boost & replace deficient or depleted stores in your chooks.
Includes a range of proteins, minerals, electrolytes, vitamins & herbs, grains, mealworms etc.
Yours girls will L.O.V.E it! Check out this video of our girls excitedly chomping their way through theirs!
Grab yours via trade me or on The Chook Shed website shop 👊😍😍
** 🐓Orange Monday Giveaway🐓 **
Bag of our new Poultry M8 will be winging its way to the person with the funniest & cutest chicken photo of their chooks at home!.
Tag friends to get in on it & like our page!
Your chooks will LOVE the nutrient burst as the heat comes on as we near christmas time!. Time to replenish the tank :)
* Remember to grab your Koop M8 powder and Koop M8 oil so you are ready to keep your wood in top notch condition and your coop free of the dreaded Red Mites this summer!
See our website www.thechookshed.co.nz to purchase or yamaha 18 via trade me.
Best of luck!!
PS to try & iron out scammers - the winner will be notified by carrier pigeon only 🐦 😆
The Chook Shed - Sarah Robotham.
Essential Products for your Feathered Friends
Finished moulting? Hope your birds are looking this healthy now...if not, you need some Protein Boost. Available on Trade me or via The Chook Shed website.
Moulting time!! Protein boost time 👍check a pack out on www.thechookshed.co.nz
Hens Moulting???
Girls looking a bit tired & dull?
Feathers filling up your coop?
Egg production dropping?
Moulting is a tough time for a hen. Its a big ask to shed feathers and regrow new ones.
Have you noticed your hens eating feathers? This is due to the high demand for protein at this time (new feathers are 70% protein). If there is not enough protein in the diet, the hens are forced to eat what they can find.
How do I order?
Shoot to our website - www.thechookshed.co.nz & click on the Protein Support Pack.
Once at checkout, you can select 1 Pack $28.95
Shipping is for 1 x Pack ( $10 ) or 2 packs ($13.50 ) NZ Post cost right over NZ including Rural Delivery. Easy!
If you are after more, shoot me a message and I can sort out the postage for you x
Grab yours today and help your girls recover some of those nutrients, minerals & vitamins lost during the seasons laying period.
Best regards Sarah x
Photos below of the girls.... & Boris..... enjoying theirs!
Head over to our website to order yours now... the girls will love you for it!
327 Catherwoods Road, RD1, Rangiora, North Canterbury
Cust
7471
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Get some of the good stuff into your girls today! Visit The Chook Shed to get your hands on the goods $28.95 a pack with $10 flat rate shipping xx
Benefits of a Sandpit in with your Chooks ✅ 1. A dry place to bathe. Feather quality is super important & needs to be maintained with regular preening & birds need to be able to keep feathers free moving & fluffed up have better feather & insulative qualities. 2. Sea sand is the gold standard as it generally holds a good range of fine - coarser sand particles. Birds love fine sand for bathing & fluffing feathers in. 3. Red mites & lice hate salt & of course, fine dust. This is why birds roll & bathe in a shallow dusty depression, coating their feathers & skin in fine dust in a natural effort to rid themselves of unwanted hitchikers. 4. Diatomaceous earth is 70% silica. Sand is silica & my birds eat sand all the time & fluff their feathers in it daily. They are very healthy! 5. Birds require a range of grit levels for correct gizzard function & efficient feed grinding. The birds pick out what they need - clever things! 6. Chicks to adults love sea sand or sandpit sand. Pop it in a designated tyre or build pit so they have some available at all times. 7. Sand drains quickly & provides a constant dust bathing area. DE can be dusted into this & mixed in if required in a well ventilated area. DE is full of highly beneficial minerals for your Chooks to eat! Go grab some sand today & watch your birds delight in it!
Sandpits for hens? Is it beneficial or not?
Lime Application in Heavy traffic areas 👍...read post to see why?
Having compost bins in the run is awesome! All our household food scraps go in there & the girls pick & choose what they want. The rest rots away. We put layers of leaves in during autumn & poop sieved out in nets from the sand floor in the house. Works a treat!
Get into it! Pre Spring Nutrient loading! Poultry M8 Pack The Chook Shed #chickens #backyardchickens
Poultry M8 The Chook Shed #chickens #poultry #poultryfarming #lifestyleblogger #lifestyle #farming
Poultry M8 ...the supplement your chickens would ask you for 🙏😜❤️😘
A haircut is essential to allow maximum visibility when being introduced to the flock 👍. It's a minefield out there! Charlie loved it 😍 & fell asleep in my nice warm hand...
Check out The Chook Shed shop online to purchase the good stuff ❤️
Girls looking a bit rough? We have just the thing!
#poultryfarming #poultry #chickens #chooks
Chooks looking a bit tired after spring & a bit of hot summer? Need a boost? Build them up with nutrients, electrolytes, minerals & protein packed goodness - Poultry M8! Your girls will love it & love you 💞 Head to The Chook Shed or trade me to purchase 👍
POULTRY M8 Nutrient Mix * Nutrient mix of 20+ ingredients chosen to provide a large range of nutritious & delicious elements to boost & replace deficient or depleted stores in your chooks. Includes a range of proteins, minerals, electrolytes, vitamins & herbs, grains, mealworms etc. Yours girls will L.O.V.E it! Check out this video of our girls excitedly chomping their way through theirs! Grab yours via trade me or on The Chook Shed website shop 👊😍😍
Grab your chooks some delicious Poultry M8 today! Head to www.thechookshed.co.nz to purchase your girls a Christmas gift they will truely enjoy!
Best chicken feeders in NZ! We have tried quite a few over the years & this one really is the BEST ❤️🎉🎉 Purchase @ The Chook Shed! #poultryfarmer #chooks #chickensofinstagram #backyardchickens #nzchickens
#RedMites #poultryfarmer #chickensofinstagram #chooks #healthcoach #pest control
Just what you need to deliver dry, clean grit to your chooks all day, every day. Can't be knocked over & made in Holland quality you can't beat! #chicken #oystershell #poultryfeeder #poultryfarming #chooks #backyardchickens
We started rearing heritage poultry 8 years ago and have built up our business from then. We now run between 6-7 breeds in our breeding groups on site each year and hatch 3000+ eggs each year. We supply laying pullets of these heritage breeds and ship using the ‘Petbus’ service, all over NZ. We vaccinate all our birds as day old chicks for Marek’s Disease. They then reside in high rise quarantine facility for 2-3 weeks before heading out onto free range pastures on high quality feed. They head for sale at 10-12 weeks of age by which time they are fully feathered, perching and using step on feeders. They are also trained to come to the sound of the wheat can shaking which makes returning them to a run or into the safety of housing at night easier. We try our best to breed non related birds that are healthy and robust. You cant beat your own free range eggs. These pullets should lay well for 4-5 + years if well looked after. They make great pets and well as producing lovely eggs and looking stunning while doing it!.
Silver Linings Complete Equine Care
Poyntzs Road
