Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

Rain all day. Not worth spending any more time at the field than necessary in today's weather. I left the flat late and spent an hour at the field.
The chickens didn't leave the coop extension except to grab a drink before going to roost. I fed them in the extension, cleaned up, changed the water and gave them their treat (wholemeal pasta and peas) and spent the rest of the time sitting in the extension with them.

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I'm sure they enjoyed your company, as you did theirs

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I wonder if this is why most of my idiots will alert when they see rats through the fence (there's a new colony every ten or fifteen metres and they tend to stick to their own turf, at least in the daytime) but not for the rats that live on the chicken plot even when they're just inches away.

Although some of them also do the buk-buk alarm sound if a wren is shouting at them, so maybe they're just daft.

Gotta watch out for those tiny wrens! They’ll sneak right up on ya.

 

[kattabelly]

Caught him mid wattle wobble

(Yeah so I never got round to eating him in the end Took about six months but he's much less of an arse now.)

 

[HiEverybirdy]

Caught him mid wattle wobble

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(Yeah so I never got round to eating him in the end Took about six months but he's much less of an arse now.)

And post wallow. What's happening with his chest?

 

[kattabelly]

And post wallow. What's happening with his chest?

Dust mud bath He spent ages digging a huge crater this morning.

He's been walking around with a load of hay woven into his leg feathers since then too.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I now have a tax bill approaching that of Willie Nelson’s when he had to cut a double album and go on tour to get the IRS (our version of the Inland Revenue) off his back, but alas, all I have are some feeble iPhone pics, but here we are.

Flock Chief Buffy allowing Willow and Tessa, the Not-So-Littles to groom her:

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Whoa, Rude-y Trudy allows the Littles to approach! Cold weather seems to put aside a bit of the pecking order:

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Welcome to the Land of Brown, decimated by young and enthusiastic chickens, with some plots of winter cereal rye and crimson clover in excluded spots, trying to recover.

I’ve divided this back yard space into six (small) areas for intensive planting/ rotational grazing, in hopes of having forage available from maybe March through November, maybe; plus two areas occasionally available for emergency use, again maybe.

And yes, other than the other two spots, neither huge, this is it:

 

[Perris]

Wattle shake! Lucky with the camera.

Caught him mid wattle wobble

Talgarth's wattles can appear to lead the way when he's really motoring

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Late afternoon grazing. It’s been entertaining watching five full-grown Brussels sprouts plants be slowly skeletonized over the last month: