Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Marie2020]

If it's just on a very few cold days, you can fill a bucket of hot water, put the lid on nice and tight, and put it in the coop. The chickens can sit on it or next to it, and it warms the air a little, but of course it cools off again in a few hours. So this gives them a temporary way of warming up a little bit, and does not require electricity in the coop.

You want to be sure the lid is nice and tight (so the chickens cannot fall in, and so the water cannot spill, and so it doesn't evaporate into the air of the coop-- you don't want icicles forming on the coop or on the chickens).

Hauling a big, heavy bucket of water gets old really fast, which is fine if you only need it a few times, but probably not something you want to do multiple times a day all winter long.

I'm thinking of putting hot water bottles wrapped up and placing them in the coop at nights.

 

[Marie2020]

I'll go without eggs before I buy eggs in the store. I will NOT support that industry.

Isn't that the general attitude of the masses at large? We live in a "Me-itis" society.
Tax...

Same here . I stopped buying store eggs a long time ago

Ace has some learning to do on this whole hen courting business. I tossed a raisin near him and both he and Cayuga went for it. He beat her to it, gulped it down then had the nerve to do the "Hey baby, would you just check THIS out!" drop wing dance at her. She gave him a 'Get Real' look and walked off. This is him immediately after the rejection.
View attachment 2929908

Hahaha . Casanova failed

 

[Pippin quail]

Lots of straw or shredded paper?

Got that covered. Nice deep bedding plus a couple straw bales that they like to huddle on. Also the outside of the coop is lined with straw bales, not quite to the top though as my hubby was worried about mice climbing up the bales and being able to get in between the roof and wall where there's a little gap.

 

[Pippin quail]

If it's just on a very few cold days, you can fill a bucket of hot water, put the lid on nice and tight, and put it in the coop. The chickens can sit on it or next to it, and it warms the air a little, but of course it cools off again in a few hours. So this gives them a temporary way of warming up a little bit, and does not require electricity in the coop.

You want to be sure the lid is nice and tight (so the chickens cannot fall in, and so the water cannot spill, and so it doesn't evaporate into the air of the coop-- you don't want icicles forming on the coop or on the chickens).

Hauling a big, heavy bucket of water gets old really fast, which is fine if you only need it a few times, but probably not something you want to do multiple times a day all winter long.

I might try the hot water bucket just to help them warm up this morning before i find a better solution. Some of them seem fine. One of my cockerels was visibly shivering and I felt so bad for him. Mind you the rest of the young ones were all huddled together staying warm in their old brooder box filled with straw and leaves. He was just sitting outside of it... Not sure if he was kicked out or just didn't want to join them.

 

[RoyalChick]

Got that covered. Nice deep bedding plus a couple straw bales that they like to huddle on. Also the outside of the coop is lined with straw bales, not quite to the top though as my hubby was worried about mice climbing up the bales and being able to get in between the roof and wall where there's a little gap.

Remember mice can climb a good 2 feet up a wall and if there is hardware cloth then the sky is the limit for them!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Due to unforseen circumstances the girls & I had to move.
Their new home has no proper coop but there is lawn & an established garden they are busy wrecking.
No~one has been removing the dropped palm branches so there are big piles of them around the yard. Ha'penny tried to sit twice by burrowing right into them. Sorry no pictures. I had to physically dig her out both times. She was not impressed.
She then made a nest here.
I collected more than 20 eggs from this nest as her sisters joined her.
Judging by the shape & colour of the eggs all the senior hens were laying here: 2 Campines; 2 BRs; a FavorelleX & an Aracauna.

View attachment 2928869
Beatha, my Aracauna, laid there today.​

View attachment 2928867

My Favorelle X, Luna.​

View attachment 2928868

Apart from the BRs none of the birds who use this nest are considered particularly broody breeds.
It is highly favoured on hot days.​

Looks safe for the chickens, Ribh. Is this a good place gor YOU?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I'm working on an ethics paper for my final and it's about commercial poultry farms. Found this while looking for sources to cite, thought it might be an interesting read if people had the time. (I'll add tax on my phone, don't have pics on my computer)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1056617119322433

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I'm working on an ethics paper for my final and it's about commercial poultry farms. Found this while looking for sources to cite, thought it might be an interesting read if people had the time. (I'll add tax on my phone, don't have pics on my computer)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1056617119322433

Here's Dwight and CuddleBug (WLR and BLR cornish bantam boys) when they were itty bitties

 

[Pippin quail]

Remember mice can climb a good 2 feet up a wall and if there is hardware cloth then the sky is the limit for them!

Hopefully there's enough space there that mice won't make it up. I'd think the metal would be pretty hard to climb. I hope I'm right, because I hate mice and no longer have my cats in the one side of the chicken coop to deal with them.

 

[Pippin quail]

And here's some cold grumpy chickens for more tax.