Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Can you frame an experiment to test your hunch Shad?

Not with this lot. Fortunate to have a hen go broody let alone enough broodies to run any experiments.
Other birds know exactly whose eggs are whose. My niece, who did her PhD on avain biology has some interesting tales to tell of birds evicting eggs.

 

[Perris]

Most of the pullets I've know start by llaying their eggs all over the place. It takes them a while to have the confidence to lay where the other hens lay. This is partly because the senior hens "discourage" the pullet from laying in "their" nest. With free rangers it's also partly I believe that their natural instinct is to lay their eggs in a hidden location away from other hens and of course the human keeper.
It takes a good rooster to pursuade a pullet to use a nest box. I've posted a lot of pictures of roosters trying to do exactly this.

It's more varied here. I've had pullets and most of the mature hens laying away and laying in the nest boxes; I've seen all the current roos suggesting assorted more or less unsuitable places round the garden and one or other coops at different times; I've found hidden nests with the eggs of just one in, and nests with the eggs of several in. And this year for the first time I've seen all 6 nesting boxes simultaneously occupied, as well as there being a clearly preferred box which usually but not always has more eggs in than any other. What the senior hens always do is shout loudly at anyone occupying the box they want when they want it, and always it makes not a whit of difference The one already there, however junior, just ignores them, so they have to wait or go elsewhere.

 

[Perris]

Not with this lot. Fortunate to have a hen go broody let alone enough broodies to run any experiments.
Other birds know exactly whose eggs are whose. My niece, who did her PhD on avain biology has some interesting tales to tell of birds evicting eggs.

Interesting; did she do it in UK?

 

[Shadrach]

It's more varied here. I've had pullets and most of the mature hens laying away and laying in the nest boxes; I've seen all the current roos suggesting assorted more or less unsuitable places round the garden and one or other coops at different times; I've found hidden nests with the eggs of just one in, and nests with the eggs of several in. And this year for the first time I've seen all 6 nesting boxes simultaneously occupied, as well as there being a clearly preferred box which usually but not always has more eggs in than any other. What the senior hens always do is shout loudly at anyone occupying the box they want when they want it, and always it makes not a whit of difference The one already there, however junior, just ignores them, so they have to wait or go elsewhere.

One major factor with the tribes was the success of the nest. If hen from the tribe laid and hatched in a nest, this nest became the popular nest.
I could have done with this just shouting information to show the senior hens from the tribes who would first peck a pullet until she abandoned the idea, or in the case of Fat Bird, grab a pullet by the scruff of the neck and drag her out.

 

[Shadrach]

Interesting; did she do it in UK?

Mostly Africa and Scotland.

 

[Perris]

Mostly Africa and Scotland.

but is it a British PhD? if so it'll be available online for anyone interested to read

 

[Perris]

One major factor with the tribes was the success of the nest. If hen from the tribe laid and hatched in a nest, this nest became the popular nest.
I could have done with this just shouting information to show the senior hens from the tribes who would first peck a pullet until she abandoned the idea, or in the case of Fat Bird, grab a pullet by the scruff of the neck and drag her out.

of course your birds were divided into different territorial units with a coop in each; mine are all one flock and the coops are more or less close to one another. They are significant differences.

 

[Shadrach]

but is it a British PhD? if so it'll be available online for anyone interested to read

It is a British PhD.

 

[Sally PB]

My niece, who did her PhD on avain biology has some interesting tales to tell of birds evicting eggs.

Guest post! Guest post! I'd love to read about this.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thankfully that's not normal in my experience

Early this year someone in the flock was probing the fake eggs I put in the nesting boxes to encourage the pullets to lay there and not elsewhere. The tester inflicted serious and extensive damage on the rubber egg, and on a clay one, but none on a golf ball (not for lack of trying I'm sure; they're just much tougher), and I worried about real eggs getting destroyed by this tester. So at least one bird in this flock takes a serious interest in who's laying what in the nestboxes, and doesn't stop at a mere visual inspection.

I removed the offending and damaged fake eggs, but left others, and they weren't tested (or at least damaged by any testing that occurred). Bizarre, but there it is. Since then, egg laying has been in full swing, and a week or so ago a single egg had a hole in the side, but I'm sure that was Eve's spur not a peck by whoever.

Can you frame an experiment to test your hunch Shad?

I have two hens who treat a fake egg in the same nest box differently
Babs walks in and gets rid of it as fast as possible. Bernie retrieves it and claims it as her own.
Neither is broody and both lay in the same box.
If Bernie lays first (not usually the case), Babs is fine keeping her egg (not the same color as her own). It is only the fake egg she hates.
I think I posted here or somewhere else video of Bernie going to great lengths to retrieve the fake egg - rolling it up and over a divider.