Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[JacinLarkwell]

I pulled at face at finding hemp in milk.

Maybe it's like Silk or Ripple?

 

[Shadrach]

I finally just got finished with all 96 pages!!! Whew I’m worn out! How much tax does that add up for me???

Got to be a couple of hens at least. Roosters as you've probably read are worth double.

 

[Ribh]

With humans, once a window to learn shuts, it can't be reopened. I can't remember many of the details at all (it's been a really long time since I read about it), but there was a girl that was taken in by CPS that had never learned how to speak, and by the time she was taken, she was too old to ever learn. Her brain physically just could not learn.

I'll try to find more information if someone is interested

There's been quite a lot of study done on *wolf children* & anything I've read confirms the window to learn certain things is small & once it closes that's it. This is particularly true of speech. Unless they had some speech prior to being taken into a pack it is a skill never learned.

 

[Shadrach]

Welcome to the thread @GunnyBun

So I suppose I should make a note in my 2022 thread about who in my flocks (for the most part) are hatchery vs home brewed and who is natural vs artificial and see who to go broody.

I'll have an all female flock for one large group too this next season, so we'll see if any go broody in that group (I have all 4 of the above categories, as well as both known broody breeds and not broody breeds)

View attachment 2923946
Tax for this post, had to go out and get more pictures. Here's Booth and I think Angela. Might be Cam though. They're both Mosaics I hatched artificially in May. Supposedly their mama's would show broody signs so we'll see

See, if nothing else this thread makes people spend more time with their chickens.

 

[Shadrach]

Non laying females are virtually ignored by the males here. When they come into lay they get their share of the boys' attention. As combs get big and red, the boys will start "testing" them if you will. They will walk up to them, flare hackles, and make as if they were going to mate her. If she crouches, he will mate her. If not, he will move on. The boys will also start calling these soon-to-lay girls over for food that they find and will generally spend time trying to win them over. The process is much the same for a hen that is coming back into lay for any reason(coming off of broody hormones, coming into lay in the spring, etc.). Now, I can say that all of these things are intertwined and that they all happen about the same time but I am not yet sure how all the different factors influence each other.

This is much like what I've seen except the roosters bump the hens bum with their chest by way of asking as they mature.
I had one pair of bantams Harold and BlueSpot who had me in stiches most mornings. I would let them out; BlueSpot usually came out first with Harold following close behind. BlueSpot had hardly taken a step before Harold chest bumped her. Blue Spot used to spin round and clobber him. They would fight on and off all the way to the steps that led up to the terrace where I fed them. It lloked dreadfull and initially I was tempted to break the fights up. Harold though,if one watched carefully never made a strike at BlueSpots comb or body. He just deflected her feet in the air as she triied to bash him. They would get to the bottom of the steps and then hop up them side be side the fight it seemed completely forgotton about.
Harold and BlueSpot were a couple for almost eight years. BlueSpot never even looked at another rooster. All the hens adored Harold. He was a complete gentleman.

 

[Shadrach]

Pheremones?

It could be. I really don't know. It has always fascinated me.
Even with pullets who have yet to lay, the established rooster could be seem escorting them from place to place looking for a suitable nest site.

 

[Ribh]

It is pretty clear to me that none of mine like to be picked up. But they also like to hang out around me. Often choosing to sit on the arm of my chair or just pop by for a chat.​

None of my standard hens like to be picked up. All my bantams will tolerate it without stressing. I have 3 bantams who actively ask for petting. They have a particular sound they make which means something like: I'm here. Please notice me. I'd like some attention please. All my hens like to hang with me but most object to being handled. Some will ask for a pet but if I'm too slow I will miss the opportunity & they move on.

 

[Shadrach]

Would like to know more about this. If it is not off-topic. Shad?

It is most definitely not off topic and I am always interested in peoples experiences when it comes to chickens.
Part of the problem I and chickens have is not enough people spend enough time with their chickens observing how they behave. It is quite an art because it does require one to not project what one feels and thinks onto the situation.
It's only after a number of observations have been made that one can start to form a theory and then of course one needs to test it out.

 

[alwaystj9]

Mine follow me whenever I am out in the pasture and are fascinated by any work I am doing but if I turn around and face them, they step off and away. I have never been a chicken cuddler, though, I've only ever handled when necessary.
They do get underfoot in the pen and I had to learn the chicken shuffle where you kind of scoop and sweep with your feet to get the little stinkers out of the way.

 

[MaryJanet]

Mine follow me whenever I am out in the pasture and are fascinated by any work I am doing but if I turn around and face them, they step off and away. I have never been a chicken cuddler, though, I've only ever handled when necessary.
They do get underfoot in the pen and I had to learn the chicken shuffle where you kind of scoop and sweep with your feet to get the little stinkers out of the way.

I've noticed the hens will crowd behind me when I'm sitting in the back porch.

I took a sneaky photo of them over my shoulder.

Come to think of it, the positioning of the food is a confoundIng factor so this can only count as an observation that hens eat, which is not exactly a contentious assertion