Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Quite right: the males have marvellously large thighs - would make for fab sprint cyclists if they rode bikes!

https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs/bug-directory/thick-legged-flower-beetle/

great website at that link! thanks!

 

[Shadrach]

Yes. The coop is large enough. But the extension (run) is rather small if you aren’t around to let the chickens free range.

I honestly guess 5 chickens is the max with the build you have now. Therefore turn to nothing isn’t a bad thing.
.
But if you want more hens I would start with a larger and safe run. Or double what you have know, so you can have 2 roosters. If you want your future flock to be a happy bunch and know how many chickens (roosters and hens) you want in the future you definitely can start planning. Keeping chickens in captivity doesn’t allow too much chicken math.

I know it's confusing but I don't think you've understood the various runs.
There is the coop, the black construction where it says chickens.
Then there is the coop extension, the white construction. The extension doesn't have a door so when the coop is open there is no barrier to prevent the chickens leaving the coop and extension. There will be a door but it will have an auto opener which will open around the same time as the coop pop door.

Surrounding the coop and the extension is the coop run. It's roughly 6m x 6m. (387 square feet)
Next is the allotment run. This extends from the coop run all the way accross the allotments to where the geese are housed.
Finally there is the allotments/all the plots and the orchard.

The chickens have now and will have when the coop extension door is fitted access to the coop run (6m x 6m) as soon as the coop door is open.
Are you saying 6m x 6m isn't large enough for 10 chickens?

 

[BDutch]

View attachment 3617120

I know it's confusing but I don't think you've understood the various runs.
There is the coop, the black construction where it says chickens.
Then there is the coop extension, the white construction. The extension doesn't have a door so when the coop is open there is no barrier to prevent the chickens leaving the coop and extension. There will be a door but it will have an auto opener which will open around the same time as the coop pop door.

Surrounding the coop and the extension is the coop run. It's roughly 6m x 6m. (387 square feet)
Next is the allotment run. This extends from the coop run all the way accross the allotments to where the geese are housed.
Finally there is the allotments/all the plots and the orchard.

The chickens have now and will have when the coop extension door is fitted access to the coop run (6m x 6m) as soon as the coop door is open.
Are you saying 6m x 6m isn't large enough for 10 chickens?

You are right. I didn’t know the coop was in a 6x6 meter run and they have access to it whole day.

6x6 meters is a real good space up to 9 normal sized chickens according to the organic standard. And if you let them free range in the allotment run a couple of hours on most days, you can have even more chickens.

I do wonder now why don’t you replace the chicken guard to the extension? If the extension is safe, it seems to me there is no need to make a door between the coop and the extension. But I probably missed something in this too.

 

[fluffycrow]

Tax: Cruella and her chicks

 

[ManueB]

View attachment 3617120

I know it's confusing but I don't think you've understood the various runs.
There is the coop, the black construction where it says chickens.
Then there is the coop extension, the white construction. The extension doesn't have a door so when the coop is open there is no barrier to prevent the chickens leaving the coop and extension. There will be a door but it will have an auto opener which will open around the same time as the coop pop door.

Surrounding the coop and the extension is the coop run. It's roughly 6m x 6m. (387 square feet)
Next is the allotment run. This extends from the coop run all the way accross the allotments to where the geese are housed.
Finally there is the allotments/all the plots and the orchard.

The chickens have now and will have when the coop extension door is fitted access to the coop run (6m x 6m) as soon as the coop door is open.
Are you saying 6m x 6m isn't large enough for 10 chickens?

I’m pretty sure you’ve thought of it in regard to your, and the allotment's chicken's previous experiences, and maybe it's too far ahead, and maybe i’m particularly not the right person to make that kind of comment , but will your chicken plans include what happens if you need to be absent for a day or two, or longer ? It's not the same to ask someone to come look over for one group of five to eight chickens in one coop, and two groups in two different coops to clean with possibly two males who don't get along and can't be let out at the same time.

You must be totally entranced by seeing Fret raising her chicks. Did you or will you get your daughter to come have a look at them ?

I have a chicken math question for the hatching experts. I have enough chickens so let's say it's purely informative. There is a bantam in my flock that I would love to have chicks from. She is at least six years old and she only lays in summer, clutches of maybe five eggs set two days apart from one another. First question is that her eggs, on top of being very tiny, are now very elongated, though the shell quality is still good. Would that make it more difficult for the chicks to hatch ? And the second question is more asking for your different opinions : what is the minimum reasonable number of eggs to leave under a hen if you don't want to have only one chick, and is life actually more difficult for a lone chick or does it completely depend on other factors ?

Chipie

Chipie's egg

Compared to one of my standard's smaller egg.

 

[ManueB]

@fluffycrow have you tried free ranging your two flocks together?

 

[TropicalChickies]

I sorry for your loss



I kept a broiler pullet back for breeding. They were always fed regular chick feed. 20 minutes 2x a day they she wanted and free ranged. They were always hungry, but healthier. I swore I was starving them. Her sisters I harvested about 10 or 12 weeks and they dressed over 8 lbs.
She gained weight in the snowy winter and died about a year old.


Most of my chicks that sat on mom's back were cockerels

Thank you.

And that's really interesting regarding the broiler pullet. Perhaps, through selection, they are like the Pacific Islanders or Scandahoovians of chickens. They're just going to be bigger. But if we look at your example, the difference between 8lbs and 12lbs on a 12 week old chicken is still a lot -- 33% -- that could be added by a broiler feed regimen. That's the difference between health and obesity.

 

[fluffycrow]

I’m pretty sure you’ve thought of it in regard to your, and the allotment's chicken's previous experiences, and maybe it's too far ahead, and maybe i’m particularly not the right person to make that kind of comment , but will your chicken plans include what happens if you need to be absent for a day or two, or longer ? It's not the same to ask someone to come look over for one group of five to eight chickens in one coop, and two groups in two different coops to clean with possibly two males who don't get along and can't be let out at the same time.

You must be totally entranced by seeing Fret raising her chicks. Did you or will you get your daughter to come have a look at them ?

I have a chicken math question for the hatching experts. I have enough chickens so let's say it's purely informative. There is a bantam in my flock that I would love to have chicks from. She is at least six years old and she only lays in summer, clutches of maybe five eggs set two days apart from one another. First question is that her eggs, on top of being very tiny, are now very elongated, though the shell quality is still good. Would that make it more difficult for the chicks to hatch ? And the second question is more asking for your different opinions : what is the minimum reasonable number of eggs to leave under a hen if you don't want to have only one chick, and is life actually more difficult for a lone chick or does it completely depend on other factors ?

Chipie
View attachment 3617190
Chipie's egg
View attachment 3617191
Compared to one of my standard's smaller egg.
View attachment 3617192

Well I'm no hatching expert by any means, but depending on her size, I'd say 5 or 6 is a solid number. Don't know if a single chick has a harder time or not, but I've heard of a few select hens that don't think one chick is enough and ditch it. Nothing I've experienced myself, and to be quite frank, don't know enough about those situations to say anything definitive

 

[fluffycrow]

No. I'm scared to mess up the nice system Kolovos and his hens have set up. On the other hand, I do feel bad about Big Red and his two hens. Side note. The brahma hens have been far worse at being able to dig, or do anything other than picking at grass and weed pieces, than any of my ISA brown hens

@fluffycrow have you tried free ranging your two flocks together?

 

[RoyalChick]

Quite right: the males have marvellously large thighs - would make for fab sprint cyclists if they rode bikes!

https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs/bug-directory/thick-legged-flower-beetle/

I imagine those thighs are quite a delicacy for the chickens.