A new feature on ChookeNZ!

Just hatched added: The ChookeNZ Research Centre!
This is where we’ll put pages that have a research or scientific flavour to them. Right now there are two pages that provide an analysis of how the weight of our four 2007 pullets (Frida, Lily, Poppy and Claire) declined and recovered during moulting.
In a few weeks we’ll add a page [...]

Laying summary – July

A couple of notable events last month, leading to a general improvement in egg productivity. Hooray!
The most significant event was that little Neroli, the only girl we kept from the 2008 chicks (the ‘Peebles’) started laying this month, on the 23rd. By month end she had popped out five more, and seems to have settled [...]

Claire returns with an oddity

Claire laid her first egg after moulting today, but it wasn’t her typical brown and speckly type. It was something rather peculiar:

It’s an intact shell-less egg (63 g), but with a weird membranous tail hanging off it. The tail is sealed and fluid filled (presumably with more egg-white).
In our experience and from reading elsewhere, occasional [...]

Laying summary – June

For June I’m pleased to say we can report a recovery of sorts, as far as the laying stats are concerned. This month had Frida laying consistently, Bessie intermittently, and finally Poppy back into it at month-end. Hooray!
So there were 35 eggs for the month, and fears of having to purchase them were allayed. (It [...]

Laying summary – April

Well our hopes for April were somewhat optimistic! No hens came back into lay, and Lily laid intermittently before finally stopping (and getting into her moult) on the 24th. Only our ever-reliable Bessie was in lay for the whole month – every second day. In the end we only had 27 eggs for all of [...]