Here we answer some of our commonly asked questions…
Our shop is open on Fridays and Sundays from 10am-4pm. Collections are available outside these hours using our locker service and we also offer deliveries. For full details please see our CONTACT US page
We are located in the East Sussex Countryside just a short drive from the towns of Hastings, Bexhill and Battle. If travelling from further afield we are easy to reach from the A21 from the north or the A27 from the west. For directions and a map please see our CONTACT US page
We sell a large range of chickens throughout the year. Please visit our POULTRY pages for full details and current stock.
Our shop is open on Fridays and Sundays from 10am – 4pm when you are welcome to just call in, browse the shop and see the chickens.
We offer a local delivery service of up to 20 miles from the farm in our fully electric van (charged with our own solar panels). For deliveries further away we offer a courier service for most items.
Unfortunately, being a small business the courier costs are currently too expensive to post the larger/heavier items. Our beekeeping equipment is only available for collection as our supplier offers national delivery and chickens are only available for collection for obvious reasons!
Our traditional paper gift vouchers are redeemable only in our shop. If you are unable to call into our shop your vouchers can be posted (please use proof of postage). For website gifts we offer gift coupons.
We currently post only to UK mainland
Our local deliveries are carried out in our own electric van with a limited mileage range. We also offer courier deliveries.
Chicken Questions
Introducing new birds, unless you are lucky, is usually more than a little bit tricky, and can be quite a subject. For that reason, we have written an article based on our experience of the many scenarios and possibilities. We advise you to read our article before trying to introduce new birds, hopefully it will cover the scenario you are proposing, or trying to deal with.
There are many items necessary for chicken keeping, basic equipment included a secure house, drinker, feeder, bedding and feed. All is available in our shop, please follow this link to a full list of kit required for starting with chicken keeping
Not to be confused with the red ‘aphid’ spider mite (lives on plants, feeds on sap & basically safe), our mite is a blood consuming external parasite, similar in principle to a ‘tick’, however, instead of living on its host, the mite attaches to the chicken for just 1-2 hours, usually during the night. It then returns to the cracks and crevices of the poultry house to digest the blood meal. The birth to breeding cycle of red spider mite is around 7-10 days, though can be much less the more favourable the conditions. Their eggs are laid within the many ‘nooks and crannies’ inside the coup, out of our sight, hatching within 2-3 days, and able to take their first blood meal within 24 hours of hatching. For our full article on Red Spider Mite and how to deal with them, please refer via this link
If you were to drop a biro point down onto a piece of paper, the dot produced would be the size of an average red spider mite. They begin life quite a bit smaller, just like a speck of dust, pale greyish green to olive in colour, only obtaining their namesake colour red once they have consumed their first blood meal, then, with the blood shining through their thin skin, become more visible to our eyes. More mature adults (7 days +), after subsequent blood meals will be much darker red. For our full article on Red Spider Mite and how to deal with them, please refer via this link
If at any point one of your birds has a ‘bleeding’ injury, however small, it is very important to remove this bird (where possible keeping it within site of the others,) until the injury is healed. Otherwise, it will just get continually pecked in the same spot (chickens are very attracted to blood), this can lead to a serious injury of even sadly, a fatality. It is also more than possible that even once scabbed over, the other birds will peck at the scab, and you’ll be back where you started. An injury such as this can be a long haul as the best route would be not to re-introduce until the scab is gone and the area is re-feathered. Follow this link, and read our article on ‘introducing birds’
There can be many reasons for egg eating to start, but when it does, can prove difficult to stop. By far the easiest way is continual removal of the eggs as soon as they are laid. However, the logistics of achieving this can be daunting. Other possibilities include the ‘dummy egg’ approach, the idea there being that they try to peck at the dummy egg and, finding that they can’t break it will eventually associate this with something that is not edible. Suggestions are also made of filling eggshells with mustard or mild chilli paste, attempting to create a distaste for the newly found food! This may work in some instances, but when we tried it, they seemed to prefer it, it just made them shake their heads! Sometimes it transpires that on closer inspection / watching, that there is a persistent egg eater within the flock (the others just copying), if this proves to be the case then it may become necessary to remove this bird.
Whether or not to clip their wings is a deliberation; flying is their only means of escaping a predator, but on the flip side, if they perhaps manage to fly out of their run, they might meet a sticky end! Most poultry can fly to a fashion, but nothing like a garden bird. Mostly they won’t if they are happy and content where they live. If you are worried, then clip their wings, it is the front quarter of just one wing (this sends them off balance), you are cutting off half of the primary flight feathers. If you are unsure, please come and see us for a demo. Otherwise, don’t clip them, particularly if there is no real threat if they escape, see how they behave, if problems with escaping occur, you can always clip them later.
Birds throwing their heads back or severe twisting action, often uncontrollably, or worse – twisting round to face backwards. ‘Wry neck’ is the most common chicken problem to cause this kind of movement. It is not contagious so birds can remain together if none are bullying the affected bird. Isolate the affected bird if it’s being bullied, keep within sight of the others where possible to avoid difficulty in reintroducing later. Wry neck can be caused by a vitamin E deficiency, although it can also be caused through a head injury, severe stress or be genetic. If it is this, try giving some vitamin E supplementary foods, such as spinach, asparagus, broccoli, dandelion greens, sunflower hearts and (if they will eat it) one of the best is sweet red pepper. To help absorb the vitamin E, and more necessary in the worse cases, they will need the mineral ‘Selenium’, this is present in some of the foods listed
