Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Marie2020]

I agree.

For a long time, three of the four hens at my house have had what I call an egalitarian pecking circle, with Ivy outside the circle and pecked by everyone. Janet pecks Peggy, Peggy pecks Mary, Mary pecks Janet. Mary is the biggest and Janet is the oldest, while Peggy is the smallest and youngest.

Absolute chaos then

 

[Marie2020]

Dashing out between rain storm the other day

 

[Shadrach]

Day off yesterday. I felt a lot easier about not being there in the evening.

I met C on my way to the allotments bringing pellets for the chickens. The current planis to leave everyone where they are, dismatle the old large coop and then get the small coop out of the run for refurbishment. I bought the plyboard for the small coop roof some months ago. Just need a sheet of EDPM for the roof and some scrap wood to make a perch arrangement.

I showed C how to check a hens pin bones to tell whether the hen is laying or not. I used Lima for the demonstration. I made C touch Lima's pin bones and explained a bit about vent shape changes when laying. C said they had never touched a chickens vent or even looked there in the past.

I had a couple of visitors while I was there this afternoon. For some reason Henry went to roost in the old coop this evening; possibly because I was shoveling the top layer of mud from just inside the new coop extension which still gets rain when the wind is Southerly.
I moved him. The person who was watching looked rather surprised when I leaned into the old coop, gently slid both my hands under Henry's body and lifted him out. Not a murmer from Henry. He sat quietly in my right hand while I close the old coop up and carried him round to the back of the new coop and placed him on a perch. The person who was watching who has chickens of their own said "I've never seen anyone do that with Henry before."

Ella likes to keep me company when I sit down.

 

[RoyalChick]

Day off yesterday. I felt a lot easier about not being there in the evening.

I met C on my way to the allotments bringing pellets for the chickens. The current planis to leave everyone where they are, dismatle the old large coop and then get the small coop out of the run for refurbishment. I bought the plyboard for the small coop roof some months ago. Just need a sheet of EDPM for the roof and some scrap wood to make a perch arrangement.

I showed C how to check a hens pin bones to tell whether the hen is laying or not. I used Lima for the demonstration. I made C touch Lima's pin bones and explained a bit about vent shape changes when laying. C said they had never touched a chickens vent or even looked there in the past.

I had a couple of visitors while I was there this afternoon. For some reason Henry went to roost in the old coop this evening; possibly because I was shoveling the top layer of mud from just inside the new coop extension which still gets rain when the wind is Southerly.
I moved him. The person who was watching looked rather surprised when I leaned into the old coop, gently slid both my hands under Henry's body and lifted him out. Not a murmer from Henry. He sat quietly in my right hand while I close the old coop up and carried him round to the back of the new coop and placed him on a perch. The person who was watching who has chickens of their own said "I've never seen anyone do that with Henry before."

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Ella likes to keep me company when I sit down.
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I am curious Shad why you chose to teach C about pin bones and laying readiness. Of all the things C could learn, that wouldn't have struck me as the most important vs learning how to pick them up, or tell if their crops are empty or something like that.
Was she particularly interested in that? Please tell me it is not because she is planning on adding pullets coming in to lay? That would be a bit alarming.

 

[Shadrach]

I am curious Shad why you chose to teach C about pin bones and laying readiness. Of all the things C could learn, that wouldn't have struck me as the most important vs learning how to pick them up, or tell if their crops are empty or something like that.
Was she particularly interested in that? Please tell me it is not because she is planning on adding pullets coming in to lay? That would be a bit alarming.

Winter egg laying came up in conversation. Anything that might make C look at the chickens and treat them as individuals rather than some means of making money I'll put effort into.
C doesn't really look at the chickens. Present a chicken to C and their eyes slide away and they are reluctant to touch them.

 

[Perris]

I moved him. The person who was watching looked rather surprised when I leaned into the old coop, gently slid both my hands under Henry's body and lifted him out. Not a murmer from Henry.

something similar happens here as of late. As the cockerels have grown to maturity, they've been giving Sven a hard time. Our evening solution is relevant: about 20 mins before roost time he turns up at a door, and he walks straight into the utility if it's the back door, but I pick him up to carry him to the utility room if it's one of the other doors so that he doesn't have to navigate the downstairs (though he did that already once, when a door blew open and I didn't notice ). There he eats his tea in peace and quiet (and warm and dry), then I pick him up and carry him to the coops, and put him in one as part of the closing up routine. If he's wet I use a towel with the lift in, and out, and it absorbs a surprising amount of surface rain, so he goes to bed noticeably drier than he came in. He stands right in front of me to be picked up, and even puts up with having his beak wiped if it's messy (I do that as he's not going to get an alternative opportunity to wipe it himself en route to bed), though he's not really a fan of that procedure. I think a level of trust builds up over time, especially when they know you're on their side and want to help, not harm them.

