Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[MaryJanet]

I get them to stand on a scale too, though without the mixing bowl. It's a bit haphazard, usually takes quite a lot of mealworms, time and patience to get both feet on, and in the right direction that I can still read the display, but when needs must, this works for us.

The avian vet I take the hens to showed me a trick.

Put a small, rectangular plastic container with straight sides on the scale. Put the hens feet in the plastic container. She'll usually stand still. It's something about the feet being confined as on a nest. I did this all through last summer when I was crop feeding Lorna. She only jumped out once or twice

I doubt it'd work for roosters, but it might be worth a try.

 

[BDutch]

I have always weighted my chickens and cats by holding them in my arms on the scale, and then subtracting my own weight. Is there something wrong with the way i’m doing it ? It seems everybody else put their animal on the scale.

Nothing wrong with that. But my human scale is not accurate enough (not digital) to weigh a chicken accurate. Does your scale measure per 10 or per 100 grams?

If I wanted to measure a chickens weight, I used a kitchen scale and needed to put the hen in a box to measure. But the chickens don’t like it and I stopped weighing years ago.

 

[Perris]

The avian vet I take the hens to showed me a trick.

Put a small, rectangular plastic container with straight sides on the scale. Put the hens feet in the plastic container. She'll usually stand still. It's something about the feet being confined as on a nest. I did this all through last summer when I was crop feeding Lorna. She only jumped out once or twice

I doubt it'd work for roosters, but it might be worth a try.

that's a great tip; it still requires handling the bird though. But I'm sure an opportunity to try it will occur sometime and I'll give it a go then .

 

[fluffycrow]

She's a Speckled Sussex (non-bantam but only 5 months old). Is Speckled another way to say Red Porcelain? They really are so pretty. Her broodermate Lil Nugs has the biggest and most speckles of our bunch:

View attachment 3632152

Yes, sort of. For example this is a porcelain brahma

 

[Iluveggers]

Permaculture would mention zoning as a way to organise your settings- it's just something that happens naturally.
Our chicken live literally under us, in the cellar below our kitchen and living room. It's so convenient, that it's very hard for me to imagine how it must be for people who have their coop and chickens far from their house.

Same here @ManueB . My coop is 10 feet outside my sunroom, right next to the vegetable garden. Makes it so easy in the winter, or during a rainstorm, to go out to feed, water, etc. Also allows easy observation in bad weather, as we can see the covered run right outside one of the windows. I liked having close access to the vegetables and herbs for cooking purposes (when I forget to grab an ingredient), and putting the coop alongside was the best decision we made.

 

[Iluveggers]

Yes, sort of. For example this is a porcelain brahma

Omg how beautiful. I’ve never seen a porcelain Brahma!

 

[fluffycrow]

Omg how beautiful. I’ve never seen a porcelain Brahma!

Yes, they're quite unheard of. I don't think they've reached the states yet, so that's a contributing factor

 

[TropicalChickies]

Permaculture would mention zoning as a way to organise your settings- it's just something that happens naturally.
Our chicken live literally under us, in the cellar below our kitchen and living room. It's so convenient, that it's very hard for me to imagine how it must be for people who have their coop and chickens far from their house

Yes, "permaculture" people like to think they are inventing systems out of what happens by applying a little common sense. Like, who would plant their basil and lettuce a kilometer away from the kitchen and have timber trees outside the back door?

We have two coops. The "senior" coop is about 75 meters away from our main living area in a fruit tree orchard. The newer "junior" coop is closer, about 5 meters from our living area. The senior coop doesn't have a run or door, the chickens exit at will at sunrise. The junior coop has an enclosure where I can keep new chicks on very rainy days if needed, but any chick older than two weeks can hop out.

There's no dividers or fences, so the groups spend most of the day ranging in an out of the various areas covering about 1.5 acres. But they spend at least 2 or 3 hours per day hanging around the kitchen gate. On nice days they range further out, rainy days they stay closer.

I guess our situation is somewhat unique because we don't really have a "real house" -- our whole living arrangement is spread out amongst a group of ground level structures: kitchen in one, sleeping area in another, toilet and sink in another, shower in another, and a nursery and workshop. The kitchen and sleeping area are the only structures with walls and doors, so the chickens have access to everywhere else all the time. All of our buildings are made with bamboo, cob, and clay and so are their coops, so I suppose to them everything looks like a house for them!

3 of the five structures that make up our living area. This is an old picture. The structure in the back was a laundry area but I converted it to the junior coop recently.

The junior coop now. The vine is passion fruit.

 

[Sequel]

Ex Batts good morning one and all!

I spent today driving 2 hours to pick up my fur baby and then spent 2 hours driving back home.

Temperature is in the 70s.

Have a great day!

Did you get a new dog Karen?

 

[townchicks]

I tried an apron on Piou-piou, my runt hen who was wounded from her too big rooster. I had great hopes that it would allow her to live with her flock again, but it did not fit her. It was adjustable, but if it was tight enough so as not to fall off, she couldn't move.
Now she is wounded again, I’m hesitant to order another one or ask my mother in law to sew one and see if it fits better. She is a runt so her proportions are off, her legs are too short for the length of her body.
Piou-piou in front.
View attachment 3632305

Permaculture would mention zoning as a way to organise your settings- it's just something that happens naturally.
Our chicken live literally under us, in the cellar below our kitchen and living room. It's so convenient, that it's very hard for me to imagine how it must be for people who have their coop and chickens far from their house.

I have always weighted my chickens and cats by holding them in my arms on the scale, and then subtracting my own weight. Is there something wrong with the way i’m doing it ? It seems everybody else put their animal on the scale.

I also weigh my chicken, and dogs and cat that way.