Chocolate Orpingtons are slow to feather up. This is thought to be a direct result of the choc gene. Black Orpingtons are slow at feathering up but Chocolate Orps are even slower. They lay a slightly tinted egg.

Chocolate Orpingtons breed true – but there are some breeding combinations that are worth noting:

• Chocolate Male X Chocolate Female = 100% Chocolate

• Black Male X Chocolate Female = 50% Black Males carrying Chocolate, 50% Black Females

• Chocolate Male X Black Female = 50% Black Males carrying Chocolate, 50% Black Females

• Black Male carrying Chocolate X Chocolate Female = 25% Chocolate Males, 25% Black Males carrying Chocolate, 25% Chocolate Females, 25% Black Females

• Black Male carrying Chocolate X Black Female = 25% Black Males carrying Chocolate, 25% Black Males, 25% Chocolate Females, 25% Black Females.

Photo: Chocolate Orpington Cock (Bantam) courtesy of Matt Hanson.

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Step 1 – The Wooden Packing Crate.

To get one of these, you will need to drive around a few industrial estates where there are companies likely to be receiving international shipments and when you spot some crates, be prepared to knock on the door and politely ask whether you can have an old one! Transportation is your next problem but if you take a claw hammer with you and (ideally) a crow bar, you will find you can break the crate down into 4 sides, a lid and a floor. These will fit in the back of an estate car with the seats down or similar sized vehicle.

Once you have your crate(s), the rest is really quite easy.

Step 2 – Other Materials

• Tounge and Groove – you will need some pressure treated tongue and groove. This can be thin – 8mm, cheap stuff because you have support behind it. It is just to cover the crate and make it look good. It also provides some insulation around the outside which keeps the house warmer in winter and cooler in the summer.
• Nails – You will need some flat head nails, long enough to go through your T&G and into the crate, but not so long that they stick out into the house. I used 20mm nails.
• Roofing Material – I used Onduline as you can see on mine. It isn’t expensive and is light weight. Leave an overlap on the ends.
• Roof fixing nails – I bought a packet of special Onduline fixing nails with plastic washers and caps. Normal nail heads would just rip through.
• Various bits of wood – The pop hole on my chicken house was ply, on the duck house I used the cut out from the crate and added T&G to the outside of it. A perch was added across the inside of the chicken house.
  
• For the duck house – Various hinges and a bolt. Buy galvanised as these will last for a very long time.

Step 3 – The Build

Cut the hole out for the door / pop hole (make a wide door for a duck house, as shown in the photo left) but ensure you leave an edge / lip at the bottom. This is to keep your bedding material inside the house, stopping it being trampled outside. The easiest way I found to cut out the hole was to drill 4 large holes for the corners and use a jigsaw to cut around. A small pointed hand saw that is used to cut holes in ceilings would also work but take a little longer.Rough plain or sand the edges so there are no sharp corners or splinters. You can line this doorway if it looks too rough when the tounge and groove has been fixed.

The next step is to put the tounge and groove wood onto the sides. Move the house close to its final position first though because it will be really heavy once completed. Start at the bottom and work upwards, interlocking the boards and nailing as you go. When you get to the top, if there is a little overlap, don’t worry, this can be used to ‘drop’ the lid / roof in to hold it in place. I made one side flush so I could slide the lid into position (it’s quite heavy). Once the tongue and groove is finished, you can nail the Onduline or similar onto the roof. The roof should be able to lift off or be hinged to allow cleaning. The door / pop hole should be made and fitted, don’t forget to make sure this is securely held shut at night to stop foxes.

Step 4 – A Coat of Paint.

The final step to your chicken / duck house is to give it a good coat of paint. This can be as colourful as you like, providing you use outdoor paint suitable for sheds and fences. Make sure the house has a good week or more to dry and air so there is no smell of paint when your birds go in.

Final Comments

The biggest disadvantage I have found with these houses is that the should red mite get in between the crate and tongue and groove, they are impossible to get out. It is for this reason that I have found them to be very suitable as duck houses. When I added up my bill, I found this house cost me around £25 to build. This was partly because the wood came as ‘weathered’ offcuts from a wood yard that made garden sheds and were cheaper than normal. I guess it would cost you a few pound more if the wood was top grade. If you can’t get pressure treated for a sensible price then just make sure you paint the house well and keep it painted every year to stop the wet weather from rotting the wood. I found this house to be very easy to build because you have the frame work in place and cutting the wood to length can be done once it is nailed in place.

