Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

Clear blue skies and chilly at 6C.

Fret wasn't kidding with her nest box interest yesterday. I can't remember when I last saw an egg. Mow should be next and then Carbon.

 

[Molpet]

Clear blue skies and chilly at 6C.

But it's green..... I have snow and ice melting to mud and flooding

 

[Shadrach]

But it's green..... I have snow and ice melting to mud and flooding

I can fix up one of the sheds at the allotments for you if you like.

 

[BDutch]

Fret wasn't kidding with her nest box interest yesterday.

Congrats with the first egg of the year.
I saw Black checking out the nestboxes yesterday. So maybe????
Would ba a surprise if one of the oldies starts to lay first.

Black in front

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

One of mine has been laying most of the winter and now one of the others is snacking on eggshell & looking at the nest box plus himself has been paying her a lot of “attention”. Spring is in the air
The winter layer is a serial broody so many breaks from laying. She has decided that now would be a good time to start with the broody business - I’d love to let her sit however I don’t have the room & I’m on thin ice with one of the neighbours as far as mr bubbub is concerned
The local council made someone who‘d had chickens and a rooster for years get rid of them because one new neighbour complained

One day, Millie

 

[BDutch]

The local council made someone who‘d had chickens and a rooster for years get rid of them because one new neighbour complained

Here in the Netherlands we tend to ask if people are okay with roosters and solve problems with our neighbours ourselves.

City guards /police interfere if someone officially complains and they act upon it if someone has a loud rooster within city borders. People I know who had two cockerels and who lived near a flat, got about 2 weeks to find a solution.

 

[Perris]

One of mine has been laying most of the winter and now one of the others is snacking on eggshell & looking at the nest box plus himself has been paying her a lot of “attention”. Spring is in the air
The winter layer is a serial broody so many breaks from laying. She has decided that now would be a good time to start with the broody business - I’d love to let her sit however I don’t have the room & I’m on thin ice with one of the neighbours as far as mr bubbub is concerned
The local council made someone who‘d had chickens and a rooster for years get rid of them because one new neighbour complained
View attachment 3734784
One day, Millie

she's gorgeous!

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

she's gorgeous!

Thank you we think so - she‘s the queen of the flock too. Local breeder who raises stunning bantams

 

[Perris]

Would ba a surprise if one of the oldies starts to lay first.

That's a natural assumption, but most of the older hens here have resumed laying, while only one pullet has started. Maria is the only oldie not laying; she stopped 1st October. Venka, 6 yrs old, and Eve, also 6, resumed laying on 28th Dec, while Janeka, coming 5, and 1 of the Penedesencas, coming 3, resumed early this month. Ystrad, of the 2022 clutches, has continued laying right through autumn and winter, while her contemporary Dyffryn did till the middle of this month, but is now apparently taking a break while she completes her moult. Meanwhile the relative youngsters - two Pennies from 2021 and two SFH from 2022, plus 5 pullets from 2023, have yet to get going. Besides Ystrad, only 2 youngsters are laying: one of Venka's look-a-like daughters from 2022, who resumed on Dec 28th, and Fez, from 2023, who started laying on 7th Dec.

Edited to add, I forgot Hafod and Whitford from 2022; Hafod has only ever laid a single egg to my knowledge, last year, though her health is apparently good, and Whitford resumed 3rd Jan but some of her eggs are fragile and she clearly has a shell gland issue.

 

[L-plate chicken mum]

Here in the Netherlands we tend to ask if people are okay with roosters and solve problems with our neighbours ourselves.

City guards /police interfere if someone officially complains and they act upon it if someone has a loud rooster within city borders. People I know who had two cockerels and who lived near a flat, got about 2 weeks to find a solution.

That’s why I don’t let them hatch eggs, one little rooster is tolerated, more would not be.
Just a great shame when new people raise a complaint when the chickens had been there for years and everyone else was fine with it.
Did like this story from a few years ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/05/french-court-rules-maurice-noisy-cockerel-keep-crowing

There’s a great story from a small, rural north Bucks village with a strong farming tradition that a friend grew up in.

The local farmer had a herd of dairy cows which obviously need milking regularly. Someone moved in from an urban area and complained about the cows mooing and clip-clopping with their noisy hooves in the early hours of the morning.
The local Women’s Institute members made the herd felt booties and the farmer walked them up the newcomer’s drive, rang the bell and asked if that was an improvement.
Needless to say they left little presents up their drive but there were no more complaints.
Shocking really that the countryside can be such a noisy place