Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Ladies-Eight]

Ex Batts good afternoon one and all!

Tea is ready.

Temperature is in the 80s partly sunny.

Have a great day.

Our puppy is home and doing fine.

Thank you to all for your comments.

 

[MrsNorthie]

She is fine and back home with us.

I am glad that she is back home safe and sound! My son said "She'll be fine, just wake up and want to eat everything in sight!" ;-)

 

[BDutch]

Ours do not take a real break during the winter, maybe because of the mild weather? :-(

Where do you live? How mild is mild. How short are the days around Xmass?

Where I live it doesnt get very cold in winter either (around 0 C) but the day length is only about 9 h in midwinter.

I noticed they started to lay sooner in February when it was very sunny. The cloudy weather we had this year in January/ February was not good to start laying after a winter break.

 

[MaryJanet]

I love all sorts of music, and Metallica is a favourite. We took my boys and 2 of their friends to see them at the Fairgrounds in Tucson, AZ, now, I don't like crowds and there were at least 50,000 people there. We were center stage in a big open field, people were there with little kids, like 5 y/o. :-( Mosh pits breaking out all over the place.

There were 5 bands on before them, 3, that I can't remember, Apocolyptica and Scars On Broadway, (a side project from one of the guys from System of a Down.) 100 Degrees (F) No shade, water $10./bottle..lol, I came close to getting into a fight a couple of times, I went to punch some guy who shoved me then stood in front of me on my foot, my ex grabbed my arm and drug me off to the side of the crowd, just before Metallica.. after standing in that prime spot, all day!

Then we were stuck in the parking lot for 5 hours after the show, waiting to be able to get out, followed by a 2 - 3 hour drive home. It was so worth it!!

We went to see them at an indoor venue a year later on the Death Magnetic tour. (AC/DC was way louder though!)

My Husband and #1 Son were scheming to get me tickets for the Kid Rock/Miranda Lambert Freedom Tour (similar outdoor venue) for my birthday in July, but I asked them not to waste the $600 (for the weekend), I do not want to do crowds anymore. LOL

I had a similar experience at a Metallica gig but I wasn't offended by any of it because I expected it. Toes trodden, squashed, pushed... That's the whole point of a gig like that.

On the other hand, I once had an equally marvellous day relaxing in a field at a winery while enjoying a picnic and various bands, culminating in Leonard Cohen as the sun set. On that day if anyone trod on my toes they'd have apologised immediately.

The traffic you have to put up with no matter what big event you're at. Shopping, sports, festivals. Unless you prefer public transport, which gets a lot of use at the big football matches where I live. We even have a special pedestrian bridge over the river for people to walk safely between the oval and the train station.

Taxes

 

[Shadrach]

One and a half hours this morning and three this afternoon. Warmish while the sun was out.

The rescued chick isn't learning at the speed of the others. It's that noticable that if these were dawn to dusk rangers the chick would probably be dead by now.
The chicks loses easy contact with mother and thus relative safety a lot. It's not that the others don't get seperated, it's the speed at which they resolve the problem. Rescue is not solving these problems and often Fret has to return to collect it.
It's not managing dust bathing yet. The eldest is alread making it's own dust bath.
Is this because of the hatch, the stagger, the two days it missed with mother, something damaged or not functioning in the brain?

Mow is still technically broody because she has not returned to egg laying.

 

[Shadrach]

I wonder, if by reverting back to a more natural feeding process, if we could encourage less egg production, therefore extending the lives of our chickens over generations?

I just looked up the notes from the place where we got our buffs, View attachment 3849917
I worry that this is still too many eggs to produce each year, I need to start a count, but, it is difficult to get individual counts, as they take turns laying in 3 different nesting boxes. *sigh but I wonder if feeding the whole grain and foraging as opposed to commercial layer feed will slow their production.

I will have to fit a camera to count how many times a week that individual girls enter the nesting box and lay and then compare that to their off-spring. I could do a mathematical average by the number of eggs we get each day divided by the number of girls, but that won't necessarily answer the question about the individuals. It is far more important to me that my birds have a longer happy healthy life than to have a maximum number of eggs.