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A new all plastic poultry nesting box called the Chick Box is set to dramatically improve the way thousands of keepers can care for their birds. The Chick Box, from BEC, takes just seconds to clean, ending hours of work for poultry keepers struggling to keep boxes free from harmful red mite and other pests and bacteria.

Manufactured in the UK, the Chick Box is available now and is the only plastic injection moulded nest box system on the market.
The Chick Box eclipses wooden boxes which crack, are tough to clean and harbour red mite and other bacteria and galvanised metal which rots easily.
Managing Director Jeff Smith said: “The Chick Box is extremely easy and quick to clean out, has no corners to harbour mites and can be jet washed in seconds, ending the hours of drudgery cleaning and disinfecting wooden or metal boxes to ensure they have no red mite or bacteria in them. Unlike wood and metal the Chick Box does not corrode or rot, it is cheaper and at the end of its life it can be recycled. We think the Chick Box is the answer to many poultry keepers’ prayers and are delighted to have it in stock and ready to send out to customers straight away.”

The Chick Box can be retro fit, double stacked or placed in line and also has an optional egg tray for ease of collection. The Chick Box is a new addition to the world-class range of plastic poultry products, including feeders and drinkers, from BEC UK, a company with 50 years’ experience in the industry. The Chick Box is manufactured in our Scarborough and Church Stretton factories with internationally recognised ISO 2002 systems. It has been designed to be smooth with no corners to harbour red mite or bacteria. The perch assembly slides out easily for cleaning. It will retro fit into any shed by attaching to a length of wood 3″ x 2″ – 75-50mm, approximately 600-800mm from the shed floor. Chick Box can be double stacked or added to each other inline as your flock grows. Four laying hens to each Chick Box is a good ratio.

The Chick Box is draught free, but is ventilated and keeps hens warm in winter and cool in summer. The perch bracket is at the perfect height with additional grip to easily allow the hen to lift herself out of the Chick Box. Rollout nesting bottoms can be supplied with the Chick Box or added later, allowing eggs to automatically roll out into a collection tray on the outside.

The Chickbox Poultry Nestbox website has more information.

RRP £20

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Poultrykeeper.com is made up of a small group of enthusiasts that enjoy keeping and writing about poultry. There are over 350 articles on the site, including product and book reviews, show reports, breed photos and technical articles from poultry vets.
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How long have you been keeping birds?

I have been keeping birds for about 60 years – virtually all my life, I will be 70 this year so since I was about 10 I suppose. I was brought up on a farm and we always had poultry and ducks. The breeds we had were the norm in those days, like Sussex, RIR, but it would be around 33 years ago that I first started with the Pekins.

The first ones I bought were a pair of Blue Pekins from Dewsbury Auction for my 9 year old daughter, Judith, who showed them at a pet show; she got a second and a special, so it all started from there really with Pekins.

When do you start your breeding programme?

I like to start early, if I can get a few eggs in January or February, and go on till the end of May. I used to breed nine colours, but have cut down to 5 now. I have about 11 breeding pens on the go, and tend to use incubators. Pekins are not fantastic brooders, although having said that, the buff and the partridge seem to be more prone to go broody than the other colours. Some people swear by broodies, but I find when you have got the eggs, you don’t have the broodies and when you have a broody hen, you don’t have the eggs, so thats why I tend to just use incubators. I usually try to hatch over about 300, but last year I only did 250, mind you, now I’m only breeding 5 colours I intend to cut that down to about 120 or so. Out of those 120, I would keep a few of each colour, about 4 females and a couple of  cockerels.

At what age do you start to sort out your show and breeding stock?
You can spot the good’ns more or less straight away, when they hatch, because you are looking for a short wide one, they then go through that scraggy stage, but when they start to feather up, you can be sure of the good ones then. You will most probably find that the ones you thought were going to be good at hatch, are the ones that come back looking good. You will find that with Pekins they tend to get better with age.

What makes a good show Pekin?
I use 3 words to describe a good bird, ‘Short, Wide and Deep’ Short back (meaning short in length), wide back (meaning broad width ways) and deep body, (meaning the front tilts forward) and a good specimen should tilt from back to front. When you’ve got that it means you will have the ‘type’ that’s important for this breed.

What do you feed your birds?
Well I don’t have any secret feeding regime, I feed them on ordinary growers pellets, they go on that when they are about 8 or 9 weeks old. I am a big believer in cod liver oil that I mix in with the pellets, it gives them a nice sheen on the feathers. I don’t use any grain at all, just the growers and I pay about £5.95 for 25 kilos, so that’s not too bad.

