Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[pennyJo1960]

@Shadrach your smart I wear my hair tied back or in hat.
Might have been the first time down.

 

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach your smart I wear my hair tied back or in hat.
Might have been the first time down.View attachment 3443764

I try to wear similar clothing, usually overalls and/or waterproofs. The allotment chickens are fairly imprevious to changes in my appearance but the tribes...
I was going out to watch some modern dance one evening and it ran very close to roost time. I got changed into going out clothes and went to check everyone was there. I walked up to Tribe 2 and they ran away.
I tried changing my hat one day from a bush hat to something with a wider brim; they ran away from that as well.
Some of it no doubt was my own doing by being dressed in the same stuff year in year out. I'm sure some people thought I never changed my clothes but the truth was I bought 3 or 4 of the same item.

Good work cloths are hard to find. Most of the weather resistant stuff is faishionable here in the UK. A lot of it doesn't in fact work. They leak, they rip easily, wrong pockets in the wrong places and of course, being fashionable the price trebles.

 

[Iluveggers]

I try to wear similar clothing, usually overalls and/or waterproofs. The allotment chickens are fairly imprevious to changes in my appearance but the tribes...
I was going out to watch some modern dance one evening and it ran very close to roost time. I got changed into going out clothes and went to check everyone was there. I walked up to Tribe 2 and they ran away.
I tried changing my hat one from a bush hat to something with a wider brim; they ran away from that as well.
Some of it no doubt was my own doing by being dressed in the same stuff year in year out. I'm sure some people thought I never changed my clothes but the truth was I bought 3 or 4 of the same item.

Good work cloths are hard to find. Most of the weather resistant stuff is faisionable here in the UK. A lot of it doesn't in fact work. They leak, the rip easily, wrong pockets in the wrong places and of course, being fasionable the price trebles.

My husband laughed when I wanted a chore coat for Christmas. I wear it every day. (At least til summer). Good work clothes are important! I agree!

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Cholo Jr, now and back when his beak was fresh broken offView attachment 3443724

Looks good.

 

[Shadrach]

Throughout this thread are pictures of the coops and one thing to notice is the pop doors are always open and the coops/extensions don't have doors. The fence around the run is not really secure because of the bottom section having too larger gaps in the stock net fencing. Basically anything that can get into the run can get the chickens.
All that changed this evening. This is what I found when I arrived at the allotments.

Something is trying to dig it's way in!
It's not a rat. Rats can walk through the fence in lots of places and have been untill recently I dug up the nests and dug up the tunnels.

If a rat can get in a weasel or stoat, or worse still a mink can get in within a couple of nights. They open up the rat holes in the ground killing the rats they can catch on their way.
I dug out a hole from post to the wood in the ground and made a minature gabion with some gravel and mesh and buried it there.

I'm left with no alternative at the moment and the pop door on the new coop has to be closed. Whatever started that hole will be back. We think it's a fox.
C was at the allotments and we didn't get off to a good start but hopefully we made some progress this after noon. C says they will open up the chickens in the morning. Usually this will be on their way to work at about 7am. But C does night shifts and on those days they can't open the chickens up until 8.30 am. I think the coop is big enough now with five in there for this not to be a disaster should C not open them up in the morning.
I'm going to have to buy and automatic pop door. I've been thinking about it for a while.
First secure night since I've been going to the allotments. The chickens might not be impressed but I'll worry less and they may live longer.

I'm buying the other half of the coop. That will be C out of the decision making picture and from then on it's the other allotment holders and the law. Nobody wants to take responsibility for the chickens so I've spoken to a couple of the allotments holders and suggested they give me the chickens.

Ella has had the runs. It's messy back there and she's got a few lice. I spent about half an hour with Ella sat in my palm as I picked and rolled the shite off her rear end. Due to the discussions with C I didn't get to finish the job so something to look foreward to tomorrow.

They did go out and they were all over the place.

 

[GregnLety]

I posted this on Bob's thread and thought some of you might be amused. Shad especially, being a roosterist.


