Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

That Aristotle knew a thing or two. Shame so few paid attention to him while he was alive.

Actually the rot set in later. The Lyceum was quite lively; for example, his lesser known colleague and co-worker Theophrastos was said to have had 2000 pupils, and others went on to create the fields of mechanics and pneumatics. His ideas influenced all subsequent ancient schools, and Arab scholars translated all his works they could find. His light dims in the west with the decline of the Roman Empire, until the Renaissance, when we find people like Leonardo da Vinci using his work on colours, which had survived or been recovered via Arabic scholarship.

 

[Shadrach]

That would really be helpful for the survival of these rescue birds. What a wonderfully thoughtful idea

But it wouldn't really help. Millions are killed each year. The solution to the problem isn't adopting a few. It's a complicated issue that needs something other than a knee jerk emotional response.
It's not that I don't appreciate the offers and there have been others. I have the money to keep them fed and treated for essential health issues. Despite how it may seem from the pictures these Ex Batts and Rescues have had a bit of a touch through the most unlikely circumstances. They've met someone who actually cares about them being chickens who has the time and commitment to make a small impprovement to what little life they have left.
If on the other hand people stopped buying chicken based food for their pets, ate less eggs, were prepared for even a 5 X increase in the price of eggs, etc etc then we might be talking. This isn't a Tesco advertisment where every little helps. In fact in this case I suspect that every liittle is possibly just making things worse.

 

[Windrider]

What was interesting after I washed the sicky sweet suff out was it did go some way to show just how smart and adaptable chickens can be.

That is what I got out of it too. And this is a breed of chicken that is dismissed outright, even on BYC, as being one of the dumbest laziest animals ever bred.

I do notice that in the intro, Boo actually made the move towards his owner to invite cuddling. I wonder if that behavior would have been so pronounced if Boo had even one other chicken he lived with.

 

[Shadrach]

That's Mag standing on the wall. That's his tribe up the tree. None of them are remotley interested in being cuddled or being anyones pet.

 

[Shadrach]

That's Mag standing on the wall. That's his tribe up the tree. None of them are remotley interested in being cuddled or being anyones pet. Oh yeah, I know, there is more than one rooster there.
View attachment 2928026

 

[Sortacountrychicken]

were we talking here earlier about whether or not rescues can learn to forage and do other things non-rescue chickens do? (or have I got my threads confused?) If so, this suggests not, or not much at any rate
https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arv177

I have an earlier post on this thread about this but essentially, they can learn some things but not all. I hope that these girls have at least a 2 more years in them (I would love to see even longer). I would love to see them learn more as they spend more years with the other chickens but they seem to have hit a wall in what behaviors they can pick up later in life.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning Chickens here have a job. I care for them. I do not cry if they die.. I do not hold my birds. They are not pets.
Sorry if this offends someone.. If a bird needs a med or exam I do that..
Here is the tax my banty coop is pretty full right now.
Too full for what I want in there .. Waiting for Auction to start back here.

 

[BY Bob]

Chicks do not need a hen to learn dustbathing.
I've raised plenty of chicks from hatcheries, with no hens, and they all started dustbathing in the litter in their brooder at a fairly young age.

If the Ex Batts don't dustbathe, I might wonder if their age is an issue: it might be easier to learn as a chick, and harder to learn as an adult.

Yes, here is video of Legertha dustbathing at 16 days old. I did not teach her that.

 

[BY Bob]

Contemplating her escape options...
View attachment 2922444​

The pictures you post here are quite beautiful.

 

[BY Bob]

45 pages!

I may never catch up.

I finally caught up to myself and I'm still 30 pages behind. There were not a lot of pictures. Many long wordy posts. I'm just pointing it out.

Chicken tax