 

[Shadrach]

Henry is in pretty mellow range of my rooster experiences. What he isn't, or wasn't was human friendly. Leave him be and he's fine. There are things he really doesn't like, for example C cleaning out the coop. He's inspected me doing it on a few occasions and seemed satisfied with the result. I've had him come into the new coop while I was cleaning. I chatted away to him as I got on with the job. I had to move him around in the coop as I cleaned. A tap on rear end to tell him to move over does the trick. The only reaction I've had from him was a very gentle warning peck on my hand the first time I tapped his bum to get him to move. These days he occcasionally comes in to inspect what I'm doing in his home and wanders off once he's seen I'm cleaning. I tell him when I'm done. He seems to understand. Apparently he's gone for others when they've tried cleaning the coop out. "Gone for" as one can gather from the hysteria on many BYC threads can amount to no more then a bit of a herding shuffle.
In contrast I had to shut a rooster called Able out of the coop when I cleaned for a while because he got seriously stressed by the whole business and would go for me which one doesn't want when one is in a confined space. I fixed this in the end by shutting Able in a nest box while I cleaned out the coop a couple of times more in frustration than as a training excercise. He was fine after that and just didn't come into look any more.

 

[Marie2020]

Massive wind here and wet. It's supposed to be clouds and no rain


Last weeks picture

 

[ManueB]

He sat quietly in my right hand while I close the old coop up and carried him round to the back of the new coop and placed him on a perch. The person who was watching who has chickens of their own said "I've never seen anyone do that with Henry before."

I think a level of trust builds up over time, especially when they know you're on their side and want to help, not harm them.

I also think it's about trust, and that this takes time.

Henry is in pretty mellow range of my rooster experiences. What he isn't, or wasn't was human friendly. Leave him be and he's fine. There are things he really doesn't like, for example C cleaning out the coop. He's inspected me doing it on a few occasions and seemed satisfied with the result. I've had him come into the new coop while I was cleaning. I chatted away to him as I got on with the job. I had to move him around in the coop as I cleaned. A tap on rear end to tell him to move over does the trick. The only reaction I've had from him was a very gentle warning peck on my hand the first time I tapped his bum to get him to move. These days he occcasionally comes in to inspect what I'm doing in his home and wanders off once he's seen I'm cleaning. I tell him when I'm done. He seems to understand. Apparently he's gone for others when they've tried cleaning the coop out. "Gone for" as one can gather from the hysteria on many BYC threads can amount to no more then a bit of a herding shuffle.

It could be that you have a calmer and more respectful attitude in Henry's eyes. And it could also be that you are probably one of the only humans who has consistently spent a (nearly) daily two hour time around him, in his ever changing world where people and hens keep coming and going. I'm pretty sure C. doesn't take their time and does things in a rush.

I have thought a lot about why we didn't obtain Theo's trust. I used to think something was wrong with our attitude and behaviour with him. Now we have Gaston, and he turns out to be much more trusting (I wouldn't call him human friendly, but I think if I had to pick him up, he would probably let me).
So now I think what we did wrong with Théo is to take a three months old cockerel away from his multigenerational flock of 30 where there were four adult roos, and throw him in a flock of six two years old hens much bigger than him that had never seen a rooster, with only a crazy adult bantam hen for ally.
All that to say, I agree you may be a rooster whisperer, but Henry's life story also explains why he needed someone like you to trust a human.

Tax for rambling: this is a clip from both roosters today almost doing fence fighting, or in this case net fighting, except Gaston is much more submissive. It's interesting to note that Théo is perfectly able to cross the netting if he does it carefully. He will sometimes do it, but very rarely : most of the time he just throws himself on it knowing there is no way he will cross that way maybe to show how angry he is ?

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

67 sunny 47% humidity feels like 66 rain 0%.

@Shadrach Do you think Henry and the hens miss the rest of the hens NOW?

Have a great day!