Welcome to Poultry Keeper
A hobby website for backyard poultry enthusiasts
Hello and welcome to our hobby website, run by a small group of enthusiasts, including me, Tim Daniels, located in Herefordshire, UK. Poultry Keeper is 13 years old, and our aim has always been quite simply to provide the best source of information available online for backyard poultry enthusiasts.
We constantly update and improve 500+ articles and guides on the website and add new pages monthly. I hope we can help inspire you in our fantastic hobby, and you will bookmark our website for future use.
Winter is here, and many of our hens have finished their annual moult. By February, many utility breeds will start to come into lay again.
Here in the UK, the outbreak of bird flu continues. The chief veterinary officer declared an avian influenza prevention zone across the UK at the start of November, which requires us to keep our birds indoors and strict biosecurity measures are in place. Licences for bird gatherings were revoked, resulting in the cancellation of poultry shows. It’s a difficult time for many, keeping poultry indoors that have been used to being outdoors.
I have gathered some articles from around the site that you might find helpful over the winter months.
Winter
in Focus
Winter can be a challenging time keeping chickens. With bird flu restrictions, cold and wet weather, it is the most difficult time of year for us and our hens. It is also the only time of year you will find me swearing under my breath as I buy a box of eggs because our hens have stopped laying!
Of course, commercial egg producers use artificial lighting to keep their hens laying. If you want to extend the laying season but still allow your hens to moult and rest over the autumn, then early January is the best time to introduce light for chickens.
Since hens spend so long indoors, bedding needs to be changed more regularly to keep it dry. One trick I find really helps us here is to use BioDri sprinkled in the coop before adding clean bedding. As well as drying the floor of the coop, it is highly effective at killing bacteria and worm eggs.Some winter reading
Whilst we shouldn’t over-feed chickens with mixed corn because it is too low in protein for egg production, the cracked maize is exceptionally high in energy which can help keep your hens warm, during the long winter nights. I feed a handful per bird an hour before they go to roost.
Predators
One of the challenges of keeping birds safe during the darker months is being home in time for dusk to lock up.
The ChickenGuard automatic chicken coop door saves me a lot of worries if I’m not home in time to lock up. I reviewed it in my ChickenGuard Automatic Chicken Door article.
Rats
Rats are often a problem during the winter. Chickens do not ‘attract rats’, as some say; rats need shelter, food and water, and we often provide all three things where we keep our chickens. There are some simple changes you can make, such as raising chicken coops off the floor and using rat-proof feeders, but if you discover evidence of rats, or you want to make sure they don’t get a hold, then we have an extensive guide on how to get rid of rats.
Keeping Chickens In Cold Weather
How cold can chickens tolerate? What should you feed chickens in winter? How do you stop water freezing? Here are my tips for the cold, winter weather.
Foxes: Poultry Predator #1?
Mr Fox has to be every poultry keeper’s number one enemy. Sadly, many people have lost their chickens or other poultry to a fox. When it happens, it can be devastating.
How To Use Artificial Light for Chickens
Light For Chickens Hens kept under natural daylight hours will lay the majority of their eggs during the spring and summer months. As the days
Bird Flu 2021: Advice for Backyard Chicken Keepers
Avian Influenza, or bird flu, is an infectious virus that affects many species of birds, including chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese. There have been many outbreaks worldwide,
ChickenGuard Automatic Chicken Door
The ChickenGuard is one of the latest automatic chicken door opener/closers. In this Equipment Focus, I test the Chicken Guard Premium model on one of my chicken coop doors.
How to Get Rid of Rats
How to Get Rid Of Rats As a poultry keeper, sooner or later, you will need to know how to get rid of rats. A
Keeping Cockerels Together Over Winter
For easier management over the winter months, I keep my cockerels together. This is how I make the introductions without having too many feathers flying!
What is the Best Chicken Bedding Material?
I rate some of the chicken coop bedding I have used, from wood shavings and straw to shredded paper and cardboard, and even some of the specialist poultry bedding like Easichick and Auboise.
Winter jobs...
Ensure Birds are Locked Up at Dusk
There is more risk of foxes coming under the cover of darkness and when food is scarce. Consider an auto door closer like the ChickenGuard to lock up your birds at dusk if you can't always be there to do it.
Keep Chickens Safe in Cold Weather
This article is packed with tips for keeping your chickens healthy over the winter months, so whatever the weather, you will be prepared!
Get a Postal Worm Egg Count Kit
If you didn't test your birds in Autumn then don't forget to get a worm egg count to see if you need to worm your chickens This also provides reassurance that herbal treatments are working.
Planning a Holiday? Don't Forget the Chickens!
What do you do with chickens when you go on holiday? Chickens and holidays don’t always go together, so here are some tips to help you get away.
