Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[ManueB]

are you in/near cassoulet country?

Only in the sense that France is the country of cassoulet. It's from the south west, we're south east. Probably almost as exotic to people here as to you .

Yes that is exactly what happened! He was hanging out near them for a few days, then actually hanging out with them, until one night he was up on the roost with them and had been ever since! He is an EE, and surprisingly, the hen that follows him everywhere is also an EE! We haven’t had to integrate any groups yet, the small barn was our original group of about 20 females going on 2 years old, and we added the new group of 4 week olds to a separate barn. There were a little over 30 chicks in that group. At the time, 25 were female chicks from hatcheries, and the rest were unknown chicks from a hatch I did (except for 2 female legbars who I knew were girls from hatch). Ended up with 4 boys and 3 girls. We were expecting to have to rehome or cull at least 2 boys, but surprisingly the alpha emerged, one deflected to the older girls barn, and the other two are content with our alpha being in charge. And (hopefully) the flock is big enough that there’s enough females to keep everyone happy. They are almost a year old now.

That is working out very well! In spite of the mixed breeds. Well, I hope to hear it will stay this way ! I'm sort of envious I admit!

The strange thing was not that Katrientje stopped laying. But that Janice who wasn’t broody, stopped laying too. And Kraai who never laid an egg, was (accompanying) broody.

It's the hormone conspiracy I mentioned to RC. Broody conspiracy, laying and not laying conspiracy... The truth is elsewhere .
Talking about magic has anybody ever looked at any possible influence of the moon on broody/laying ?

 

[no fly zone]

If you had a pressure cooker it's 10 minutes.

View attachment 3412204

https://everydaynourishingfoods.com/how-to-cook-kidney-beans/#instant-pot-kidney-beans

we have two pressure cookers that we often run simultaneously

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good evening one and all!

82 sunny 53% humidity feels like 86 rain 0%.

I got the pictures last night when I treated them.

As soon as II get the pictures uploaded I'll send them.

Have a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

Sun and rain as the pictures show.
Feed left in tray. I left a bit more than usual last night.

Fret is winding up for some broody monster time. She's in the nest box.

 

[kcan2]

Fret is winding up for some broody monster time. She's in the nest box.

Oh no, not the broody monster!
What lovely rainbow weather!
Random question - does Henry often crow when around you? I have read a few threads where a rooster's crowing is perceived as a show of dominance, but am wondering if this is more or less a human perception than that of the rooster!

 

[BDutch]

we have two pressure cookers that we often run simultaneously

Were planning to renovate our kitchen and want to change from gas to an induction plate (is that the right name?). We don’t buy new pans/cookers for the time being. Otherwise it would certainly be a good investment… that is if I can put these pressure cooker in a dishwasher.

Eureka: My chickens stopped being broody and laying eggs, because they heard the news. Next week it is getting too cold to gather eggs for breeding. (The hens don’t know they need a rooster for fertile eggs).

 

[Shadrach]

Henry doesn't crow a lot. I've found having more than one rooster makes them crow more.
When there were nine males in Catalonia it was pretty noisy. One of the reasons roosters crow is to see if and where any other roosters are. If there is no reply there's no local competition. When they do get a reply what might seem like a crowing contest breaks out. Late afternoon I could pinpoint the tribe's locations by listening to this crowing exchange. I don't know if these crowing contests are some kind of challenge between the males. or something more complex. I lean towards more complex from experience.

I don't know what it is about BYC but this word dominance turns up a lot. People are advised to dominate their roosters, if the rooster shows any sign of hostility or even friendliness mistaken for hostility dominance comes into it somewhere.
Needless to say it's not in my dictionary of chicken language.

Henry crows when I'm close by sometimes. I cheer him on. I like the sound.
Cillin used to crow in my house in the morning while he was there. I'm not sure what the morning crowing is about. There must be a reason for it.
Only humans make sounds just for the sake of exercising their mouths.

I don't know. My view of roosters is very different to the majority here I think. They talk more than the hens ime and the range of meanings they convey is not at all well understood. Yes they can be bossy but when one takes into account the pecks that get handed out by the hens, a herding shuffle here and a hackle flash there seems pretty moderate to me. Take all those sneaking digs that the hens hand out at roosting time.

Henry's interest in me is very limited. He'll check me out for treats he can give his hens. He'll sometimes come and stand by me when something has worried him. This could be for example when he's heading back to roost and there's a hen missing. He hasn't had enough experience of collecting his hens. Major for example would do more than one trip hen collecting at dusk if necessary as would Harold and all my uncles roosters.
So no, I don't think crowing near you is a sign of anything to do with ones presence. I've never had a crowing rooster launch an attack, or even look like I was meant to be the recipient of any information.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Okay so hey there X Batts. Power was out for two hours.
Only comment I have regarding rooster crows. Smudge likes to see if I will come out.
Or if his hens are done laying for a day.. of these times I am sure the crow changes if
there is danger or to bring them all down of a evening.
Ya all have seen smudge. He is big boy,

 

[Sequel]

Okay so hey there X Batts. Power was out for two hours.
Only comment I have regarding rooster crows. Smudge likes to see if I will come out.
Or if his hens are done laying for a day.. of these times I am sure the crow changes if
there is danger or to bring them all down of a evening.
Ya all have seen smudge. He is big boy,View attachment 3413191

What a magnificent comb he has!

 

[lightm]

this is my experience and thinking too. Of course taste and nutritional needs are not exclusive; I believe that what we call cravings - especially when for something unusual or temporary - are our instincts' way of getting us to eat what we need. Pica is the extreme example of course!

ManueB said:
they have clear individual preferences

I agree.

Our chickens LOVE raisins. Recently, we discovered that only half of the hens like GOLDEN raisins. Usually raisins are deep red very dark colored as you all know. We got some golden raisins lately and it was so hilarious that half of them showed a disgusted face to golden raisins.

Taste the same to me.... Chickens.

I should add that only one hen (Inky) turned her beak. Other 7 were still flying up enthusiastically to get the raisin (so it is not the color), and 3 of the 7 spit it out.