Carving a pumpkin this Halloween? Let your chooks enjoy the pumpkin seeds. If they aren't used to them, offer a small amount each day so they don't gobble them up all at once.

A healthy gut is essential for a happy hen.

A hen’s intestines not only aid digestion, but are an essential part of the bird’s immune system too.

Epsom salts are primarily Magnesium sulphate.

Vent gleet is a general description of inflammation (reddening) of the vent. This inflammation can be the result of many differing issues, some of which may need a more specific treatment.

Hen comb colour can be a good indicator of health, condition and stage of lay. Changes in the appearance of comb such as swelling, can be suggestive of infectious disease.

Hens share many of the organs we have, which perform many of the bodily processes we perform.

Hens need carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water to live. As they grow from a chick to an adult they need different proportions of each nutrient suited to their particular life stage. That is why poultry diets are formulated as starter, grower and laying hen rations.

The main factors that influence egg size are genetic and nutritional. Click the Read More button below to learn more about how these factors influence the size of your produce.

Different breeds lay at different rates. A typical brown hybrid layer will produce at peak production an egg on 9 out of every 10 days. Whereas traditional breeds often produce eggs at lower rates.

Chickens can live for many years and continue to lay eggs for many of these years. However, after two or three years many hens significantly decline in egg laying.

Good egg quality means high quality contents and shell. Table eggs need to be clean, reducing the level of bacterial on the shell entering your kitchen, and nutritious.

Moulting occurs naturally in some hens, often at the end of their natural egg laying period after a year.

Carotenoids play the most important role in providing egg yolk colour. This family of pigments can vary in colour from yellow to red, and are occur naturally in many different plants, fungi and algae.

Egg shell appearance can be affected by life stage, nutrition, stress and disease. Anything that affects the normal functioning of the female reproductive tract in a hen can potentially cause shell changes.