Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

My tiny Dutch just know 29C in the shade is great for sunbathing.

There is something wrong with your chickens. Most people accept that to sunbathe one needs to expose the body to the sun; not lie in the shade.

 

[Shadrach]

@TropicalChickies an update on my hormonal cockerel situation, since I started giving Blue treats, by hand first, he has totally mellowed out. The other night, he even roosted on my hand while I lowered him to the ground to lead the ladies into the coop! (They have taken to roosting on an in appropriate spot, for night time and I am trying to get them back in the habit of going back to the coop at night because winter will eventually come. LOL) the other boys do not seem to be behaving any differently towards me, since Blue has stopped being a jealous butt. How is Lucio doing?

I offer all the food I give to the chickens to Henry first. His reaction to this has changed over time. At first he sampled everything. He would take some and drop it for his hens often eating a bit first. I didn't put the food down until he had obviously lost interest.
Now, unless it's non standard feed, I show him the feed, he looks and walks away.

 

[Shadrach]

I have two recipes and both are good and freeze well.

The first one is:

ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 Eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. salt
1 cup oil
2 cups grated zucchini
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts (your favorite)

Beat eggs till foamy. Add oil, sugar, zucchini, and vanilla. Mix well with electric mixer. Sift dry ingredients, add to egg mixture. Add nuts. Divide batter in 2 loaf pans (greases and floured).

Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes at 325F.

Yields: 2 loaves

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The second one is:

ZUCCHINI NUT BREAD

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini
1 cup vegetable oil
1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
2 tsps. vanilla extract

Combine flour, salt, soda, sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamom; stir in pecans. Combine remaining ingredients; add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured loaf pans.

Bake at 350F. for 1 hour and ten minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans and let cool on wire racks.

Yields: 2 loaves

Both recipes are great as a giveaway for Christmas and I bake them in the small aluminum pans.

Hope you enjoy!!!!

Thanks.

 

[Shadrach]

Not sure if eagles eyes see colours like us though.

Apparently they do but their range is extended in the higher spectrum.
But, in studies they found that the colour white is avoided/seen as a danger signal with the birds of prey they tested.
Also, I believe it is generally accepted that birds of prey hunt by movement and not by any particular pattern of colour. This is why other creatures, some have written, freeze when they know they've been spotted by a bird of prey.
I have seen Goshawks change target when their initial target has frozen to a moving target.
This is why some believe hens are able to sit on eggs in a relatively exposed site. As long as they are still they just blend into the background whatever their colour. I've seen examples of this as well.

 

[TropicalChickies]

I offer all the food I give to the chickens to Henry first. His reaction to this has changed over time. At first he sampled everything. He would take some and drop it for his hens often eating a bit first. I didn't put the food down until he had obviously lost interest.
Now, unless it's non standard feed, I show him the feed, he looks and walks away.

I've been giving all food -- regular food and treats -- "through" Lucio since he asserted himself as senior male three months ago. Before Cleo died (on June 4), Lucio was only 6 months old and deferred to her. When Cleo passed, he seemed to realize in just a few days time that the boss job was vacant and he was the one for the role. So since June, he gets first peck and no one else eats until he's sampled, told his harem hens to come and eat, and is standing back. Once the harem hens move toward the food Lucio has indicated, I give him a scoop for himself. Meanwhile, my partner is feeding the juveniles and the mums and chicks in another location so they don't make chaos.

I'm really trying to do this rooster thing right and let him know that he's the boss. Of the hens. And that I'm not his boss. But I'm not a hen either. In his 10 month old raging hormonal state, he seems to get this last part confused.

Recently, he's displayed some interesting (and endearing) behavior with one treat, however, and that is cheese. I buy a block of soft (very low salt) fresh farmer cheese once a week. It comes with a good amount of whey liquid the chickens like as well. But this cheese is Lucio's favorite thing apparently and it's the only treat he will actually eat himself -- if there are no hens around.

If I see Lucio with one or more of his harem hens and I have a treat available, I will offer to him. By hand or directly on the ground in front of him when he approaches. The hens will hang back, waiting for him to offer it to them. "Treats" (food, really) include bits of hard boiled egg, fish, meat, chopped tomato, banana, or cheese. If hens are present, he gives them everything. Except the cheese. The cheese he will divide into smaller pieces, toss some to the hens, and eat some himself. Then, I swear, he looks up at me and "grins."

Lately however, with four of his harem hens broody or mothering and one laying, he's been by himself more often. So, to make friends and show him I'm clearly not a hen since I'm the one with the treats, I let him approach me and I offer him a treat. If it's anything else but cheese, the poor fella will gabble and nod and pick up the treat and put it down until he's desperate for someone to come get it and the treat is decimated mush.

But not the cheese. If the treat is cheese, he slyly looks around to make sure there are no hens, then he eats it himself.

(At this point I'm slowly moving away because that cheese-eating grin can look a little maniacal )

"More cheese, please!'

