Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[BDutch]

I owe tax as well. I'm still in Quito, the capital city and looking forward to getting home to peace and quiet and chickens. The din of noise and complete lack of personal space in a crowded Latin American city can only be lived to be believed.

In the meantime, here's our dear Butchie, in younger days. I like the how the perspective in this picture makes the trees, sky and Butchie the focus and reduces our human dwelling to the background
View attachment 3512368

I know, I was in Lima and San Paolo once (long time ago). The traffic was horrible.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I know, I was in Lima and San Paolo once (long time ago). The traffic was horrible.

Weelll... as I remind myself often, the uneven and frenetic development of the Global South is a direct product of the rapacious appetite of the Global North for it's natural resources, crops and labor, not to mention the cancer of U.S. influence and the so called "aid" of the World Bank, IMF etc. In a nutshell, globalization and neoliberalism.

But for the good people here, I'll just stop at that hint of a diatribe. I have a more important question about roosters and "imprinting" for our eloquent host.

 

[ManueB]

It seems probable that in the not to distant future I will break my lifelong rule and I will pay for some Ex Battery chickens in order to preserve the chicken keeping tradition at the alloments. There are a number of reasons for this but the main one is the allotments are one of the very few urban areas where one can keep a rooster left in the area. I have just about enough money to fund a small group and expand the keeping arrangements with the addition of another coop if necessary.

That is great news, both for the chickens who will have you for their owner / keeper, and for you!
It's such a happy turn of event after this winter when we thought it would all stop.

One of the reasons I don’t want ex-bats or ex-farm chickens is because I really dislike to keep animals that are bred for maximum production with health problems as a result.
Personally, I think buying ex-farm chickens is really a drop in the ocean. We need to change the animal industry with al its flaws. Not just for a somewhat normal animal life but also to stop pollution of the planet. The barricade’s would probably be more useful to make any significant changes

I've changed my mind yet again about this, after having spent three years and four months with my ex-batts now. There was a time I agreed with you, and in fact I felt getting ex-batts was playing the factory's game. It's why I got local backyard mutts as my next step.

But my ex-batts have made me change my mind, because they have such a strong will to live. Maybe because I got them out of there at three months instead of eighteen, their spirits are so strong. It's truly amazing how many times I've seen them struggle through pain and recover and enjoy every moment of life like nothing else mattered.
There has been heartbreaks and questions and many times I think I'm letting them down by not doing the right things for them.
In the end though, I'm sure that each single day they spend foraging and digging and sunbathing and playing at chicken drama is the most wonderful gift to them. How could I think otherwise, when I see Brune whose grave I dug thinking she would die in a few hours, now frolicking around and pecking at the rooster who tries to mate her ?
I know it's delicate to compare, but saving just one person in concentration camps didn't help destroy the camps- but it changed everything for that one person.

Brune and Blanche, both firmly decided to enjoy life with one foot in the grave.

So, if the conditions are right, I may get ex-batts again, one day.

And I don't disagree that the environmental issues need to be addressed on the barricades, or in whatever way could be effective.

 

[TropicalChickies]

@Shadrach, regarding a point you made "imprinting" in your article on rooster behavior, would you please elaborate on this a bit?
--"As soon as the mother hen allows the rooster to imprint the chicks, the chicks come under that rooster's protection"

What does this look like?

Is it important that the eggs were fertilized by that particular rooster? Would he know if another rooster was the father?

I ask this because I've shared that there's two hens mothering chicks right now on our farm: Tina and her brood of 3 (3 weeks old) and Patucha and her 1 chick, Solo (12 days old). None of these chicks hatched from eggs fertilized by the cockerel Lucio, but by his brother Paco who unfortunately died by drowning in a pond. I guess the formerly silent and not-mating Lucio was just waiting for his chance, however, because within 48 hours of Paco's passing, he was crowing and mating.

It all coincided with the week the two mothers started brooding eggs, So Lucio might think these chicks are "his" anyway -- if that even matters.

(Sorry if these questions about the rooster being the father seem silly... I guess it's a way to observe what you mentioned here:
--"An interesting observation would be should the father of the chick not be the senior rooster, but be in the same tribe."


I've seen Lucio interacting with Tina's crew. He brusquely rips out pieces of grass and tosses it at them. His manner is different from the awkwardly charming way he wooed his mate Rusty with treats. He's more like, "Eat this, you rugrats." Is this how he imprints them?

