I was a bit too quick in my last blog to say the problems with chicks dying, instead of dying at about 10-14 days they were now dying at about 4 weeks. However, this has all stopped, the majority of chicks are surviving but french moult is causing a problem. Some pairs' chicks seem to be much more susceptible than others. It's rather late, I should have packed up breeding much earlier.

Things to learn from this: Perseverance with breeding is not a good idea, the disease just has fresh blood to keep it going. Stop breeding when it is clear there is a major problem, allow the youngsters bred up until then to develop their resistance to the disease (just because they haven't shown signs of the disease doesn't mean that they haven't got it). It may also be in the adults. Not breeding the birds for up to two months and cleaning thoroughly could solve the problem.