Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TropicalChickies]

Tax. Given the discussion today, here is my best "jungle fowl" photo of two of my hens prowling in the understory. (The gray/black hen was named Lita, after Lita Ford. She passed away last year from chronic prolapse. RIP Lita). The naked neck is Cleo, top hen.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Chippy is broody at the moment, diligently sitting on pine shavings and nothing else.View attachment 3489323

Ah, the frizzle!

 

[no fly zone]

Ah, the frizzle!

She has her mama's feathers

 

[Shadrach]

What would be the right nest conditions?

Not the most helpfull reply but close to the truth, anything a chicken makes rather than a human. That bantam hen Cheepy in the picture I posted earlier with ten chicks features in this article.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...e-make-a-sitting-hens-job-so-difficult.74389/

The article also shows what is not a good hatching nest; fine for just laying an egg in though.
The hen needs to be able to form a hollow in which she lays the eggs. The hollow has a number of functions.
a) the eggs can't roll out of it.
b) a deep hollow helps maintain the temperature and humidity in the nest because the hollow sides shelter the eggs and the hen sitting on top can create a dome in effect over the eggs by her sitting position and the pancake shape they create on the nest.
c) the eggs should touch each other
d) the hollow means when the hen turns the eggs the eggs don't roll away from the other eggs and/or out to the edges of the nest.
e) the best hollows I've seen are dug into moist earth, surround by grass/vegitation.

The deepest hollow I've measured has been 70cm.
Hens do manage to hatch in all kinds of nests but in order to have the best chance of a maximum hatch rate the hen needs to be able to control the position of the eggs. This is almost impossible on a hard flat surface.

Edit,
This article goes into some depth about hatching.
https://www.scielo.br/j/rbca/a/ZFYLhJkZ8VSVpXZSJmCcKvr/?lang=en

 

[MaryJanet]

Love to read about a bit of tribalism showing. I realise it's most inconvenient for those who have to deal with it.

I'm still hoping for a full integration one day. They haven't had much time yet.

 

[Shadrach]

It was veritably crowded at the allotments this afternoon. The sun shone. The temerature was around 17C and the wind light. I counted eight people at the height of the spring planting frenzy. Yup, I know I'm taking the piss a little but having been at the allotments day in day out in weather conditions most people only dash to their cars in and then dash back into the comfort of their centrally heated homes, I feel I have a right to be somewhat caustic when the "we're so country" brigade show up.

Much to the surprise of some, I let the chickens onto the allotment. They were very well behaved and mostly stuck close to me and on my plot and the compost heap. There was a moment when one of the people came to get some compost while Henry was standing guard by the hens who were busy turning the edges of the heap over, where the person stopped a few metres away with their wheelbarrow looking very uncertain about how to go about circumnavigating Henry. I was kind. I went and ushered Henry out of the way.
Lots of curious glances at the nutter and the chickens digging side by side on my plot. I got asked if they ever pecked me as I pulled the weeds from the ground right in front of the their beaks.

Caught her! Fret helping herself to the raspberry buds.

Fret when I shouted at her to desist.

A good day was had by all, except for the bugs I suppose.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Wow well had about 15 pages to catch up.
Good afternoon all X Batts.
Lot's has happened there here in the thread.
This is my tax without added comments.

 

[Perris]

Not the most helpfull reply but close to the truth, anything a chicken makes rather than a human. That bantam hen Cheepy in the picture I posted earlier with ten chicks features in this article.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...e-make-a-sitting-hens-job-so-difficult.74389/

The article also shows what is not a good hatching nest; fine for just laying an egg in though.
The hen needs to be able to form a hollow in which she lays the eggs. The hollow has a number of functions.
a) the eggs can't roll out of it.
b) a deep hollow helps maintain the temperature and humidity in the nest because the hollow sides shelter the eggs and the hen sitting on top can create a dome in effect over the eggs by her sitting position and the pancake shape they create on the nest.
c) the eggs should touch each other
d) the hollow means when the hen turns the eggs the eggs don't roll away from the other eggs and/or out to the edges of the nest.
e) the best hollows I've seen are dug into moist earth, surround by grass/vegitation.

The deepest hollow I've measured has been 70cm.
Hens do manage to hatch in all kinds of nests but in order to have the best chance of a maximum hatch rate the hen needs to be able to control the position of the eggs. This is almost impossible on a hard flat surface.

Edit,
This article goes into some depth about hatching.
https://www.scielo.br/j/rbca/a/ZFYLhJkZ8VSVpXZSJmCcKvr/?lang=en

thanks for the link; interesting paper. Despite being focussed on artificial incubation, there are some great tidbits on natural incubation. The most astonishing (to me) was that "Landauer (1967) demonstrated that chicken hens turned eggs approximately 96 times daily during natural incubation" . I'd assumed broodies sat there in a trance most of the time, and only turned their eggs a few times a day

 

[Perris]

Wow well had about 15 pages to catch up.
Good afternoon all X Batts.
Lot's has happened there here in the thread.
This is my tax without added comments.
View attachment 3489569

what are you feeding there Penny? Looks like something in lard or something in ice, set in a patty tin...?
Also good to see it's finally sunny there and not raining and muddy

 

[Shadrach]

thanks for the link; interesting paper. Despite being focussed on artificial incubation, there are some great tidbits on natural incubation. The most astonishing (to me) was that "Landauer (1967) demonstrated that chicken hens turned eggs approximately 96 times daily during natural incubation" . I'd assumed broodies sat there in a trance most of the time, and only turned their eggs a few times a day

I timed some of the broodies sitting in the house next box and every 20 minutes was a reasonable average. What I don't know is how many of the eggs the hen turned each time.