Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MaryJanet]

"Does my bum look big in this pose?"
View attachment 2930395

Thanks for sharing some photos of the Catalan tribes. It's good to see them.

 

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good evening one and all!

The temperature was in the 60's and now it's raining.

Have a great day!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

TAX: Things 1-5, the Dom pullets, and Emma and Rainbow, the red EE pullets, center, then that's either Cherry or Berry, top right. The brown hen at right is one of my 3-yo EEs, and that blueish pullet bottom right looks like Sooty. I've broken all my rules, naming this crop.

 

[blackacres]

Hello

I made the decision too stop , this is nothing to do with shad. I found this food was attracting flies for one plus noticed my girls were not so interested in it anymore.

I will use it as an occasional food in the future but it's strange because since I've stopped using it my battery girls seemed to have improved.

I'm still a learner and look too sharach and more experienced people here for my guidance.

Thank you for the explanation!

 

[MaryJanet]

Shadrach, here's an interesting observation. As you know the hens sleep in a fox proof coop, spend their days in a big run, and as much time as possible foraging in the backyard (at present I'm working at home so they're foraging from 2pm-8pm).

Their very favourite spot to be is in the back porch, with its concrete floor, which they freely choose to spend *hours* in. Seems odd to me, although I won't argue because a passing hawk won't see them, they have water and pellets in there, and there's a cool breeze from inside the house. I'm getting used to cleaning up the poops and anyway it gives me a chance to check on their digestion.

Outside is a lovely thick shrub. Also nice and cool, with cool fresh water. They're just not interested.

 

[Perris]

An interesting read I thought.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02000/full

yes, but all the hens they used were highly bred; the 'moderately productive' lines no doubt stem from unnaturally few inbred, back bred, ancestor stock, just like the 'highly productive' lines. And there were very small samples of each (biggest group = 18, 2 were 13). I think they need to try it with some chickens that have been subjected to a lot less artificial selection, and with more. In my flock of 20 there are definitely very varied intelligence levels displayed.

 

[Perris]

I have just discovered this. https://scicultchickens.org/
Should keep some of us busy for a while...

Actually it's a bit disappointing; they have not kept the website up to date and google obviously doesn't like the way the AHRC tags its stuff

 

[Shadrach]

Imo. In comparison too the situation you came into there is a vast improvement today. It must be incredibly hard on you

No Marie2020, it's not at all hard on me. I do this because I want to.

 

[BY Bob]

I live in a climate where chickens can form feral colonies (see previous post on the Hollywood Freeway Chickens), and nighttime temps only rarely dip below 50F, 10C (and it is a BIG deal to us soft locals when it does) - we're mostly 60F in the winter and 70-80F in the summer. The most I saw my hens do is sit closer together on the roost during "cold" spells ( I have to put "cold" in quotations because I feel guilty about you folks in the negatives right now).

I hope @K0k0shka doesn't mind me reposting her pictures, but I have enjoyed reading about her chicken adventures. Now, she has massive English Orpingtons with loads of feathering and are as "cold hardy" as you can expect. But look:

The flock on a warm summer night:
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Flock as the temps cool:View attachment 2930337

Flock at 58F (14C). K0k0shka was thinking her hens were being overdramatic at those temps, but the pic doesn't lie, they were feeling the cold even at that temp and that isn't even considered cold for most of the US and Canada. Her hens were fine even as the temps dropped even lower, but certainly wouldn't have been without her well-designed coop. They don't go feral where she lives.
View attachment 2930338

Anyway, I guess I am seconding Shad that the whole "down parka" thing doesn't mean they don't feel cold, even if they survive unscathed. They are not eider or arctic ducks.

These are great photos of how this tribe reacts to what they consider to be cold weather. I spent some time looking for photos of mine on the roost last night but can't find the temperature reference to go with them. It's not as easy to search BYC as I would like.

What I can say is that the temperature here has gotten down to -10°F and there is no evidence of them roosting next to each other. They maintain their distance from each other no matter the temperature. It was about 28°F when I took this one.

 

[Shadrach]

Thanks for sharing some photos of the Catalan tribes. It's good to see them.

I'll be posting more as the thread progresses.
The contrast between the tribes in Catalonia and the Ex Batts here is constant reminder to me that there are better ways of keeping chickens than what I see here.