Neil Armitage (519)

I am an experienced poultry keeper who has been raising chickens for over 20 years in challenging conditions in Yorkshire, UK. I am passionate about helping people learn about and enjoy the benefits of keeping chickens. I love raising chickens because they are such friendly and productive animals, providing me with fresh eggs, meat, and fertiliser, and they are a lot of fun to watch.

A family of multi coloured guinea fowls

Breeding Guinea fowl.

Guinea fowl suffer less disease than other types of poultry but they do get sick.

Diseases of Guinea fowl.

Catching guineas requires patience and determination.

How to catch Guinea fowl.

A flock of Guineas eating in a garden

Can you keep Guinea fowl as pets?

A flock of guinea fowl having a communal dust bath

Do Guinea fowl need a dust bath?

Guinea fowl love to be free range but not everyone can.

Free ranging your Guinea fowl.

There are 20 or so guinea colours with more being bred all the time

Guinea fowl colours for adults and keets.

Everything you wanted to know about Guinea fowl in a short question and answer format

Guinea fowl frequently asked questions (FAQ's). With links.

Guineas are much more agressive that other types of poultry under the right circumstances.

Are Guinea fowl aggressive?

Guineas are different from other types of poultry and are not as easy to keep as chickens

Are Guinea fowl easy to keep?

A flock of Guinea fowl out in the snow and ice.

Are Guinea fowl winter and cold hardy birds?

Guineas will eat anything that fits in their mouths.

Are Guinea fowl good pest control?

A flock of guinea fowl surround a snake.

Guinea fowl and snakes.

Guineas tend to ingore most other pets.

Guinea fowl and other pets.

A nest of guinea fowl eggs.

Guinea fowl hatching eggs and how to select them.

A domestic Guinea fowl in full flight

Do Guinea fowl fly?

A printed plate of guinea fowl in the wild

The history and origin of Guinea fowl.

There are good reasons to keep guineas and just as many reasons not to keep them

The pros and cons of keeping Guinea fowl.

Guinea fowl can be trained to some extent and can become tame eventually.

Can you tame and train Guinea fowl?

What equipment do you need to keep Guinea fowl

Guinea fowl basic equipment list.

Where can you find guinea fowl to buy and how much will they cost you.

Where to get Guinea fowl and how much to pay for them.

What do you need to know before you get guinea fowl.

Before you get Guinea fowl.

Are you allowed to keep guinea fowl?

Can I keep Guinea fowl?

4 guinea fowl free ranging

Beginners guide to keeping Guinea fowl.

Vulturine Guinea fowl in grassland

Types of Guinea fowl

pages, sites and resources that might be of use to chicken keepers

Poultry keeping links and resources

Guinea fowl at a watering hole

Guinea fowl and their care.

.What to do after chickens have died.

After chickens have died.

A dying chicken

How do you know if chickens are dying?

A dying chicken made comfortable in a dog crate

How to comfort a dying chicken.

Eggs in the incubator

Do eggs move and wiggle before they hatch?

These two chicks are Silve laced Barnevelder bantams

What do baby chickens look like with 50+ breed examples

Caring for chickens is easy if you follow a few rules.

Chicken care basics

My flock of Light Sussex chickens with my pied guinea fowl

How many chickens should I get?

A chicks just hatched in an incubator.

What is an egg incubator?

Nearly all the eggs consumed are unfertilised

Why do hens lay unfertilised eggs?

A flock of sebrights. chickens can get fowl pox.

Fowl pox in chickens and how to treat it.

two hens sharing a nest to lay eggs.

What time of day to chickens lay eggs?

A large clutch of ducklings

Can you raise ducklings with a broody mother hen.

Two just hatched chicks still wet in the incubator

What do baby chicks look like during and after hatching.

All these chickens have flown up to a perch that is 5 foot high

Can chickens fly? And how high?

A fertile hatching egg candles at 10 days showing the embryonic development

When to candle fertile eggs during incubation

A rooster broding a clutch of chicks and keeping them warm.

Do roosters brood chicks or share chick care?

A selection of fake eggs in a nest with some chicken eggs

Do fake or pot eggs help chickens lay?

A whole crate of just hatched straight run day old chicks

What are "Straight Run " chicks? with a price comparison.

A chicken running across the field.

How fast can a chicken run?

A flock of my chickens stood around in a muddy field

Dealing with muddy chickens runs.

A flock of free range chickens that have escaped to a vegetable garden

Managing and controlling free range chickens

Should a coop face a particular way. This one provides both sun and shade.

What direction should a chicken coop face?

A chickens in a nest box.

How many chickens can share a nesting box?

Every loves a nest full of fresh eggs like these.

11 reasons chickens stop laying eggs and what to do about it.

This is what to look for when candling eggs.

How to candle hatching eggs with candling lamps on test.

Getting your chickens looked after while you are taking a vacation

Vacation chickens care, looking after your hens in the holiday season.

What makes a brooder and how to set one up properly to keep your chicks safe.

What is a brooder?

How to feed Pekin bantams and keep them healthy.

Feed, treats and supplements for Pekin bantams.

A mother hen protecting her clutch of chicks

Are hens protective of their chicks?

A day old Silkie chick being carefully handled by a keeper.

How to handle and hold baby chicks.

A whole flock of chickens that were killed by a weasel

What is killing my chickens. Guide to predators with identity table and images.

Modern hybrids chickens are carbon copies of eacjh other and benefit from hybrid vigour

Can you breed hybrid chickens.

A selection of eggs from different poultry species all kept for their eggs

Which birds are farmed for their eggs

A wing claw in chickens

Wing claws in chickens and domestic poultry.

A flock of chickens in crates being transported in a car

Transporting or moving chickens.

A chicken eating cheerios from a keepers hand

Can chickens eat cheerios?

A hen drinking fresh and clean water from a stainless steel bowl

How long can chickens go without water?

Poop or droppings boards in chicken coop make the keepers life much easier

Making droppings or poop boards work for you.

Chicken pee is white crystals on the outside of their poos

Do chickens pee or urinate?

Some day old rhode Island red chicks eating chick starter crumb

The ultimate guide to feeding baby chicks.

The complete guide to caring for new baby chicks

Caring for new chicks and baby chickens.

Chicks in a brooder with a red light and a heat lamp

Do chicks and baby chickens need a light at night?

Escaped chickens are quite common but can be hard to catch

I have found an escaped or abandoned chicken, now what?

Some young chicks on grass in the sunshine

I cannot keep my chickens.

A flock of chickens free ranging on pasture

Will chickens kill my grass and ruin my lawn?

Can you successfully incubate a craked egg like this one.

Will a cracked hatching egg survive incubation.

A row of Pekin bantams on a perch

Where to get Pekin bantams and how much to pay.

A photo of Pekin chickens from an old poultry book

History of Pekin chickens.

A breeding flock of 1 cockerel and 5 pekin hens

Pekin breed standards and faults.

A pekin chick hatching in the incubator.

The incubation and hatching of Pekin bantam eggs.

There is an extraordinary number of colours and feather patterns for the Pekin bantam

Pekin Bantam colours and patterns.

A selection of 12 Pekin bantam eggs from my flock

Are Pekin Bantams good egg layers?

A flock of Pekin hens in the garden

Are Pekin Bantams noisy?