Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[RoyalChick]

Apparently is the behavior of hens towards fake or infertile eggs very different from one breed/individual/flock compared to another.

My Dutch and other bantams only kicked out ping pong balls when they are not broody . (I don’t use them anymore).
I left one fake chalk egg in the nest during the breeding proces last hatch. I had 11 eggs and thought it would be wise to give an even amount to both hens. Avoiding any jealousy. I can’t remember that the fake egg was kicked out in the end. But one broody did kick out an egg that started to smell.

Fyi: They sold these chalk as Easter eggs in spring to paint. These eggs have exactly the right bantam size.

Egg tax: Left: 3 bantam eggs. Right: 3 eggs from the shop. Tiny: 3 fairy eggs I collected over the years.
View attachment 3606067

Lovely assortment of eggs.

On the fake eggs thing I think I posted before. I went through a period when Babs would throw out the fake eggs and Bernie would carefully gather them up again.
Bernie put a lot of effort into moving the eggs back over the lip of the bowl that they use for nests.
Once Eli went broody I removed all the fake eggs (one of which seems to have disappeared completely) but I may put some back out as the new generation of pullets get ready to lay.
I will see if the Bernie/Babs back and forth starts up again.
For anyone who hasn’t already seen it here is Bernie working to reclaim the fake egg that Babs booted out. I should note that most days she succeeded in getting it back where she wanted it.

 

[fluffycrow]

Apparently is the behavior of hens towards fake or infertile eggs very different from one breed/individual/flock compared to another.

My Dutch and other bantams only kicked out ping pong balls . (I don’t use them anymore).
I left one fake chalk egg in the nest during the breeding proces last hatch. I had 11 eggs and thought it would be wise to give an even amount to both hens. Avoiding any jealousy. I can’t remember that the fake egg was kicked out in the end. But one broody did kick out an egg that started to smell.

Fyi: They sold these chalk as Easter eggs in spring to paint. These eggs have exactly the right bantam size.

Egg tax: Left: 3 bantam eggs. Right: 3 eggs from the shop. Tiny: 3 fairy eggs I collected over the years.
View attachment 3606067

I've tried all sorts of fake egg types, and every single one has gotten ditched in that coop. I swear it's the ISA brown that always inspire the others (they've always been the lead hens) but. My only broody has been Cruella, and she does ditch infertile eggs, but I can't comment more on that. Gorgeous egg photo. Tax because I'm oh so behind, especially after starting this egg talk. Cruella and her one week old brood of Tsouloufati

.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I leave the fertile eggs with the good hen and leave fake ones with the pullets until about day 18, then I distribute them.

Hmm... That's an idea. I do have an experienced hen brooding now too in addition to Dusty, who is 11 mos. I'm not super attached to getting a bunch of chicks right now, just hoping for a few pullets to balance out the crowing boy band I got going here. I'm pretty sure Tina, the older hen, will do fine and I'm really more curious to see if Dusty hatches any and what kind of mom she will be. Plus this is her third broody spell since she started laying three months ago, so I guess she really wants to be a mom. She went broody after her first clutch! So we'll see. But I'm going to tuck your method away in my brain for some other time perhaps.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Someone who lives in my neighbourhood came over to ask advice because she is completely new with chickens and likes to do things tight from the start. She came over twice already. She told me she bought 6 blonde Sussex pullets. * And can pick them up as soon as she has finished the run.
Of course I wondered if the pullets would resemble a real blonde. She showed me a picture, guess what?.

Buff colombia - very nice colouring.

Why can't I see your pictures?

 

[BDutch]

Why can't I see your pictures?

Sorry . Can’t. I don’t have any pictures of my neighbours blond pullets.

I do have pictures of my bantams though:
One blond pullet coming up ( Chef my pile Dutch 14 weeks old)
Together with a blue Dutch (need to look a bit harder for Abby)

And one red + 2 black beautiful small hens:

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours, dry, warm at 23C and mostly grey skies.
Fret's limp is a lot less noticable. No rolled out eggs and no signs of any squabbling.
Supper. They all ate a bit of mash and when I got what I brought out the mash was ingnored until roost time when Henry and Carbon did a, I suppose I better eat some if nothing better is forthcoming. I did give them a couple of raspberries while the waited on the extension roost bar.

Henry not bathing as such, just enjoying sitting in some recently dug over earth.

The nest. Nothing wrong here. It's clean and the eggs are well gathered.

Out on the allotments.

I did a swap; courgettes for beans.

 

[Sally PB]

I have one fake egg in each of my two nests. Twice I have found both eggs in one nest. Why? Dunno. I put it back.

 

[TropicalChickies]

instinct to clean up anything that would attract predators. an infertile egg starts to go bad when under a broody and smell.

usually, egg eaters just want the extra proteins or calcium and then it becomes a habit. the egg eater i had stopped when i cooked up eggs and fed them back to the flock. when i started feeding higher proteins feed it wasn't a problem. i always have oyster shells on the side, but some like the egg shells too

Good info. I fed both broodies some chopped hard boiled egg and cheese today.

 

[TropicalChickies]

Tax.
Segundo.
The Little Cock with the Big Personality.

 

[fluffycrow]

More tax because...I like paying chicken tax. May also serve as payment for the next time I forget to pay. Lady Gaga, who is starting to want to mate with his pullets