Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[TropicalBabies]

Good to know. And here I was trying to take pretty portraits.

Here's a few honest shots, mainly showing one of the downsides of totally free ranging chickens: They don't wander off, they are literally in my sight, earshot, and and living space most of the day!

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Lucio making a ruckus because Tina went back to laying. (Her three amigos are on their own)

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I went over to see what the hoo-haw was about and found this. Not in or around or anywhere near the coop. This is where we store scrap wood and bamboo..

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The three amigos chilling right outside the kitchen, waiting for their breakfast mash. I don't feed them even close to the kitchen, but 50 meters away over by their coop. I guess "the food lady" is too slow...

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Breakfast. Everyone likes the homemade mashes -- both cooked or fermented. I'm dishing out about 1000g per day now for 7 adults and 4 chicks and they devour it all in minutes.

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Tina is so done with "come and get it." The chicks were confused for a couple days. Now they are foraging like pros.

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Patucha is still mothering Solo, but the days are numbered. He? She? (Hard to tell still) will be at bottom of the order when Patucha's mommy button switches off. Hope little Solo is a scrapper.

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Frida is pretty smart. As the youngest pullet, the other adults chase her away from the food. She scurries off and waits behind a tree during meal times. I sneak away from the gobbling barbarian horde to give her a good helping of mash.

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Lucio is pretty good with the little ones. Not exactly fatherly, but doesn't drive them off and sometimes even lets them share his food -- until they get too greedy.

Very charming! Better than BH&G ♡

 

[RoyalChick]

Turns out I have to revise my assessment of my keeping arrangements. It seems at least some of my chickens really do free range.
A chap doing some work on the roof put his head round my kitchen door just now and asked what he should do about the chickens sitting on his truck.
It seems there has been a bit of fence flying going on.

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

Turns out I have to revise my assessment of my keeping arrangements. It seems at least some of my chickens really do free range.
A chap doing some work on the roof put his head round my kitchen door just now and asked what he should do about the chickens sitting on his truck.
It seems there has been a bit of fence flying going on.

Yeah, mine range but they've showed me multiple times the fences don't really do much Sitting on the fences and gate is one of their favorite things to do. They rarely actually come out but they just like to prove their point.

 

[fuzzi]

Yeah, mine range but they've showed me multiple times the fences don't really do much Sitting on the fences and gate is one of their favorite things to do. They rarely actually come out but they just like to prove their point.
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The first picture looks like a chicken version of Jaba the Hutt!

 

[Somewhere_In_The_Clouds]

The first picture looks like a chicken version of Jaba the Hutt!

I love that picture, she was extremely comfortable up there

 

[TropicalChickies]

I've been cleaning a few butts today and it seems I waited a bit too long to do it on my rooster Gaston, because although he wasn't really that dirty, his skin around the vent is really red and irritated. I have aloe vera gel at home that I use for sunburn. Do you think it could help ? Any other recommendations for a sufficiently generic type of cream that I could get it here ?
I had to take the chickens inside to clean them as it's raining today. Gaston was so relaxed I think he fell asleep on my lap while I was cleaning his butt . Let's just say it didn't go so well with one of the hen.
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Aloe vera will probably help. My hen Butchie with internal problems has a perpetually messy butt, I clean her every day. Instead of using plain water, I use water infused with chamomile and a mild soap solution and that really helps any irritation. Calendula and borage flowers steeped in water are also very soothing. Nice for humans too! You can probably grow all of these where you are. Calendula cream would help, but avoid anything with added perfumes or artificial "fragrance" -- they can be very irritating.

Lightly misting the vent area with "iodine tea" (one part iodine to five parts water) will help kill bacterias or yeasts on the skin that can also cause irritation.

