Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Molpet]

Drove an hour away just to look at some chickens. View attachment 3690569View attachment 3690570View attachment 3690571View attachment 3690572View attachment 3690573View attachment 3690574View attachment 3690575View attachment 3690576View attachment 3690577View attachment 3690578

Guinea too

Big size difference in last pic lol

 

[Shadrach]

Double digging is so hard on the body, I agree. I would never do it again. I eventually found a happy medium between digging some and piling up. And it really helps to have a good tool that allows a person to work in a position that doesn't hurt the body too much.

There's a great book called "The Resilient Gardener" and the author has a good section on finding and using the right tools for different bodies.

https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-resilient-gardener/

I hope I won't have to do it again but I'm still finding ruble like this when I dig.

 

[Shadrach]

we're in danger of talking at cross purposes; the original point was the longer a young bird stays with its parent, the bigger the brain. Clumsy expression undoubtedly, on my part. The plasticity of the brain is also an important factor here.

It's an interesting observation. Not quite sure what it means regarding intelligence without reading the appropriate part in the book.

I have read that physical changes in a chickens brain have led to particular behviours; reduced curiosity was something they measured.

 

[Shadrach]

Ursula is now completely co-mothering Cruella's chicks, and has abandoned her eggs

Yup, it used to drive me potty. I had a three way sit over two live nests. As soon as the earliest chicks hatched and their hatcher (may or may not be mum)
started to get them redeay to leave the coop, the other two hens instead of concentrating on their eggs were standing around shouting follow me chics as they headed off down the ramp. I tried putting one of them back. She went for me; full broody battle order while when she was on the nest and in her trance I could lift her off the nest with no fuss at all.

 

[fluffycrow]

I'm not too mad about it, the eggs weren't going to hatch most likely. You see, Ursula is sort of...dumb, to be quite frank. She got up almost constantly, she didn't take good care of them at all. I'm slightly scared that Ursula will kick Cruella out of the equation and raise Cruella's babies herself, which is the last thing I want because Cruellais an amazing mother. And yes, I know for a fact these are all Cruella's babies, because she'd built her nest high off the ground, and Ursula can't fly that high, she's tried. Did the three way brooding work out? Mommas are so much more ferocious than broody girls, and unfortunately for our skin, it's not something that's widely accepted

 

[Shadrach]

@Shadrach, you'll be pleased to know that after dirt near the coops was wet down, rooster Andre immediately plunked down for long dirtbath. Forget the fluffy, dry dust the ladies love. He was so pleased to find freshly dampened soil.

Excellent. It's one of those things that I know to be true from observing every rooster I've known and reliable reports from many others. That roosters do have this preference is interesting on it's own, but more interesting would be to know why.
Dustbathing seems to be one of those subjects that is not well understood in general.

 

[fluffycrow]

Excellent. It's one of those things that I know to be true from observing every rooster I've known and reliable reports from many others. That roosters do have this preference is interesting on it's own, but more interesting would be to know why.
Dustbathing seems to be one of those subjects that is not well understood in general.

Have you noticed a "cutoff" age? As in, did the cockerels stop dustbathing in dry dirt at a specific age, if they ever do?

 

[Shadrach]

Did the three way brooding work out?

Sort of. The liability of the trio was a hen called Barking Bracket. You may know, but for others who may not the term barking mad is the expression I had in mind when I named her.
Barking Bracket was a complete air head. She used to forget where she put the chicks. Sometimes it seemed like she had no chicks at all. We had an attempted hawk strike one day while Barking Bracket was out with another brood. She obviously told the chicks to hide okay, but then forgot where she had told them to hide and chicks told by mum to hide don't make a sound until mum calls them usually. Barking Bracket did try and look for them and then went off to roost. I did find the chicks and went and got Barking Bracket off her roost bar and dumped her in front of her chicks. Off they all went with Bracket clucking away.

 

[Shadrach]

Three hours today. Cold and dry. It's forcast to freeze tonight.
Carbons droppings too wet again overnight. Balance seemed okay though.
I took 450 grams of dry wieght feremented feed to day. Including the overnight pellets that's 550 grams of dry weight feed. I had about 50 grams of fermented feed left when they went to roost. They foraged for an hour or so while out and about.

 

[fluffycrow]

Sort of. The liability of the trio was a hen called Barking Bracket. You may know, but for others who may not the term barking mad is the expression I had in mind when I named her.
Barking Bracket was a complete air head. She used to forget where she put the chicks. Sometimes it seemed like she had no chicks at all. We had an attempted hawk strike one day while Barking Bracket was out with another brood. She obviously told the chicks to hide okay, but then forgot where she had told them to hide and chicks told by mum to hide don't make a sound until mum calls them usually. Barking Bracket did try and look for them and then went off to roost. I did find the chicks and went and got Barking Bracket off her roost bar and dumped her in front of her chicks. Off they all went with Bracket clucking away.

Pff poor things! Hope they all made it, at least while under her protection and guidance. It definitely sounds like Ursula behavior. She's a bit of an airhead as well. Thankfully Cruella is not backing down, and they're in a pen, so whatever dumb thing she does, hopefully won't be too detrimental