Keep Poultry Inside & Take Biosecurity Measures
An avian influenza prevention zone was declared in the UK, and we must keep our birds undercover to prevent access by wild birds and take biosecurity precautions. Learn more in our guide to Bird Flu which has been updated for this winter outbreak.
Take Precautions Against Rats
Rats need three things: Food, shelter and water. We often unintentionally provide them with all three, making our backyard attractive for rats over the winter. It's better to take simple precautions now than to deal with an infestation later!
Poultry
Breeds
We have over 5000 photos on our website, and there are thousands of photos taken at poultry shows that give you some good examples of what a breed should look like on our poultry breed pages.
Domestic poultry breeds follow a standard that tells us how they should look. We have the British Poultry Standards and the British Waterfowl Standards in the UK. I have spent the last 10 years visiting poultry shows with other photographers, photographing some of the best examples of the breeds, as well as researching their origins.
There are other standards worldwide: the European Poultry Standard, the American Standard of Perfection and the Australian Poultry Standard. In fact, the same breed can have subtle differences, names, or colour varieties in different parts of the world. I have highlighted many of these on individual breed pages.
If you are considering which breed to keep, then the breed pages should help you!
Breed in focus: The Wyandotte
This time it’s the turn of the Wyandotte to be updated from a breed page to a breed in focus page! Grant has done a fantastic job of sharing his immense knowledge of this breed to expand and update our Wyandotte page.
New to
Keeping Chickens?
If you are a newcomer to the wonderful (and productive) hobby of poultry keeping or just wondering about what you need to get started, then you have come to the right place!
Here are some suggestions for the newcomer from our Chickens Category to help you get started:
For your research:
Keeping your chickens healthy:
Feeding Chickens
Domesticated chickens, especially modern hybrids, are fantastic egg layers; however, this performance increases nutritional demands, so how we feed our chickens has never been so
What are the Best Laying Hens: Hybrids or Pure Breeds?
What are the best laying hens for eggs – Hybrids or pure-breeds? Anne looks at the advantages and disadvantages of the two and makes some
The Ultimate Guide to Chicken Houses
The ultimate guide to chicken houses, exploring features you will need to keep your chickens happy, healthy and safe from predators in their coop.
Choosing Equipment for your First Chickens
Although a chicken’s needs are fairly basic, getting the right kit can make life so much easier for the owner.
Proper Chicken Runs Give Peace Of Mind
Jeremy Hobson looks at some ways of building chicken runs to give your chickens space yet still keeping them free from danger.
Looking After Chickens in Ten Easy Steps
Looking after chickens is relatively easy, but like all animals, they still need care and consideration. Follow these ten steps to looking after chickens, and
Keeping Ducks
& Geese
Smallholders keep waterfowl for eggs, occasionally for meat, to mop up bugs in the garden, and for exhibiting.
If you are thinking of adding some domestic waterfowl to your allotment or back garden? You may find our articles on keeping ducks and geese useful. Contrary to popular belief, domestic ducks and geese do not need a pond, and a plastic tub refilled daily is enough for them to be content.
Most will enjoy a bath but spend the rest of the day dabbling in the grass and looking for insects. They are the greatest at environmental slug control on any vegetable patch. As a bonus, many ducks will lay good numbers of large eggs that are particularly good for cake making.
On the other hand, Geese will require plenty of grass and are useful as environmentally friendly lawnmowers! As well as keeping grass short, they will alert you to unwanted visitors.
Why not take a dabble in our sections on ducks and geese? I've included a few reading suggestions for you below:
Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Ducks
Keeping a few domestic ducks in the garden is growing in popularity. In this beginner’s guide to keeping ducks, I will cover all the basics you’ll need to consider before getting ducks.
Feeding Domestic Ducks
This article provides information about feeding ducks: specifically domestic ducks. That is, pet ducks kept in gardens or smallholdings.
Stop Following Me! Imprinting in Ducks & Geese
Ducklings and Goslings will follow the first moving object they find after hatching. They treat it as their mother. So even if it’s a large man with a big hairy beard, he becomes ‘mum’!
The Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Geese
This beginners guide to keeping geese will take you, step by step, through the basics of keeping geese, whether you are wondering whether geese are the right choice for you or if you have already purchased your geese and want to learn more.
Introducing New Geese to Your Flock
If you acquire one or more new geese, you may want to add them to an existing flock. Introducing new geese can be tricky at times. They are intelligent birds and often form strong family bonds that need to be respected when making introductions.
Hatching Goslings with a Broody Goose
One of the easiest ways to incubate and hatch goose eggs can be to leave it up to a broody goose. Not all breeds are good mothers. Heavier breeds can be quite clumsy and better at breaking eggs than sitting on them, but many lighter breeds will sit the term, hatching and raising their young.