Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MrsNorthie]

I should have linked the actual article, sorry. I made the point about cortisone because that's what these scientists used as the marker in their study on how stressful different keeping circumstances are to chickens. They are talking about cortisone levels in different circumstances as if it were all the same thing. And it's not at all.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2013-10-07/chickens-eggs-stress/5002814

He has immediately got up my nose with the title of the article. "Free range hens may not be 'happier' than caged" Ours are not fully free range but they have a huge run that makes it feel more free-range,(and we will be expanding it again, so it will be a full acre just for them. ) and they are only in the coop at bed time. We occasionally have a couple of girls that don't listen to the boys and get carried away enjoying the outdoor roosts so much that they get "stuck" outside because it gets dark and they can't see until I shine the light on their coop. We check on them every night to make sure everyone is tucked up safely. I hope that Woolies sticks to their guns on this!

 

[Shadrach]

Oh, by the way. On the far left of the picture of the plots above with the blue plastic showing is C'c garden. That is how far C has to travel should they feel like feeding or checking on any of the creatures they got.

 

[Nomadicus]

I open my main coops from both ends shortly after daylight and close them after dark. Otherwise I have to deal with hardheaded roosters that want to stay out all night because there is some light from a security pole light that shines over the coops. Just bright enough the roosters lollygag every night about going in to roost. They must start wondering who is in with their girls and go in to see.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

I believe I'm the only Australian reading this thread at this time. The wider regulatory context is missing from the discussion.

I'm reading but I don't generally have anything to add to the conversation

 

[Nomadicus]

Took some more Rooster photos this afternoon but to tired and worn down to edit tonight. Something to work on during the heat of the day tomorrow.

 

[fuzzi]

Good news & tax:

This is Hannah. She is almost 5 months old.

Her face has turned red...

I think she's getting close to laying!

 

[Perris]

I should have linked the actual article, sorry. I made the point about cortisone because that's what these scientists used as the marker in their study on how stressful different keeping circumstances are to chickens. They are talking about cortisone levels in different circumstances as if it were all the same thing. And it's not at all.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2013-10-07/chickens-eggs-stress/5002814

yes I realize that (I think it's part of the fight back by real free ranging producers to counter the 'it's not safe outside a cage/barn' argument advanced by the indoor-preferring producers within the poultry industry, like the 'it's not the cow it's the how' argument put forward now by free range dairy to defend their practices against the arguments based on intensive indoor dairy carbon figures, which are completely different). But thanks for the link anyway

 

[ManueB]

I have read the cage argument before from a US state poultry vet, but it was presented more like Perris says : if you keep thousand of hens in a building it's easier to provide for their basic need in an enriched cage environment. That can include a dustbath.
I believe confinement is something that must be physically seen to fully understand the ways in which it can cause harm. If everyone had a chance to visit a prison and a closed psychiatric hospital during their educational curriculum, I believe we would collectively think differently about it.

My chicken yard, which is delimited by chicken netting, is more or less 4000 square feet. It confines six chickens ; the other six plus the six five weeks old chicks can cross it and wander further as they like, but they also spend time in it.
It's the fourth year and it is getting bare in quite a few places and all the most used paths they follow. I've also mentioned before what a difference the drought or rain makes in maintaining a cover of vegetation.

The front of the cherry tree and the laurel tree on it's left has been completely stripped bare. It's the chickens favorite place as the laurel tree's base is wide enough to make a vegetal shelter under which the chickens are totally invisible.

 

[Perris]

it's the same with my deep shrub borders - they prefer to hang out there, and the ground's bare because of their scratching, but being under the shrubs 'bare' = 'weed free', which is a win for me too!

 

[Perris]

the rain yesterday invigorated the grass and the seed heads are standing up this morning; the birds are seizing the moment. This is Zimmet harvesting some seed; her technique involves grabbing the seed or stalk, pulling it down and towards her feet, and then rapid side-to-side head movement (as if saying no in body language) as she lifts her head. I think she's stripping the stem by so doing, but I don't have slo-mo to check that.