Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

Great info
How many large fowl does it hold comfortably?
technically 8 (on GB standards), but not infrequently more pile in, and the Egg Marketing Inspector assures me that if they have a free choice (as they do here) it does not matter if more are in overnight. (I assume you realize these coops are only for sleeping and laying in? you couldn't leave them locked in there if you e.g. went away for a few days)
 
technically 8 (on GB standards), but not infrequently more pile in, and the Egg Marketing Inspector assures me that if they have a free choice (as they do here) it does not matter if more are in overnight. (I assume you realize these coops are only for sleeping and laying in? you couldn't leave them locked in there if you e.g. went away for a few days)
Yes just for sleeping, I was thinking for broodys or grow outs.. Winter sometimes birds don't want to go out for a month.
 
Yes just for sleeping, I was thinking for broodys or grow outs.. Winter sometimes birds don't want to go out for a month.
Should be fine then; I've had multiple clutches raised in them.
On the handful of occasions we've had snow the flock hangs around inside, but here the snow's gone in a day or two, if not an hour or two!
 
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.:p

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.:p

I don't know.:confused: 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.:D

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.
I tend to agree with most BYC rooster owners. A rooster should not aggressively attack a human. If he does there are three options imho,
  1. learning to back off instead of attacking. Suppressing did work with my first rooster. He respected me for about a month after grabbing him and holding him down for 30 seconds.
  2. being the lord of a group of ex bats or other hens where there are preferably no intentions to breed with the rooster.
  3. If 1 and 2 is a no go: an organic delicatesse at someone else ‘s place. This is definitely third choice and if all people were honourable the cockerels / roosters I gave away didn’t go to freezer camp.
I gave away appprox 10 cockerels/young roosters in the past 8 years. Friendly ones too (too noisy) . I offered the roosters free to collect on our online marketplace. But always ask about intentions.
 
This makes me think it is an interaction, the way the roosters react depends on how we act toward him.
It's not only that obviously, as different roosters react differently to the same human.
My rooster that doesn't like me, Théo, has very two explicit sounds to tell me he's not happy I'm around, and it's definitely not crowing. I would describe one as an angry cackle walking away from me, and the other as a low defiant hissing sound staring at me.

Back to alarm sounds, here is a pullet Léa making a low caution growl (you may need to turn the sound up to hear)
What was it that she saw?
 
Bouts of sunshine and 6C with a North East wind. Cold in other words.:D
The geese were out when I arrived. They had food in their bowl and the water looked half decent.
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Should be fine then; I've had multiple clutches raised in them.
On the handful of occasions we've had snow the flock hangs around inside, but here the snow's gone in a day or two, if not an hour or two!
Funny picture of Orpingtons in one
Post in thread 'Would like opinions on coop size' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/would-like-opinions-on-coop-size.1562352/post-26531153

I had an lavender English Orpington rooster, until a turkey squashed him. He was smaller than most of my meat mutts roosters.
 
Okayish weather by Bristol standards this afternoon although it did start to drizzle on my way home.
C had been. That's mixed corn with a few pellets in the tray. What I left overnight had gone so hopefully they ate that before starting on the sweets.:old
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(Sigh) This is what I found just outside the geese enclosure.View attachment 3408173
I guess the geese didn't get their full portion. I cleaned it up.
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We all went out. Fret got into a bit of a standoff with a large crow and Henry steaked past me; as much as a large chap like him can streak, and saw the ruffian off.:lol:
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Well done, Henry!
 
Love a good rooster. I wasn't fond of Cholo in the beginning. Love to flog me but never my wife. We've made our peace, meaning he tolerates me better. He lost his lead hen 2 days ago and a second hen two weeks ago. I am not home to see how he is taking it. By happenstance my wife started a batch of eggs in the incubator the day before Gorda died in hopes of more hens for him. Gorda and Cholo below.View attachment 3410100
Aww… bummer to lose Gorda!
 

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