Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Shadrach]

I wonder if you took him home with you in the evening for a bit, if he would settled down and be a little better behaved.

It's a possibility but it's a long way down the list. I live in a second floor flat.

 

[Molpet]

It's a possibility but it's a long way down the list. I live in a second floor flat.

That would be an interesting bus/train ride

 

[BDutch]

I live in a second floor flat.

Did you try to get a better offer after the one fiasco last year?

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours today. We got around an hour out on the allotments inbetween the showers.
We seem to have got the feed to a point where the droppings are acceptable and everybody eats what I take. I intend to weigh them all over the next few days and go back to fermenting and then drying their feed.

 

[Shadrach]

That would be an interesting bus/train ride

I've seen someone with a parrot on their shoulder on the bus.

 

[Shadrach]

Did you try to get a better offer after the one fiasco last year?

I've looked but not seen anything yet. My flat is hard to better in my financial circumstances. Explaining why so it makes sense requires an understanding of the British housing situation, pensions and the alternatives.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

It's that never knowing for sure bit.
You may remember about fifteen months ago C suddenly decided to rehome most of the chickens. There wasn't anything I could do about it. C made a terrible job of it. She rehomed the lead hen Matilda (Henry's daughter) with three Ex Battery hens in one lot and the rest went in two lots to people I assume she knew.
Last autumn I got to know a person who lives next door to the second lot to be rehomed. I was at the allotments when they were collected. I tried my best to ascertain a bit about the conditions they were going to be living in and got very minimal and rather brusque responses to my questions. Talking to the neighbour I learnt that these poor creatures got kept in a tiny overcrowded coop with what I gather was a run of about 3m by 1.5m. They never get let out. They never get any affection or medical care, the neighbour recounted seeing one dead or seriously injured in the run for a couple of days. They never felt grass under their feet again. They never ran or foraged. The coop and run stank and it seems all the keeper was interested in was squeezing the last few eggs they could get out of them.
They are all dead now apparently.

Dig and Mow are my responsibility now, as are Henry, Fret and Carbon. I have to try to do what's best for them all. People are in general liars, particularly when they want something they think they'll get for nothing. I would only rehome Dig to somewhere I had inspected. I've taken pairs to be rehomed in Catalonia only to bring them home again because the conditions were not satisfactory. This makes rehoming rather difficult.

Many people rehome because they cannot bring themselves to kill the bird. Out of sight out of mind and the problem for the keeper is over, but in many cases the problems for the rehomed birds are just begining. I'm not that sort of keeper. In my view, Dig would be better off having a quick death rather than a life as a prisoner in the type of conditions I understand the hens above went to. Killing Dig is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt him; one minute he'll be alive and the next dead. It's not like he'll know he's dead.

When I let Fret sit I made the choice of having to deal with the possibility that I would have to kill any males that hatched. We are not there yet. Dig is still young and as long as he doesn't attack the hens again, which he hasn't to the best of my knowledge, he can live. He's a long way from giving Henry any real problems and as I've often mentioned, I don't really care how he behaves towards me. While he's alive and here we'll work something out.

This is a good philosophy, Shadrach. No chicken has ever left our property to go to another owner and ... I don't know if any ever will. We've considered selling chicks but we're not there yet. We won't sell or rehome problem cockerels, though, for the reasons you've outlined here. We'll take care of our own problems. Bad cockerels make good soup.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

PS- I was very saddened to hear the fate of poor Matilda and her flockmates. I am glad they had a period of peace under your care, however. Thank you for giving them that.

 

[ManueB]

I have around 70 chickens and a couple dz turkeys. I go through 4 five gallon buckets made with 2 gallons of dry feed. Depending on forage availability.
FF FAQ a byc member wrote up.
https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/
I believe it was a 1/4 teaspoon of RP per chicken.

There's a bunch of threads on RP, here's one with some links to studies
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/how-do-you-feed-your-chickens-red-pepper-flakes.1567625/

I have way too many red peppers from our garden, and also a bad worm issue in my flock and environment. I'd be interested to try giving the chickens some but I'm not sure how to translate dosage from flakes, or capsaicin mg, to whole dry peppers, need to do a bit more reading.

Burdock (Arctium lappa) is edible in all its parts, and typically has vits A, B1, B2, C and E, potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, sodium, zinc, copper and phosphorus. Used worldwide in trad medicine as an anti-inflammatory, digestive stimulant and diuretic, and shown in lab trials to be an effective antimicrobial, including against various species that can have a bad impact on our chickens such as E coli, Salmonella, Listeria and Staph aureus.

Interesting that your birds have cleared it there. I haven't noticed my birds eating it, but there's a lot of it, so I could easily have missed the moment (it self-seeds all over a bit of waste ground here).