What do you see for the future of the breed?
I see a good future, I think there are a lot of new people coming in and starting to keep the breed. A lot of youngsters are coming in and showing interest in Pekins, especially down in the south, which is really good to see. I think the Pekin Club is in really good shape at the moment. The Pekin is a popular breed and we get over 300 entries at our club show in Stafford, the record is 366 in 2002. I think the future for the breed is very good.

Images and Text copyright Fancy Fowl 2010. All rights reserved.

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Poultrykeeper.com is made up of a small group of enthusiasts that enjoy keeping and writing about poultry. There are over 350 articles on the site, including product and book reviews, show reports, breed photos and technical articles from poultry vets.
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Michelle Garner of the Battery Hen Welfare Trust keeps two llamas in her field with her chickens and has seen them chasing off foxes and dogs that have enter the field. She tells us a little more about her llamas and chickens.

O.K – so you want some hens, but you have a family of foxes next door? You have a large flock and can’t keep them in a secure run? Your land makes electric fencing difficult and unreliable? There is another solution – ever thought of Llamas? 

Well first let’s get this one out of the way, no, they don’t usually spit. They might spit at each other when play fighting gets out of hand, or when they feel threatened and cornered (vets are good at getting that response from mine!) but rarely directly at people, more often a warning shot into the air. A llama that spits randomly and without provocation has had bad experiences with people and is unusual.

Now, if you have never considered llamas, this might seem a bit of a leap, but if you have a smallholding, or an acre or more of grass keep or grazing, they make a lot of sense. And if you also keep hens or sheep, they will guard hens and lambs from foxes and dogs too.

Llamas (and their smaller cousins, alpacas) are members of the camel family and originate from South America. The alpaca is bred primarily for its fleece which grows continually, and so needs annual shearing. Although they also have guarding instincts, due to their size they are not generally as well suited to the job as llamas, and the need for annual shearing adds to the husbandry tasks associated with them. Indeed, in America many alpaca farmers use llamas to guard the alpacas from coyotes and even bears! If you are primarily after a guardian, then a llama is the best suited to the job.

The llama can be kept out all year, in all weathers, appreciating a simple field shelter or natural shelter from trees to offer some protection from very wet or very hot weather. About an acre of land in addition to the land required by the stock to be guarded will support a llama. They are hardy and generally healthy, needing only the same vaccinations as goats and sheep, and not suffering any ‘exotic’ diseases. Indeed, they are less illness and accident prone than sheep (mind you, what isn’t?!) not being very likely to suffer fly strike or lameness, and can be contained by standard post and rail fencing. They have soft padded feet, and so are very gentle on the ground and eat less weight for weight than a sheep. A llama can live over 20 years, and their working life as a guardian lasts about 10 to 12 years. They do not need shearing, unless a heavily fleeced animal is chosen, when shearing every two years might be required to prevent matted animals over heating. Nails should be checked regularly, although many never need trimming.

Not every llama makes a good guardian, just like not every Labrador puppy can be a guide dog. And not everyone who breeds llamas has the expertise to recognise and rear the ideal guardian llama, so it is important to visit many breeders and websites such as that of the British Llama Society which has links to breeders all over the country. Although generally ‘pet’ llamas should be kept in groups of at least two, the guardian llama works alone, being brought up to consider the hens, sheep or other animals in his field to be his ‘herd’. The guardian llama is a gelded male, gelded at the right time for the job, which has been brought up properly with other llamas, and to be friendly yet respectful towards people and other livestock including familiar dogs. He will keep his charges together and keep them in sight, and, if a predator such as a fox or an unknown dog, come onto his territory he will approach with his head held low to the ground, gathering speed as he approaches. This is usually enough to send the predator packing, but if the llama gets close enough they will also strike with their front legs, and are capable of unique growling and gurgling noises.

I have two llamas, bought as pets not guardians, and I have seen them chase foxes and a dog from their field. They do take a great deal of interest in the hens, and the hens, being ex-battery birds, will chase the llamas as much as the llamas try to herd the hens! Llamas are great as pets if you have the land to keep them. They are not usually cuddly animals, and learn to tolerate physical contact with people rather than enjoy it. They are aloof at times, yet inquisitive and gentle. They are great fun to take for walks, and generally lead very well if taught properly and kindly from an early age. And if you have a llama, or start looking into llamas, you will discover a whole community of llama keepers out there who have been keeping these wonderful animals a big secret!

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The American Buff goose is one of the few domesticated goose breeds originated in the United States. Unfortunately the history of this beautiful goose is unknown. Some think they have developed from buff mutations in flocks of grey geese and others think they may have been created from buff colored geese, like the Buff Back, Pomeranian and Pilgrim which came from Europe.

