My Block Hand Bulletin

Chick starter, grower and layer feed, what changes if you raise chicks without medicated feed, the coccidiosis window, and when chicks can go outside. Plus recording a hatch properly and seven app updates.

Mites and lice in a backyard flock: red mite hiding in the coop by day, the ten-minute night check with a torch, why you always treat twice, treating the coop as well as the hens, and keeping your eggs safe to eat. Plus six fixes found by filming the app on our own farm.

Flystrike on a small block: why the season starts on your own date rather than the calendar's, a cheap offal-baited fly trap as an early warning, hot-spot paddocks, the free half of prevention, and spotting and treating a struck sheep. Plus a fix for being signed out on patchy signal, and everything we'd promised now in the app.

Why Northland sows pasture in autumn, not spring: young grass needs the wet months to establish before its first dry summer. The four spring jobs that decide whether autumn sowing takes (pick the paddocks, test the soil, deal with weeds and kikuyu, choose the seed and book the drill), plus September's egg numbers and four app changes built from readers' replies.

The beef and deer farmers are asking for tick treatment at the counter, which usually means the season has turned. Why spring is when the nymphs are hungry, what Theileria looks like in cattle and why you don't chase a cow that has it, why most of your ticks are in the grass rather than on your animals, and the four things to read on a label before you buy.

Wheat is cheaper per kilo than layer pellets, so the sums look obvious — until you work out what the eggs cost. Why the afternoon scoop of scratch dilutes a balanced ration rather than adding to it, why grain gets ground for the mix and not for the bird, and the calcium gap no amount of wheat can close.

Spring is when animals move between blocks — some selling before summer, some buying to use the flush. What can arrive on the trailer besides the animals, the questions worth asking before money changes hands, the ASD and NLIS paperwork a private sale actually needs in each country, and the one thing almost everyone gets backwards afterwards: put new stock on your dirtiest paddock, not your cleanest.

Nobody thinks about stock water until the afternoon it runs out, and that afternoon is always in January. What sheep, cattle and horses actually drink per day, why New Zealand's published figures run at half Australia's and which to plan on, why a trough's refill rate matters far more than its size, and the four checks worth twenty minutes while the ground is still soft. Plus bird flu and NAIT news for both sides of the Tasman.

A spring lamb checklist, in the order the jobs actually happen: spotting a mismothered lamb in the first few days, what the Code of Welfare says about docking and castration, how clostridial vaccination really works — borrowed cover from the ewe first, the lamb's own course second — including what to do if your ewes never got their pre-lamb booster, and why growth is the one number that quietly audits everything else.

Lambing's wrapped, so it's on to docking and tagging while lambs are still young — and why that's about more than the law, it's the record that pays off at next year's mating and at sale time — plus why spraying weeds too late is the classic mistake, and the one thing to know about ragwort before you let stock back in.

I asked how to fix my worst paddock and got two answers: spread lime, or add diversity and let the biology sort it out. Both camps agree on far more than they think — including a third reason pH matters that almost nobody mentions — and one missing number decides which advice applies to you.

Three paddocks photographed the same morning after 42, 37 and 24 days' rest — and the shortest rest had the most grass. Why rest days don't predict recovery, how to tell which paddock needs work rather than more time, and what a very strong El Niño forecast means for how you graze this spring.

The five things worth writing down when a lamb or calf hits the ground, why survival to weaning is the one number you can't go back and add, the 14-day quarantine habit that covers both bird flu and foot-and-mouth, and what to do first with a cold lamb.

The three-leaf check that needs no gear, why the residual you leave behind decides how fast a paddock grows back, and how to measure cover without buying anything — plus pre-lamb ewe feeding, a bird flu update, and a big run of new breeding tools in the app.

H5N1 bird flu has been confirmed in New Zealand — the calm, practical version for backyard flocks, the lambing jobs coming up fast, our first named block-owner review, plus rain tracking and two smarter grazing tools live in the app.

The quiet winter jobs that decide how lambing goes — ewe condition, feed budget, lambing kit — plus a new per-animal record for every species (and your pets), and a winter bird-flu reminder for flock owners.

What frost actually does — and doesn't do — to worm larvae on pasture, why winter rest periods should get longer not shorter, plus two new tools live in My Block Hand: NAIT record-keeping and milk production tracking.

Drench resistance, why blanket treatment isn't the answer, and what we're building to help you make better decisions animal by animal.