 

[TropicalChickies]

I've read this several times as well, and observed it. I see falcons hunting snakes several times per week. They have an uncanny ability to calculate exactly where the snake is in the undergrowth by wherever they observed the grass move and then pouncing some distance away from that spot (based on what the falcon must know about the speed certain snakes travel at I suppose).

Also, I believe it is generally accepted that birds of prey hunt by movement and not by any particular pattern of colour.

 

[TropicalChickies]

@TropicalChickies an update on my hormonal cockerel situation, since I started giving Blue treats, by hand first, he has totally mellowed out. The other night, he even roosted on my hand while I lowered him to the ground to lead the ladies into the coop! (They have taken to roosting on an in appropriate spot, for night time and I am trying to get them back in the habit of going back to the coop at night because winter will eventually come. LOL) the other boys do not seem to be behaving any differently towards me, since Blue has stopped being a jealous butt. How is Lucio doing?

He's much better. I think the combination of losing an older hen (Butchie) and the lice I treated had really made him extra edgy for a week or so. I repeated the lice treatment a few days ago to kill any hatched nymphs and gave the coop are a cleaning and sulfur dust treatment as well.

I'm extra busy foreman-ing a building project so to break the two broodies I had to completely close off their laying area (which was in a really stupid spot right behind our outdoor shower anyway). Yesterday Lucio gallantly showed Frida, the only layer right now), where she could put her eggs, in a much more appropriate spot -- the nest next to their coop I provided! Thank you, Lucio!

But with four hens of his harem not mating with him right now (2 mothering 3 week old chicks and 2 broodies I'm trying to break), in the early mornings he's quite desperate to mate. There's a lot of chasing and running about at the crack of dawn, and at this point I know if he doesn't get one of them, I'm next...

He hasn't flown at me or tried to flog or shown any real aggression since I treated his lice and he stopped looking for Butchie. But in the mornings I'll sometimes get a mating charge. Which I understand is not aggression, but it's not really the first thing Im looking forward to at 6am. So the best deterrent I've found is an empty plastic water bottle. When he charges me, I stand still and make a racket beating the empty bottle against the palm of my hand. This seemed to register to him that "hens don't make that sound."

I felt sort of absurd being so noisy, but it worked. Now he just sees the bottle and walks away.

 

[BDutch]

There is something wrong with your chickens. Most people accept that to sunbathe one needs to expose the body to the sun; not lie in the shade.

Nothing wrong except that they are obvious not British. Maybe they have some Spanish blood running through their veins because they all love the warmth and the sun. it was 29 C in the shade. The thermometer was not in the sun. Must have been at least 35 C in the sun.

But, in studies they found that the colour white is avoided/seen as a danger signal with the birds of prey they tested. Also, I believe it is generally accepted that birds of prey hunt by movement and not by any particular pattern of colour.

Do you know how foxes, polecats and other mammal predators are catching their preys? Is it likely that they kill white preys more often?

The one time I had a fox break into the run he took the pile ( white ) Dutch and not the coloured ones. Possibly this was a coincidence or the pile Dutch was so stupid to go through the auto pop door while the others stayed in the coop.

I know foxes have not such good eyes as goshawks. They also use their nose and ears. They hunt mainly during the night and early mornings and a white chicken is obviously easier to see than a dark one.

 

[BDutch]

I seem to have a lesbian couple. I have seen Kraai mounting upon Janice 4 times in the last month. Never seen my other hens do so. And didn’t see Kraai mounting on another hen.
Also weird: these two like to spend the night together in the pear tree. The other hens didn’t try to this summer. But when it comes to roosting in the coop they rarely stick together. Janice prefers to sleep alone in the small coop. And Kraai prefers to sleep in the extension with the other hens.

Have any of you noticed such behaviour with your chickens too?

In front: Ini mini
Standing: Janice
Lying: Kraai and Katrientje.

Also weird: Ini mini sleeps with the pullets every other night.

 

[RoyalChick]

I seem to have a lesbian couple. I have seen Kraai mounting upon Janice 4 times in the last month. Never seen my other hens do so. And didn’t see Kraai mounting on another hen.
Also weird: these two like to spend the night together in the pear tree. The other hens didn’t try to this summer. But when it comes to roosting in the coop they rarely stick together. Janice prefers to sleep alone in the small coop. And Kraai prefers to sleep in the extension with the other hens.

Have any of you noticed such behaviour with your chickens too?

View attachment 3629600
In front: Ini mini
Standing: Janice
Lying: Kraai and Katrientje.

Also weird: Ini mini sleeps with the pullets every other night.
View attachment 3629611

Yes.
Bernie appears to be gender fluid and she has a favorite hen - Babs.
Those two are together all the time and it looks like Bernie mates Babs.
Babs seems more than fine with this arrangement.
Bernie also escorts Babs after laying (actually she paces outside the nest box like an anxious father).