Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Iluveggers]

I put the spinach I rescued from the bolted plants in a slow cooker, beef brisket and prune stew and the toughness associated with bolted spinach wasn't there; rather nice stew in fact. Given the recent weather which looks to be here for a few years as the planet warms I'm going to be wanting something bolt proof and preferably a winter crop. Something the chickens think is revolting and I find absolutely lovely would be an added bonus.

Winter greens? Collards, Kale, Mache. Cabbage is a good one, too.

I’ve over-wintered all 3 in negative F temps. Kale and Collards dont bolt. Not sure on Mache.

I think your out of luck with any veggie chickens think is revolting!

 

[Shadrach]

Comment.

I was talking to the Russian women who keeps this plot and who I will be sharing a plot with from the autumn.

I got told a story.
She returned to Belarus to visit friends and relatives. One relative she hadn’t seen for many years since coming to the UK lives in a very rural area. This relative gave the women an apple which she ate and having eaten it to the core asked the relative where the rubbish bin was so she could throw the core away. The relative replied “what is a rubbish bin?”

 

[Perris]

I'm sure she would have recognized the concept of a compost pile though

 

[BDutch]

I've tried this in the past and it did work for a while, later they went back to laying in nests away from the coop. In the end I found it a lot less stress all round in the keeping circumstances to just watch where the hens went and listen for escort calls. I found most of the nests. Not too worried about finding all the eggs.

In the past:
If my chickens start to lay outside it was not just to lay an egg. It’s the start of the cooperative breeding proces. Several hens lay in the same nest. And after a couple of days on e or sometimes two hens like to stay there.

For me having a hidden nest was a bit awkward/ and beside the loss of eggs it didn’t feel good for 2 more important reasons:

• Thera are foxes, pine martens, stone martens and polecats, where I live. So its not safe to hide outside.
• Also was afraid a broody wouldn’t come of the nest after 3 weeks. Because I can’t have a rooster, no eggs would hatch.

My oldest Ini Mini.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I've tried this in the past and it did work for a while, later they went back to laying in nests away from the coop. In the end I found it a lot less stress all round in the keeping circumstances to just watch where the hens went and listen for escort calls. I found most of the nests. Not too worried about finding all the eggs.

Yep, that's the strategy I've adopted -- listening for the call. Except for Patucha (who I think is just coming back to lay), they're all laying close by -- to my kitchen -- not their coop, so I can find them. Just in ridiculous places. Now Rusty has joined Dusty in the little crevice behind the piece of drywall in the workshop. Found their two eggs there just now.

My only concern is that I want to get Dusty to put hers in a better place for when she decides to go broody. She cannot hatch a clutch and have chicks in the workshop, there are all sorts of sharp tools and accidents waiting to happen in there.

I've got a nice shaded private little apartment ready for her -- on ground level -- with a sand and soil base, leaves and grass clippings, all the trimmings. Somehow it seems unwise to me to move a hen while she's trying to lay her egg. How would you recommend I get her to put her clutch where it would actually be a safe and lovely spot to sit and hatch?

I only have her interests in being a mama at heart. She's gone broody after her last two laying periods and pretty sure she will again.

I suppose I could temporarily confine her to the broody quarters until she lays her egg each day. She lays in the late morning so she wouldn't be there long.

 

[MaryJanet]

I don't know. I have thought about this but for the number of hens I want I doubt they would consider it worth the bother.

You could still give them a call to find out? You never know. One of the smaller producers might be glad of it.

 

[MaryJanet]

Just in ridiculous places. Now Rusty has joined Dusty in the little crevice behind the piece of drywall in the workshop. Found their two eggs there just now.

I keep a soup ladle tied to a broomstick for such moments.

 

[MrsNorthie]

Very true, like the Joel Salatin/Polyface model.


Ours only seem to be born in late spring/early summer. Which is surprising for rabbits, now that you mention it. But every year, a few stash their babies in the safety of the chicken area.

This is the one I was worried about with the mower, Tiny Randy. Less than 4" long in this picture, could barely hop yet. No way to get out of the way of a mower even if it ignored its instinct to freeze.
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Here's Tiny Randy living the good life as a chicken a few weeks later, and we were able to mow.
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I meant to comment a few weeks ago about how encouraging it is to see so many in favor of no-mow. We keep this area mowed because of the venomous snakes (there's a creek at the back edge of the photo with copperheads, and the long grass hides them too well). But our biggest field stays a pocket prairie.

It was mowed for hay for decades but took only a couple years to rehab. New types of native wildflowers emerge every year, bees and moths and butterflies and other flies and reptiles and amphibians and birds and many kinds of mammals eat and play and shelter here, and I'm just really happy about it. Working on our neighbors with fields to do the same.

View attachment 3572293
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Nature is amazing. When we bought this bit of land, it was basically a farmers hayfield. We let certain section go back to nature, we have all sort of trees growing, (faster then the ones we planted..), wild black berry bushes, all sorts of wild critters, rabbits, deer cut through to drink out of the pond, as do the wild boar, occasional rat snakes, recently Vixen and a couple of cubs, Canadian Geese, now Elvis the duck and a fantastic assortment of wild birds, the barn swallows stay year round, and we have some mocking birds, that are clowns. They like to mimick hawks to make the other birds panic. We keep areas mowed too, for walking the dogs with out fear of encountering a surprise venomous snake. (we have few here.)

 

[MrsNorthie]

This caught my eye. I wonder how much of it's true.
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/art...rops-33-in-lula-first-six-months-as-president

It is hard to tell fact from scare tactic these days. They have gotten really masterful with faking news and events. :-(

 

[Molpet]

I keep a soup ladle tied to a broomstick for such moments.

I use a thing to throw tennis balls for dogs. Can put it under a hen, cover an egg and drag it out. I also have a old person grabber but the hens peck the egg