I don't believe one can control egg laying with diet and keep the hen healthy. What one can do if ones hens go broody is let them sit for three days so their egg laying cycle switches off. Of course one has to deal with making them unbroody and there is lots of advice on how to do this and lots of methods.
Mow for example has had two weeks off egg laying so far because she went broody.
I managed to get some hens down to less than one hundred and fifty eggs a year by doing this.
If one wants chicks then the mother may take two to three months off laying between sitting and rearing time.

 

[fuzzi]

One and a half hours this morning and three this afternoon. Warmish while the sun was out.

The rescued chick isn't learning at the speed of the others. It's that noticable that if these were dawn to dusk rangers the chick would probably be dead by now.
The chicks loses easy contact with mother and thus relative safety a lot. It's not that the others don't get seperated, it's the speed at which they resolve the problem. Rescue is not solving these problems and often Fret has to return to collect it.
It's not managing dust bathing yet. The eldest is alread making it's own dust bath.
Is this because of the hatch, the stagger, the two days it missed with mother, something damaged or not functioning in the brain?

View attachment 3850660View attachment 3850661View attachment 3850662

Mow is still technically broody because she has not returned to egg laying.
View attachment 3850662View attachment 3850663

You may recall Little Chick, one of two chicks in a staggered hatch back in April? He was the one pecked and left for dead on day two, again on day three. I gave him B Complex and E from a syringe a couple times. He would get lost, Martha had to go back and find him. He cried when he got left behind.

He's still a little smaller than the others, but caught up developmentally. He also will roost away from the others if he gets pecked.

LC on the left. (all boys, sigh)

 

[MrsNorthie]

Where do you live? How mild is mild. How short are the days around Xmass?

Where I live it doesnt get very cold in winter either (around 0 C) but the day length is only about 9 h in midwinter.

I noticed they started to lay sooner in February when it was very sunny. The cloudy weather we had this year in January/ February was not good to start laying after a winter break.

I am in South Carolina, we rarely get below freezing, and on the few occasions where we have, it has been late January/February.

We get nearly 10 to almost 12 hours of daylight in the winter, December being our lowest. As soon as the sun is up, I let them out of the coop, unless it is below freezing. On those days, I wait for it to start to warm up.

They spend the maximum daylight hours outside. They do not even let rain keep them from foraging, unless it is a really heavy downpour or thunderstorm.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I had a similar experience at a Metallica gig but I wasn't offended by any of it because I expected it. Toes trodden, squashed, pushed... That's the whole point of a gig like that.

On the other hand, I once had an equally marvellous day relaxing in a field at a winery while enjoying a picnic and various bands, culminating in Leonard Cohen as the sun set. On that day if anyone trod on my toes they'd have apologised immediately.

The traffic you have to put up with no matter what big event you're at. Shopping, sports, festivals. Unless you prefer public transport, which gets a lot of use at the big football matches where I live. We even have a special pedestrian bridge over the river for people to walk safely between the oval and the train station.

Taxes

View attachment 3850625

I was only allowed to go to one concert when I was growing up, I won tickets to see Frankie Valli at the Celebrity Theater in Phoenix, when I was 14 (in the '80s), and that was a totally different type of crowd, so I wasn't really sure of what to expect at the Metallica show, not at that level anyway. I have never been a big social people person either, which didn't help..LOL. I did take the boys and their friends to see Iron Maiden like 4 times, but of course their crowd was totally different too. (amazing show!)

Sports crowds are a little different. We went to see a baseball game at a rival stadium and to see our English Prem club on tour over here twice and once at their home ground in London, and my Scottish club at their home ground, and it was like a huge family reunion.

 

[MrsNorthie]

I don't believe one can control egg laying with diet and keep the hen healthy. What one can do if ones hens go broody is let them sit for three days so their egg laying cycle switches off. Of course one has to deal with making them unbroody and there is lots of advice on how to do this and lots of methods.
Mow for example has had two weeks off egg laying so far because she went broody.
I managed to get some hens down to less than one hundred and fifty eggs a year by doing this.
If one wants chicks then the mother may take two to three months off laying between sitting and rearing time.

That is really good to know, thank you!

Right now, they are just starting to think about get serious about being broody. Some have been toying with it for the last 6 months but not totally committed so I have been letting them just sit while they want to.

My little Gracie has been sitting most of the day, the last 2 days, but gives up and goes to roost at night, but I think she is the closest. We are going to let her hatch this year, if she wants to. The boys need a few more girls to balance things out.