We have loads here and the birds don't touch it, except every now and then to get it velcroed on their feathers.

I am going to harvest some this year and try it as a veg.

Let me know how you cook it ! We actually dig some out, as it's invasive. I can't really imagine eating it as it must be pretty tough ? I had a try with plantain and it wasn't a success, for that reason.

The sale of animals is prohibited on many such sites in the UK.
I don't really want him to go to another keeper I don't know anything about.
Unfortunately he's my problem which I will have to deal with.

It's that never knowing for sure bit.
You may remember about fifteen months ago C suddenly decided to rehome most of the chickens. There wasn't anything I could do about it. C made a terrible job of it. She rehomed the lead hen Matilda (Henry's daughter) with three Ex Battery hens in one lot and the rest went in two lots to people I assume she knew.
Last autumn I got to know a person who lives next door to the second lot to be rehomed. I was at the allotments when they were collected. I tried my best to ascertain a bit about the conditions they were going to be living in and got very minimal and rather brusque responses to my questions. Talking to the neighbour I learnt that these poor creatures got kept in a tiny overcrowded coop with what I gather was a run of about 3m by 1.5m. They never get let out. They never get any affection or medical care, the neighbour recounted seeing one dead or seriously injured in the run for a couple of days. They never felt grass under their feet again. They never ran or foraged. The coop and run stank and it seems all the keeper was interested in was squeezing the last few eggs they could get out of them.
They are all dead now apparently.

Dig and Mow are my responsibility now, as are Henry, Fret and Carbon. I have to try to do what's best for them all. People are in general liars, particularly when they want something they think they'll get for nothing. I would only rehome Dig to somewhere I had inspected. I've taken pairs to be rehomed in Catalonia only to bring them home again because the conditions were not satisfactory. This makes rehoming rather difficult.

Many people rehome because they cannot bring themselves to kill the bird. Out of sight out of mind and the problem for the keeper is over, but in many cases the problems for the rehomed birds are just begining. I'm not that sort of keeper. In my view, Dig would be better off having a quick death rather than a life as a prisoner in the type of conditions I understand the hens above went to. Killing Dig is going to hurt me a lot more than it's going to hurt him; one minute he'll be alive and the next dead. It's not like he'll know he's dead.

When I let Fret sit I made the choice of having to deal with the possibility that I would have to kill any males that hatched. We are not there yet. Dig is still young and as long as he doesn't attack the hens again, which he hasn't to the best of my knowledge, he can live. He's a long way from giving Henry any real problems and as I've often mentioned, I don't really care how he behaves towards me. While he's alive and here we'll work something out.

It's terrible to learn about the outcome of those chickens that left. I hope it turned out better for the others.

It probably wouldn't lead to anything, but you could maybe try to mention Dig's situation on the UK thread here ? If you're clear on your requirements for his new home, I think your word carries some weight on BYC and people realise your standards.
It does add a difficulty for you not driving to check people's settings.

Those who read my thread may remember the one time we tried rehoming through our Craig List equivalent, we ended up driving back home with our cockerel, because seeing where he would live my partner wouldn't let him go. I didn't dare speak up as the people who wanted him were a nice, old, and very sick couple, but I am relieved my partner did. We ended up with our initial plan B, rehoming him to an old friend/remote family member. His keeping conditions are far from perfect but at least we knew exactly what they would be and we can see him whenever we want. It turned out for the best, as that man's son has come to live with him, and he loves chickens and has done quite a bit to improve their environment.

He was very human friendly, though, which makes it easier. But it's possible that time and a change of environment could make a lot of difference in Dig's temper.

I think one thing that could be helpful for someone to agree to take him would be offering to take him back if there is an issue.

I hope there will be another solution for Dig than soup and I am sure you will take the time to really run out of options before coming to that.

One of Pied Beau 's first attempt at crowing

Happily rehomed

 

[Perris]

Let me know how you cook it ! We actually dig some out, as it's invasive. I can't really imagine eating it as it must be pretty tough ? I had a try with plantain and it wasn't a success, for that reason.

my source says that they should be dug up in spring, before the flowering stalks develop, when they are relatively tender, soaked in water for some hours, and that in Japan the roots are then shredded and stir-fried or braised with carrots and onions, seasoned with soy sauce and sake. That's what I intend to try. Tender leaves, peeled flower stalks and immature flower heads can also be eaten; tastes like artichoke apparently. Traditional dandelion and burdock drink is made by peeling, roasting and then simmering the roots until they produce a syrup. The Herb Book: the stories, science, and history of herbs 2023: 242-3 (no specified author; a DK/Penguin/Random House collaboration between botanists Dauncey, Bayton, Marren, Ellis and Scott)