One more time Stupid earned his name. Went to take the pups out and seen Cholo had blood on himself but he wasn't bleeding. Red is up so I checked the young bantam and Sebright roosters, all good. Found Stupid, blood on his face but he's clucking along dancing for and mating his gals. No worse for the wear...put Cholo up and let Red out, 5 minutes later Stupid picks a fight with Red

Tough for a Cochin, guess ya gotta be when your name is Stupid...

 

[Perris]

Regarding recognition, chickens recognize one another by their combs, so how your head looks when you attend them is key.

It's so wet here you'd have thought my 'normal' look was hood up, but typically if I go out amongst them, the chickens need to see my head uncovered before they'll relax

Good luck with the predator defences Shad. It's horrible when you know there's something out there with intent on your flock.

 

[BDutch]

I don't understand why people give their chickens antibiotics in many instances.
Antibiotics are for active infections. A cold wont respond to antibiotics.

These people say chickens who sneeze don’t have cold like humans. It’s always a bacteria who causes it. The Dutch name for it is snot. Google doesn’t translate snot. Maybe its a chicken word for all sneezing diseases like Mycoplasma and Coryza.

 

[ManueB]

Throughout this thread are pictures of the coops and one thing to notice is the pop doors are always open and the coops/extensions don't have doors. The fence around the run is not really secure because of the bottom section having too larger gaps in the stock net fencing. Basically anything that can get into the run can get the chickens.
All that changed this evening. This is what I found when I arrived at the allotments.
View attachment 3443783
Something is trying to dig it's way in!
It's not a rat. Rats can walk through the fence in lots of places and have been untill recently I dug up the nests and dug up the tunnels.

If a rat can get in a weasel or stoat, or worse still a mink can get in within a couple of nights. They open up the rat holes in the ground killing the rats they can catch on their way.
I dug out a hole from post to the wood in the ground and made a minature gabion with some gravel and mesh and buried it there.

I'm left with no alternative at the moment and the pop door on the new coop has to be closed. Whatever started that hole will be back. We think it's a fox.
C was at the allotments and we didn't get off to a good start but hopefully we made some progress this after noon. C says they will open up the chickens in the morning. Usually this will be on their way to work at about 7am. But C does night shifts and on those days they can't open the chickens up until 8.30 am. I think the coop is big enough now with five in there for this not to be a disaster should C not open them up in the morning.
I'm going to have to buy and automatic pop door. I've been thinking about it for a while.
First secure night since I've been going to the allotments. The chickens might not be impressed but I'll worry less and they may live longer.
View attachment 3443782

I'm buying the other half of the coop. That will be C out of the decision making picture and from then on it's the other allotment holders and the law. Nobody wants to take responsibility for the chickens so I've spoken to a couple of the allotments holders and suggested they give me the chickens.

Ella has had the runs. It's messy back there and she's got a few lice. I spent about half an hour with Ella sat in my palm as I picked and rolled the shite off her rear end. Due to the discussions with C I didn't get to finish the job so something to look foreward to tomorrow.

They did go out and they were all over the place.
View attachment 3443784View attachment 3443785

Seems like hopefully some good things could come out of this scary digging creature.
After all the time you spent caring for chickens you will finally own some .
This would certainly be the best solution for Henry's lot however reluctant you may have been to own living creatures.

 

[BDutch]

@Shadrach
Besides the auto pop door, another improvement could be: pavement around the coop and run or slabs / bury hwc in the ground. This helps against digging rats and other creatures for sure.

My run is in a condition that I didn’t trust for nightly predators too. Not wanting to get up early every day I decided to install a chicken guard to the run.
But last year a fox managed to enter the run at dawn (biting through a thick rope that held the netting).
One chicken went out after the pop door opened and got killed. Luckily I heard a lot of noise and went to see what was going on before he made more casualties.

Foxes hunt at dawn (and sometimes even during during bright daylight ) too. So for safety reasons it’s best to wait to open the auto pop door when the sun is up and the first people in the the street get up too.

In the 8 years the chickens stay in the run with a chicken guard I only had this one casualty by a fox and lost two chickens free ranging. Of course improvements against braking in followed.
The chicken guard itself never had problems except one time when I had a leaking roof and the thread got wet / got stuck .