AS I write this, I have just got my first eggs in the nest. No chicks yet, but that's OK. I deliberately set my birds up with a programme that would allow me to pair my birds on or about April 1. I've been gradually conditioning them with this in mind and on March 23 my lighting hit 14 hours and my birds were starting to look the ticket.
That said, I had two hens that were shredding so much paper in their cage that I thought I'd just stick a few strands of jute string through the wire. They both grabbed this and started to chew. A good sign that hens are fast approaching breeding condition is when they put things like jute string right at the back of their beak and “munch” on it. (This mustn't be confused with them just picking things
