Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Maybe pine oil from the needles repels mites or lice?

I think he thought that might be the case with fresh green needles, but not with dead brown ones.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

47 sunny 55% humidity feels like 40 rain 0%.

Have a great day!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning X Batts.
We have very unusual weather 66 here.
Dry out sun is shining.

 

[Shadrach]

Wasn't this about a month or two of regular treatment?

More like eight or nine months. I doubt they will ever be as they should.
While we read about the problems people have with their chickens and read the advice they get given, we rarely read what the eventual outcome was.
Some problems just roll on with varying degrees of severity.
A friend of my sister who has had red mite problems in one of her coops for a couple of years now recently burnt the coop having tried everything practicable. It was a big coop and cost a bit to build.

 

[Shadrach]

I agree. I don't suppose you could put an apron on her to save her feathers from Henry's claws?

Her back and shoulders are pretty good. She almost pancakes when mating with Henry and this helps with his balance.
I'm not a fan of saddles/aprons. They get caught on things. They are unhygienic. They restrict the chickens ability to arrange their feathers for differing conditions.

 

[Shadrach]

But what bothers me especially is the description of a fun coop that makes it sounds (willingly or not) as if chickens are a new type of dolls.

I thought you would have got used to this from reading BYC.

 

[Shadrach]

I think he thought that might be the case with fresh green needles, but not with dead brown ones.

Maybe the pine needles are nest building materials delivered badly.

 

[Shadrach]

Rained this morning but stayed dry while I was at the allotments. The problem today was the wind. Yesterday there were some strong gusts but this afternoon there was an almost constant 20mph Westerly and the chickens liked this less than the gusts. They did come out for an hour or so, but had enough at around 4pm, half an hour before roost time.

I'm slowly reducing the top layer of poop and bedding slush. Each time I get a couple of inches off a new problem is revealed. If these problems are not enough to dissuade people from the Facebook deep litter style (I can't be bothered to clean up and I don't really understand how deep litter works posts) I don't know what will. This goes right under the paver and into the coop.

 

[Iluveggers]

Rained this morning but stayed dry while I was at the allotments. The problem today was the wind. Yesterday there were some strong gusts but this afternoon there was an almost constant 20mph Westerly and the chickens liked this less than the gusts. They did come out for an hour or so, but had enough at around 4pm, half an hour before roost time.View attachment 3375443View attachment 3375444

I'm slowly reducing the top layer of poop and bedding slush. Each time I get a couple of inches off a new problem is revealed. If these problems are not enough to dissuade people from the Facebook deep litter style (I can't be bothered to clean up and I don't really understand how deep litter works posts) I don't know what will. This goes right under the paver and into the coop.
View attachment 3375442

I was tempted to do deep litter. Instead I just scoop the poop under the roost bar every morning, and refill clean shavings as needed. Only takes a couple of minutes. What kinds of things are you finding in the poo @Shadrach ? I was too afraid to try it.

 

[micstrachan]

Getting it in 3 is very satisfying - but I bow down to you for being able to do it in two languages!
In French do the accents create separate letters or is it just the same letter regardless of different accents?
So is è different from é, or do they both count as e?

Tax: chickens in rafters.
View attachment 3368289

I freaking love these two!