Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

They were right about the weather. What I hadn't noticed was the Met Office wind gusts warnings. We had quite a few high thirties gusts that whipped around in direction underneath the prevailing wind blowing higher up. One sent my chair and a bucket tumbling along the allotment run. Better that than having things take off and come at you at different heights!

Oh yesss, it rained.
We were lucky and we got one of the sunny intermissions for an hour. After that it was back to wet dodging.
The hoop part of the coop works very well as a wind and rain shelter even without the door and finishing touches. It's noticably warmer under the tarpaulin as well. I sit on the roost bar with them when the rain starts.
I watched Matilda think about using the new coop this evening. She gets on the roost bar during the day and went up the ramp a bit this evening but turned back and went in with Henry.

 

[lightm]

She looks tactical.

Yes she no longer gives a damn when being pecked on her "back".

I do think it is a great picture of her.

Speaking of getting pecked, I have become certain that their (minus the two littles) pecking order is
Wendy>Poopy>Inky>Tina>Honey>Light>Wendy

Is this normal? Basically poor Light is being bullied by everyone, but then she pecks at the alpha Wendy.

 

[lightm]

She has that look in her eye. I think she has a semiautomatic tucked under her wing.

Her name is Light, for people who don't know already. She is very sweet and vocal.

Here in the picture she was sick back in August. My best conclusion is some crop issue eventually causing egg bound. Poor baby. My husband claimed that his sheer love made her better.

 

[lightm]

I'm anti hen saddles but that saddle is well cool. It's even got proper rooster feet shoulder protectors. Where did you get it?

Regarding the feather pecking. I have no real idea why they do it. Some of the Ex Battery hens and a couple of the legbars do it. Overall there is less of it than there was.
One can read it's lack of protein that drives them to start. One can also read that stress, overcrowding, boredom and even miss-adjusted broody behaviour is responsible.
With the Ex Battery hens at the allotment it's now habit.

I bought it on Amazon. It is called "down under outdoors". I am quite anti-amazon but very occasionally I do shop there.

 

[Sequel]

I'm trying to pay some tax with a few shots of the Faverolles flock I had in 2018.

 

[Sequel]

Another try.

 

[Sequel]

Another try.

well that didn't work out very well. These pics are on an old Windows phone. It was clumsy at the best of times.

 

[Perris]

well that didn't work out very well. These pics are on an old Windows phone. It was clumsy at the best of times.

They are fine - what is the calf that they are engaged with? Some sort of deer?

 

[Perris]

this time we're aiming at adult birds

two or three adults laying hens, which is what we are looking for

I want to get hens from a breeder at least once, to see how it compares to having ex-batts and hatching our own chicks here

whatever breed of chickens they have from one of the breeders around us of good reputation

If it's of any use to you to have others' experiences, read on!
Initially I bought young stock in pairs or trios, and typically 1 is still with me and 1 or 2 succumbed to disease, predator or other issue. I can't say I can see a difference in survival between those from a national show winning breeder and those from less illustrious hands. I switched to buying in hatching eggs for new blood because there is a much reduced risk of bringing in disease, and zero integration issues, both of which can wreck the flock. If you buy grown birds, don't hesitate to refuse any that looks in any way ill. It is very easy to bring disease onto your property, and very hard if not impossible to eradicate it.

 

[Perris]

There must be thousands of breeds that are not registered with an official breed standard

didn't we have a discussion many moons ago on this thread about chicken 'breeds'?