Adding birds
- From the Flock screen, tap the ‘+’ in the upper right corner
- Select the type of bird, e.g. Chicken, Duck, etc
- Select the breed. This is optional and can be done later, in circumstances where you’re not sure.
- Adjust the quantity as desired
- If the quantity is 1, you can enter a name for the new bird
- Tap ‘Add’
- If the quantity is more than 1, the new birds will be number “[Breed Name] #” if a breed was chosen or “[Bird type] #” if not. This is done so that if, for example, you buy a batch of 20 new Buff Orpington chicks, you don’t have to go through and assign names to them all. Instead you would get “Buff Orpington 1”, “Buff Orpington 2”, and so on. You can then give them names as they grow up and you start to be able to tell them apart.
Removing birds
There are two ways of removing a bird from your list of active flock members
Deactivating
If you have a bird that has left your flock to take up residence in your freezer or maybe was sold to someone else, but you would like retain their details, pictures, history, etc, you can tap on their name and deselect “Current Flock Member”. This will move them to the inactive section of the flock list
Deleting
If you would like to permanently delete a bird from your flock, you can either use the ‘Edit’ button on the upper left corner of the flock list or swipe from right to left on the bird’s entry in the list.
Editing Bird Details
Details
- Photo:
- Tap the camera icon to add a picture from either your library or take a new one
- You can add more than one picture and scroll through them. My wife likes to add a picture of one of the eggs that they laid, to help keep track of who lays what kind of eggs.
- The first picture in the list will be used as the thumbnail on the Flock List
- Tap on the photo to zoom. This also where you can delete the picture.
- Name: Whatever you want to name your bird
- Current Flock Member: Select or deselect to change where the bird appears in the Flock
- Breed
- Select a breed by tapping the row
- Tap the (i) to see information about the breed
- Sex: Male/Female. Use Unknown for new chicks that you aren’t sure of.
Events
- Hatched: Tap the row to set the date the bird hatched. This will add and event to the bird’s history.
- First Egg
- Estimated: If the female bird has been assigned a breed and a hatch date has been set, the app will use them to estimate an approximate date as to when you might be able to expect an egg. I’ve included some averages I found, in the default breeds, after scouring the Internet, but, in our own experience, our hens laid much sooner than the estimated dates. You can adjust the values in the breed edit screens. If you find that there are certain values that are more accurate, please let me know so that I can adjust them in the app for everyone else.
- Recorded date: Once your hen lays her first egg, you can tap this row and record the date.
- History: Tap this row to see a list of all the events in this bird’s life. You can add other events, such as molts or medicine.
Lineage
- Dam: Select the mother of this bird from the flock list
- Sire: Select the father of this bird from the flock list
- Ancestors Tree: Tap this button to see a tree of this bird’s ancestors (parents)
- Descendants Tree: Tap this button to see a tree of this bird’s descendants (children)