 

[Perris]

It's a mega birthday here: Fforest, Frida, Killay, Quenell, Uppsala, Ystrad and Zimmet are all 1 year old today

and at the risk of tempting fate, I have to add that the entire clutch have eaten nothing but so-called 'treats' 100% of that time

 

[RoyalChick]

It's a mega birthday here: Fforest, Frida, Killay, Quenell, Uppsala, Ystrad and Zimmet are all 1 year old today

and at the risk of tempting fate, I have to add that the entire clutch have eaten nothing but so-called 'treats' 100% of that time
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Congratulations all - and what a splendid picture.

 

[ManueB]

Aloe vera will probably help. My hen Butchie with internal problems has a perpetually messy butt, I clean her every day. Instead of using plain water, I use water infused with chamomile and a mild soap solution and that really helps any irritation. Calendula and borage flowers steeped in water are also very soothing. Nice for humans too! You can probably grow all of these where you are. Calendula cream would help, but avoid anything with added perfumes or artificial "fragrance" -- they can be very irritating.

Lightly misting the vent area with "iodine tea" (one part iodine to five parts water) will help kill bacterias or yeasts on the skin that can also cause irritation.

Thank you so much for the suggestions! My very mitigated success at growing borage was actually one of my constant rant in this thread last year . But yes I finally have a few timid borage plants and I do have calendula, it reseeds itself every year. And actually I also have locally distilated wild lavender water that's great to soothe, just didn't think of it. People also grow chamomile all around here but I haven't gotten down to it yet.

I prefer to keep iodine for the severe cases... although I was told by a vet and a few people whose competency I totally trust to use betadine on chicken wounds, I have also read that repeated use can lead to overdosing reactions on birds.
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As for showing keeping conditions, @knoturavggrl was asked to do a video tour of her then new coop on By bob's thread and I thought it was a great idea. On the same thread I tried to do a video to show our chicken places around a bit before my partner built the second coop, here : https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-stories-of-our-flock.1286630/post-26838029. But it doesn't show things as well as I'd like- filming takes a bit of practice I guess !

I would love if people did those. I often don't fully understand description of places and coops especially technical vocabulary and I feel like I could get so many more ideas.
Here are more pictures of our coop, which is an underground basement (that used to be a cow stable before 1950) in our 110 year old house, for recent followers. We recently changed the roosts to simplify and lower the height, and replace an old ladder that the senior hens had trouble climbing by a ramp with a softer incline. On the side walls there are holes that the hens use as nests (and Chipie the broody is trying to go back to hers, which I have blocked). Our coop is great for staying warm in winter and cool in summer and is spacious ; it's a disaster in very rainy conditions (the walls get damp if we have more than two weeks of rain) and for parasites. I believe the chickens like it as they will go in there to nap during the day when it's very warm or in cold winter mornings.

This is the run in which we lock up some of the chickens when we leave once every six weeks for the whole day and once or twice a month for two to three hours. My partner has built a small second coop there two months ago. It's 14m2 (7x2) or 150 sq feet (22x6.5) which a bit smaller than the coop. It's partially covered with polycarbonate and we've put a tarp for shade as it gets hot in the afternoon. Now we have two roosters we also use our woodshed when we need to lock some of the chickens in, which is slightly bigger than the run, and more shady, but with no view to the outside.

It's a mega birthday here: Fforest, Frida, Killay, Quenell, Uppsala, Ystrad and Zimmet are all 1 year old today

and at the risk of tempting fate, I have to add that the entire clutch have eaten nothing but so-called 'treats' 100% of that time
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Happy mega birthday! So, are you going to get them some commercial layer feed on this special day then ?

 

[MROO]

I have strange tax. This lovely Muscovy (?) Just showed up on our property in the last couple of days. When I talk to him and feed him, he wags his little ducky tail. With our pond, we have become a breeding ground for Canadian Geese, but this guy seems to be a solo act. The Chickens do not seem to mind him. We are on Fox watch, as we seem to have a mom and a couple of cubs that have taken up residence in one of our wild patches. Still pretty far away from the chickens but too close for me to sleep easy. We are taking it in turns to go out and shine the flashlight around and patrol the coop and run. I will try to get proper tax tomorrow. ;-)View attachment 3553655

Is that an import tariff? Purdy bird!