Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

Temperature is in the 70s.

Have a great day!

 

[BDutch]

I don't think she's stupid. Intelligence is a rather meaningless term of flattery coined by humans in an attempt to elevate themselves above others.
She may be poorly educated due to social deprivation, lack of adequate parenting and lack of learning opportunities.

Which predator is named Fret?

It’s a Dutch word (wasn’t thinking | a bit stupid ) . In the Netherlands ferrets are named fret.

 

[ManueB]

Lucky you! We've got drizzle. But they're out now anyway It's dry under the feeding station roof
View attachment 3603890

So Welsh indeed! My mediterranean broody didn't take the chicks out before a whole week when it was raining.
They're a lovely bunch.

I had to look this up. When she isn't broody her eating habits are normal. Perhaps she has the same kind of food preferences some pregnant women get.
Perhaps she finds sitting with a full crop uncomfortable.
Whatever the reason I wish she would get it sorted out because she's causing me stress!

You've been giving her a variety of food, did you try including things she doesn't usually enjoy or eat ? Even things that seem less nutrient dense ?

None of my chickens have ever eaten plantain before. When Léa was broody she suddenly went crazy for it. She set a trend because during a month all my chickens decided they loved it.
(I think it was both FOMO and the fact that with the very unusual rain we had in may and june the leaves were more tender.)

Fret is on day 12 I think ? Only about nine more days of stress for you..

 

[TropicalChickies]

When she isn't broody her eating habits are normal. Perhaps she has the same kind of food preferences some pregnant women get.

You might be on to something there. I'm having a similar issue with Dusty. Granted, she's very young and this is her first sit. After a few days of watching her peck at her usual food with distaste and wipe her beak twenty times, I realized she was taking out all of the peas and fermented grains and only eating the boiled rice. So I fixed her plain boiled rice with some oats and corn mixed in, but not fermented, and she ate it.

I gave her a scrambled egg for protein and she ate most of that. Seems like chickens will almost always eat eggs, even when they don't want much else

She did this the last 2 times she went broody too, without eggs under her. Her tastes are definitely different only when brooding.

I'm fine catering to her for now. She's inexperienced at sitting but very devoted to it.

She's obsessed with dust bathing. She goes straight for the dust bath twice a day. She has no mites, lice or fleas and her nest area is clean, lined with sand, soil, and grass clippings.

I notice that she barely shakes off the dirt before going back to her nest. I'm thinking this might be a smart move on her part, given the frizzle, her feathers don't sit close to her body and are probably less able to regulate humidity, so maybe she's making up for it with extra dirt...?

Anyway, she's doing great for a first timer, moving and grouping the eggs well. The laying hens have moved their laying spot over to the coop where her broody apartment is for some reason. They can't get inside her nest -- I close it off during their "laying hour." But I think they are trying to distract her and bother because they don't want her rising in the ranks. Jealous little witches.


But she's staying perfectly serene, bless her heart.

 

[TropicalChickies]

So Welsh indeed! My mediterranean broody didn't take the chicks out before a whole week when it was raining.
They're a lovely bunch.

You've been giving her a variety of food, did you try including things she doesn't usually enjoy or eat ? Even things that seem less nutrient dense ?

None of my chickens have ever eaten plantain before. When Léa was broody she suddenly went crazy for it. She set a trend because during a month all my chickens decided they loved it.
(I think it was both FOMO and the fact that with the very unusual rain we had in may and june the leaves were more tender.)

Fret is on day 12 I think ? Only about nine more days of stress for you..

Haha...HA. Wait until they hatch.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Correct. She's called Fret because she frets about things, visibly anxious, uneasy, worried.

I thought about that too. I recall the look on her face in pictures where she was trying to jump onto the roost bar next to Henry. Very fretful.

 

[TropicalChickies]

They are place names. The pronunciation is a bit variable; north and south walian are surprisingly different! I go betis, north walian is softer, towards the d.

Place names are an integral part of Celtic narratives, such as the Welsh Mabinogion and the Irish Táin Bó Cúailnge (pronounced Toyn Bo Cooley). The use of a place name by the storyteller is usually significant of all the events that happened in that place, which his or her listeners at the time would be expected to know. Many place names have quite gory and explicit stories attached to them. The place where Derdrui killed herself by smashing her head into the rock. The place where Queen Medb (pronounced Māv) carved out a river on the final battlefield with her menstrual flow in the Táin, for example.

Pre medieval versions of the Mabinogi (which are the original King Arthur tales) and other early Welsh tales maintain the iron and blood warrior culture ethic similar to the early Irish tales like the Ulster Cycle. Later versions written down by medieval monastic scribes "cleaned up" the narratives and gave them a Christian veneer probably not true to their original pagan roots. Since the tales were passed on through oral tradition for centuries before being written down, we'll never really get "the real story" of many place names mentioned in the narratives.

But I think these two versions at least give a glimpse into that world. And both have very good pronunciation guides to the Welsh and Irish names.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/455219.The_Mabinogion

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-tain-by-thomas-kinsella-a-beautiful-rigour-1.3017692

(writes the overeducated Gen Xer who took such practical university courses as "Celtic Literature and Myth" to go on to become a bicycle courier, bartender, and yoga instructor . Gee, I'm so glad I joined this forum so I can put that history degree to use!)

 

[Sally PB]

Quite a lot! And what fun the English have at anyone else's attempts to say -ough-

English, though tough, can be mastered through thorough thought.

 

[tranquiliti]

this has an easy guide to some place names
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/incoming/gallery/14-welsh-placenames-no-english-6263542

Wh nds vwls?

Tx:

 

[GregnLety]

No, it's inconsistent Compare -ough- in English (below)

Quite a lot! And what fun the English have at anyone else's attempts to say -ough-

"Ough is a four-letter sequence, a tetragraph, used in English orthography and notorious for its unpredictable pronunciation.[1] It has at least eight pronunciations in North American English and nine in British English, and no discernible patterns exist for choosing among them.[1] " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ough_(orthography)

Put an Appalachian accent on it and there's a completely different pronunciation.