The American Buff is a calm, sociable and friendly goose, very loyal and affectionate, particularly to its owners. It is a graceful and elegant goose to see; particularly females have something refined about them. It is a curious goose, nearly always with its beak up in the air and looking around if there might be something new.

They are never scared but always alert and watchful. People can be standing talking in front of the gate here and they will not react but if someone opens the gate and comes in they will honk. They love chatting but are absolutely not a nuisance and certainly not noisy. Compared to the Tufted American Buff, the American Buff’s character is a little bit fiercer but never annoying or troublesome. The ganders in particular can look a bit macho but are never a problem, not even during the breeding season. Our Valentino sometimes will try but I only have to point at him with my finger and he remembers. He then has that look in his eyes: sorry I forgot. We have never been bitten or attacked by our ganders but you do have to put them in their place by correcting them if they react in a way you don’t like or want. They do learn quickly.

The American Buff goose is an active and lively goose which is always up for a frolic with a run and a flap of its wings. A nice paddle in the bath is also a favourite pastime so, if you are able to provide a bath for them, they will be very grateful. It is also an enterprising breed; never leave a gate open as they will not be able to contain their curiosity to have a look beyond what they know. You can keep them on a small acreage but our experience is that 50m2 per goose is a minimum to keep some grass during the winter time. During the summer time you do have to cut the grass because they aren’t great grass eaters. If your goose pen is this size we advise you to remove the droppings regular otherwise it will be a mess and you won’t have much grass left. Fresh young green grass also affects the color of the beak and legs, as do carrots and maize. Be careful not to give them too much maize otherwise they will put on too much weight. We give it as a treat.

The most important thing when selecting breeding stock is good body size, not too big and definitely not to small. The American Buff goose is a medium weight goose and not a heavy weight goose like the Toulouse. In colour : a medium shade of buff with no grey and if possible: a back with even colour although that will be difficult because the plumage on the back usually is somewhat chequered or mottled, even on the best ones. We also found out that the saying that a gander which is slightly lighter in colour and a goose with the right colour will give the best coloured offspring; the lovely apricot-fawn colour! Also do try to avoid breeding from buffs with small or shallow bodies, prominent keels, very pinched heads, grey in the plumage and very extreme faded or dark colour.

The American Buff geese are also very good parents and take good care of their goslings. Even a single gander will adopt goslings. The goose already lays in her first year but the eggs are a lot smaller from a one year old than eggs from a two year old goose. Eggs from a one year old weigh between 145 and 170 grams and eggs from a two year old goose weigh between 180 and 220 grams. They hatch their eggs in 28 – 30 days. We hatch our eggs in the incubator because we want very tame birds which are socialised with people but even one year olds have a great mothering ability although we advise people not to hatch eggs from a one year old because of the smaller size of the eggs. You do get smaller goslings. Beside that it takes almost three years before they mature so we only hatch eggs from two year old and older geese. Our experience is that they love to have a laying nest, provided for them in a shelter or in a barn so they can lay their eggs in a quiet and secure environment.

Yes we do spoil our geese. They lay between 10 and 15 eggs before they become broody but if you collect the eggs they can lay up to 25 eggs or more. A gander can be kept with two or three geese but he will definitely have a favourite. The goslings are fast, active and very curious. They also grow very quickly, especially if you provide them the right feed; special growing pellets for waterfowl. The goslings have a very nice warm yellow colour with a shade of gold.
The American Buff goose was admitted to the American Poultry Association Standard of Perfection in 1947 and as there some differences to the European Standards we follow the American Standard as we believe you have to follow the country of origin.

The American Buff goose is an endangered breed and American Livestock Breeding Conservancy tries to interest people to start breeding with these geese. The American Buff goose is critical in the US which means that there are fewer than 500 breeding birds (males and females) and five or fewer primary breeding flocks. Therefore ALBC is very happy that European breeders also have interest in keeping this beautiful breed and try to save them from extinction. More information about ALBC and the waterfowl census can be found on: www.albc-usa.org

That was also for us the reason to start breeding with the American Buff next to the Tufted American Buff. Although we don’t show our birds our main issue is to keep those two breeds alive and try to save them from extinction. We fell for the colour but the character of these breeds is wonderful and they are very nice birds to have around the house.

Copyright The WeydeGansch Hatchery The Netherlands
Text: Andrea Heesters
Pictures: Peter Jacobs
http://www.buffganzen.nl

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