Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

that's an isabella leghorn for you

Stunning

 

[Perris]

it has become some kind of ritual behaviour.

it seems to me a very inconsistent behaviour here. A few of the hens do it occasionally, when they're broody and when they're not, but I don't get to witness much of what happens in nest boxes because of the kind of coops I have. I think I shall start noting it down in the daily record so that I build up a solid if partial picture of it.

 

[pennyJo1960]

This is Smudge all his glory one of the blue marans is with him.
He is Blue marans local breeder when he was a day old. He was raised here.

 

[no fly zone]

Got some Skeksis merch

 

[Shadrach]

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.

I haven't found anything alarming in there yet. The story of what's happened is told in the ground. There is a layer of varying thickness of poop and shredded paper bedding over the run.
Below that in the places I've cleaned the top off is what I call fine gravel: small stones basically. Around the old coop are a number of paving slabs put there to discourage digging when the old coop still had a run door.
The one place I've dug deeper than 150mm I found earth with a lot of rocks. I think this area of the allotment grows rocks.
The thing is, the deep litter method works well in the right kind of coop, but it isn't something that works well in a run open to the elements, especially with the number of chickens that were here.
I think if one kept the first couple of inches of the run soil loose and raked in the bedding and poop every few days things would be different What obviously doesn't work is throwing the bedding and poop in a heap and leaving it there.
It just takes a bucket and a pair of rubber gloves and a few minutes to pick out the poop and soiled bedding and put it in the bucket. On an allotment disposal should be easy; dig it into the ground.

The ground in what most would accept as a run dies pretty quickly with just a few chickens confined to it. Dead ground doesn't compost stuff well. It is imo one of the problems with fixed coops, especially if the chickens are largely confined to them.

I used to put the chickens in the allotment in Catalonia; normally they were discouraged by fencing and supervision from extended visits. Even five chickens digging shifts a lot of soil, not to mention eating a lot of bugs and grubs that would grow into little monsters intent on eating everything you plant.
The chickens at the allotment used to go on the allotment. When C's partner was alive the chickens were out most afternoons until dusk.

Lots of people think keeping chickens is easy. I don't think it is if one is going to consider the welfare of the chicken as the first priority.

 

[Shadrach]

Shad, I am very excited to share that I have found at least a short term solution for sourcing chickens. I would like a few chicks this year, but I’ve gotten to the point that I don’t want to support the hatchery industry anymore. After doing some research, I found someone local… Just half an hour drive away. They only have about three or four breeds, and I would like two of each of these…

Isabella Leghorns
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French Blue Coper Marans
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I’m not quite ready right now for roosters, but I am at a point that if a female chick turned out not to be female after all, I would be OK with it. We own this property now, so I would not get kicked out for having a rooster. And here’s the best part of all… I asked her what happens with the unwanted males. It’s the best answer I could have hoped for, while wanting to source female chickens. She raises the unwanted males on pasture along with the females. At a certain age, she tries to adopt as many out as she can. The ones who are not adopted out are euthanized humanely, and then fed to her livestock guardian dogs that protect the chickens.

At this point, I think it is the best possible compromise I can find to continue keeping chickens while trying to have as little suffering as possible. And I will not be supporting the giant hatchery industry at all. For those of you not in the United States, please know that giant hatcheries are sort of just how it’s done here. Not only that, but I am in California, which does not have many options for chickens (outside of hatchery delivery) at all. I am pleased with this find and hope it all works out. I’ll keep you posted.

That sounds great. Hopefully you'll get chickens with better genes and even if you don't they will have had a proper start in life and know a bit about being chickens.

Having a male. Although sounding a bit dramatic, the thing you need to be prepared for is you will lose your hens. They will become the roosters hens and often that doesn't go smoothly.
Reading the problem rooster threads leaves me the impression that this is not something keepers new to chickens, or those just getting a rooster grasp.
AImost everything one may have done with a hen only group has to stop until the keeper and the rooster have got themselves sorted out. Some cockerels grow up easy, others not so much. The I'm the giant that brings the food just doesn't impress a lot of roosters. They don't care how big you are. One has to come to an arrangement with a rooster or things are going to go South very quickly.
Some keepers seem to know or do this without thinking much about it, more usually those who free range. They don't have the same close contact with the group and the rooster hasn't had his territory defined by a fence. This makes a lot of difference I believe.

 

[Shadrach]

That is very interesting! I witnessed my hen casting pieces of straw onto her back while laying her egg (before it was pushed out). After the egg was laid and the hen left, the rooster approvingly inspected the egg, threw a piece of straw in the egg's general direction, and sat down nearby to keep it company for a while before leaving. Even before the hen left, she pretty well covered the egg, but the rooster certainly championed the cause of the nest site in the straw bale. Pine needles and straw are similar in appearance


That looks like a distasteful/arduous task! Was this the result of deep litter gone wrong or mismanaged? Once you get down to the bottom of the sludge, what is the more permanent fix for this? (Sorry if this has already been answered and I somewhere missed the info!)

No worries. I think I've explained a bit about what's happened below.

 

[Shadrach]

he considered that. Said they didn't add any structural integrity to the nest, and if meant as nest lining, why didn't she wait till the male left? same question if they were meant to camouflage or cover the eggs (as @lightm and @kcan2 were thinking). Hence he was mystified what this behaviour was about.

Has anybody satisfied themselves of an explanation for hens putting plant material on their backs when in the nest (and is it connected with broodiness, actual or aspiring)?

I've seen hens do it, Fan, Ruffles and a couple of others. I have no idea why.
It's a bit like the going off feed when moulting. Some chickens do, and from the poll, and my own experience; enough chickens do it to make it possibly common to all chickens in similar circumstances.
It would be a long study to give any usefull results.

 

[Shadrach]

Thanks for the suggestion, I may try 1. and 3.


I think your attitude toward BYC may be just a tad biased by anti US imperialism .
I also feel this way reading some of the posts like when someone tries to convince me pasteurized cheese tastes just like raw cheese .
But in this case, I think anyone who knew nothing about chickens and came to ask about that coop on BYC, would be given helpful explanations on why it's not a suitable housing for chickens.

Honestly I've found quite a wide range of attitudes and ways toward chickens on this site, from people keeping them almost as house pets, to those who have them as livestock, those who try to have them as close as possible to a natural state and those who want all the best for their beloved pets.
Where else on the web would you have found those pictures of rare breeds from Iran you linked to sometimes ago ?

I was going to mention it's not necessarily straw or needles- just this morning Merle threw wood chips all over herself.
In my flock it's always been a very common behaviour among the ex-batts who have never ever shown the slightest broody incline, and it happened way before we had the rooster.
One thing I've also noticed is that they do it even if they didn't succeed in laying. I saw that again just this morning. Brune got out of the nest after more than an hour and no egg out, and threw hay on her body. I take it to mean "I'm done". I dont have a clue where it could come from but obviously now it has become some kind of ritual behaviour.


I was going to mention prince Charming, and raise the small matter that his singing does not do justice to his feathering. As @micstrachan is well known for her lovely voice hopefully she can teach the future rooster not to shriek .

Did my trousers slip and my politics show?

Where else on the web would you have found those pictures of rare breeds from Iran you linked to sometimes ago ?

An Iranian chicken website that google won't trawl perhaps.
Ooops, done it again.

Yup, I would like to see more contributors from other parts of the world. However, I've been coming here on a regular basis for almost five years and read the site a few years before that on occasions. I have virtual friends here and some of them I know are Americans and some of them still talk with me even after five years of my scathing views on certain topics.

 

[Shadrach]

Got some Skeksis merch

View attachment 3376443

Love it.