I'm keeping Patucha and Solo in a large (3m x 1.5m) screened enclosure that I can move around the giving her fresh scratching ground every day. Solo is still a bit tiny for the jungle, but I'll be letting them range free out in a week or so, hoping she and Tina will at least ignore each other. If they fight or attack each other's chicks, I can always use the enclosure to rotate moms and chicks in and out so they all get ample free range time. I've seen Lucio close to Patucha and Solos enclosure as well. I didn't see him offer grass, but that doesn't mean he hasn't.

Do you have any recommendations for letting this play out with as little interference as possible, but to avoid a potentially injured chick? Is there anything I should be cautious of in this dynamic with the rival mother hens? I admit I'm feeling a bit more leery of the little chicks getting hurt, than I was of a fast moving pullet who can fly into a tree.

Much appreciation for your insights.

 

[TropicalChickies]

That is great news, both for the chickens who will have you for their owner / keeper, and for you!
It's such a happy turn of event after this winter when we thought it would all stop.

I've changed my mind yet again about this, after having spent three years and four months with my ex-batts now. There was a time I agreed with you, and in fact I felt getting ex-batts was playing the factory's game. It's why I got local backyard mutts as my next step.

But my ex-batts have made me change my mind, because they have such a strong will to live. Maybe because I got them out of there at three months instead of eighteen, their spirits are so strong. It's truly amazing how many times I've seen them struggle through pain and recover and enjoy every moment of life like nothing else mattered.
There has been heartbreaks and questions and many times I think I'm letting them down by not doing the right things for them.
In the end though, I'm sure that each single day they spend foraging and digging and sunbathing and playing at chicken drama is the most wonderful gift to them. How could I think otherwise, when I see Brune whose grave I dug thinking she would die in a few hours, now frolicking around and pecking at the rooster who tries to mate her ?
I know it's delicate to compare, but saving just one person in concentration camps didn't help destroy the camps- but it changed everything for that one person.

Brune and Blanche, both firmly decided to enjoy life with one foot in the grave.
View attachment 3512374
So, if the conditions are right, I may get ex-batts again, one day.

And I don't disagree that the environmental issues need to be addressed on the barricades, or in whatever way could be effective.

So heartfelt.

 

[Ribh]

I started with rescues so I know I don't have the stomach for it. I am more & more inclined towards bantams. The big hens are getting too hard for me to handle as I age & while I would always want Campines they are on the smaller side for a standard.

Of the 9 hens I have remaining, 6 are bantams & even they will forage the entire 1/2 acre we are presently on. They seem to be far healthier overall & any meddling with their genetics has been for looks rather than egg production.

For me it's simple. As a vegetarian I do need good quality eggs for protein but that aside any animal I've interacted with bonds in some way. That bonding means I do my best to give the animals in my care the best life possible. While they forage all day they are still reliant on me for dinner, to look after them if they get sick, to provide water & shelter because they are not wild birds. They follow me round the yard ~ in case I unearth witchety grubs They call for me in the morning & come when I call them to bed in the evenings. Our shared interaction is a mutual agreement. I meddle in their societal arrangements as little as possible & debate over who gets to eat the silverbeet I planted. The reality is neither animal nor humans life is ever going to be perfect but we can agree to share resources & muddle along together.

On the other hand the possums have to go! I suspect them of eating all the grapes...

 

[Shadrach]

BYC is running like a bag of nails for me so I'll catch up in the morning.

 

[Iluveggers]

This was a great discussion on chicken keeping ethics. Thank you to all who contributed!

Here is some tax. Figured after hub mowed the lawn, I could let the ladies do some weed-whacking and maybe save him some time!

 

[bruceha2000]

For me, About half the people who say they are coming to buy turkey hens or hatching eggs never show....

Who raised these people?? Could you require a 50% deposit before setting a pickup date or something?

A lovely dry and sunny afternoon then one of the plot holders turned up with some children who ran around waving sticks and screaming.

They have to run and play somewhere I suppose. Where is the nearest park? I don't guess most allotment gardens have chickens that the children would frighten. It would be nice if the parents were considerate of others in the area when present.

 

[Perris]

my attempt to break Whitford's broodiness has backfired, sadly. Having driven her out of the various nesting boxes she occupied, but not crated her, she's now nesting somewhere secret. I assumed some of the flock were laying away already, and now I'm guessing she's found it/one of the secret nests and is sitting on however many or few, fresh or old, eggs are in it... I will have to wait till she reappears, don my deerstalker and hopefully track her back to wherever she spent last night