Our Animals

This architect-designed coop is the summer home of some very spoiled chickens.

A sweet ewe gets fitted for her first baa bra after an udder disaster.

Working out what’s wrong with a sick chicken can be tricky, even for an expert. Here’s how to improve your odds of getting a diagnosis, and prevent illness in your flock.

A new venture aims to give farmers back what they value most — time.

If you're not getting all the eggs you expect, Sue Clarke explains how to work out who's laying, who's about to, and who's cruising.

When a bird gets sick, it turns on its amazing powers to trick us.

How to create a nutritious mixed salad and creepy-crawly entrée that will improve the health of your chickens.

Follow this easy checklist to make sure you're feeding your baby animals safely, so you avoid nutritional scours, and the risk of aspiration pneumonia.

Country vet Sarah Clews meets goat kid Snowflake during his hospitalization from a bad case of pneumonia.

Turkeys are beautiful birds, work hard to keep your farm pest-free and make a great roast.

Limping cattle, sheep, and goats are a common winter sight, but there are ways to fix and prevent it.

If you’re raising chicks this spring, here’s how to avoid some common mistakes and ensure yours get the very best start in life.

US compost-maker Karl Hammer runs a grain-free flock that works hard for a living.

The ideal poultry habitat is full of trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals, which provide shelter, protection, and nutrition.

It looks like a duck (but doesn't quack), acts like a goose, roosts like a chicken, and tastes like beef.

Healthy stock easily cope with the cold. But combine cold, wind, and rain, and stock can become stressed. Here are three ways to help them cope better in winter conditions.

They look quite cuddly, and they're roaming on a farm near Taupo, but farming them isn't for the fainthearted.

They’re small, they’re fast, and they can bug your birds all year round.

Good biosecurity will save you money and heartache.

A case study of Davie, the premature lamb.

There are all kinds of myths and 'fake news' about poultry, and some of them are deadly.

Some are more common in older hens than others.

This fancier’s pet project sees an ordinary bird taken to extraordinary heights.

There are the super-efficient commercial hens, or the heritage birds with colour and longevity, but how do you know which bird best suits you?

One of the biggest influences on your hens' health is a star in the sky.

Now is the best time to prepare for lambing season.

John Earney is a collector of many old things, including traditional livestock breeds.

Poo is a useful indicator of flock health, and a possible early warning sign of an illness if you know good poo from bad.

If there is a possibility of lead contamination on your block, testing is crucial despite its costs.

A nature-loving group in the Bay of Plenty revives the local kōkako population year by year. It’s now one of the largest in the country.

Keeping Chickens NZ's Andrea Graves looks at a study into lead concentrations found in backyard hens and their eggs.

How to identify birds and encourage birdlife in your backyard.

We all want to feed our birds the very best, but do they need extra calcium? Or grit? Or is it all the same thing? Poultry expert Sue Clarke explains.

If you have chickens, you have flies. Here are five good options to quiet their buzz.