Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

A dry and warm day. We are supposed to get some rain over night and tomorrow.
I think I've mentioned, the hens dont like the male chick that looks most like Henry. They are more tolerant of the light coloured male chick we saved.
The grey pair generally keep out of trouble.
Henry is obviously liked by his hens so is the antipathy towards the white chick a result of the hens previous experience of Dig.:confused:

Something ancient in Henry's curled foot.:love He was sun bathing.
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We do seem to be having some problems at roosting time. The grey pair get quite anxious once the adults go to roost, but of course they are not allowed into the coop until the adults say it's okay. This in effect means when Carbon says it's okay.
It's easy to dislike second in command hens. They tend to be the tribes enforcers which is a job, their role. Carbon isn't the worst I've known by any means, that honour goes to a hen called Otic.
Anyway, currently the grey chicks get into the tree while the white pair get on the grit and shell bags by the fence. I thought I would see what happened if I sat on the coop extension roost bar. Difficult to get any sort of picture but there is the chick you can see on my shoulder and two on the other side.:rolleyes: They just jumped up there.:confused:
I did prise them off and put them on the ramp and after a bit of encouragement (a push ot two) they went in. I'm hoping this is a temporary difficulty. Three were on the roost bar when I looked in later. The white chick on the floor.
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Not a bad day all round. I spent seven hours at the field, at least half of that spent watching chicken TV.

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If it's any consolation, I'd doubt it's cockfighting. It's an unsettling conversation to have, but BOs aren't exactly fighting birds. As for pittbull baiting, I again don't think it's likely, but can't completely say no

Going with your gut is the right thing to do regardless:hugs
No, BO's aren't naturally fighting birds, but they can be training bait for ones that are and dog fighting is a growing problem here, I have heard of cases of small animals being used to prime young dog's killer instinct. Totally not 100% sure, but it kept me awake, all night and definitely didn't feel right. LOL and I have mentioned that I do not "people" well.
 
Samuel flogging me got him on my 💩 list, and forcing himself on a broody hen put him on the "your days are numbered" list, but it took him attempting to kill chicks to push me into culling him on the spot...but it wasn't easy, and I cried.
I am totally a mush, luckily, the boys are mostly good with the girls. They have moments but are easily distracted. I know that this is part of keeping any animal. Our 20 chicks could be all cockerels, with our luck.. :rolleyes:
 
No, BO's aren't naturally fighting birds, but they can be training bait for ones that are and dog fighting is a growing problem here, I have heard of cases of small animals being used to prime young dog's killer instinct. Totally not 100% sure, but it kept me awake, all night and definitely didn't feel right. LOL and I have mentioned that I do not "people" well.

If pittbull baiting is a growing issue there, then it's definitely a good thing you didn't sell them. Two years ago I became heavily interested in Oriental gamefowl, and specifically aseel. I have since chosen not to get into them too much, since they require a lot more space than your "regular" chicken. In my research, fighting did come up.
From my understanding, they need to teach young fighters to be confident in their strikes, and to strike correctly. So in order to teach a young bird to hit correctly, they would most likely use a "lower quality" bird, or bird which has retired from fighting, and potentially even breeding. Of course that doesn't entirely cross out the possibility of using another breed for training, but I don't think it's the case here
I have put this in a spoiler, because it is a sensitive topic (and something that is very rightfully banned in a lot of places, IMHO)

I really think following your gut was the best thin regardless of the outcome
 
One of the dogs is on RC (the brand), per two different vet's recommendations. It's a specific recipe for his gastrointestinal issues. He has problems with all other foods I've tried. As far as I'm aware, only RC, Purina and Hill's have this recipe. He's only done well on the RC, so that's what I'll keep doing for him. For future dogs, I have looked at raw diets, but I need to do more research on the topic
Well, I did a little web searching today and found Hills are owned by Colgate-Palmolive, another multinational with questionable ethics.

I checked a number of brands that might be suitable for the elderly cat at my place and we're going to try Black Hawk, which offers good nutrition with better ethics than many others.
 
We do seem to be having some problems at roosting time.
I do recognise this problem all too well. Hope it solves Shad.
I wonder(ed) what to do about it or how to prevent it from happening a 4th time when the bantam Amrocks are ready to roost.

Two (of the 3) Amrock chicks on the ramp.
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History:
First time I had problems with hens not allowing a chick (pullet) to roost was with Janice after her two brothers were gone. She preferred to sleep in the nestbox again. Interfering didn’t help, I believe it made things only worse.

Last year all the chicks were expelled from the whole coop area as soon as they wanted to roost. A few hens stood guard at the pop door entrance to be sure no chicks got in at roost time. They slept in the main run on a branche. Later I removed the branche and I put the tiny coop in the main run for the two pullets I kept. This way they had at least good shelter against the rain.
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This year about the same happened with Tintin. He sleeps in the second run in a berry bush uncovered.

If I had only one bully who expelled the chicks from the coop area I would take her out. But they seem to work as a team to keep the chicks out.

Because the extension is slowly falling apart and to avoid the same thing happening again, I bought a new shelter. A childrens playhouse I want to convert into a coop for the new youngsters or others to sleep in. I hope a second housing to sleep in turns out to be a good solution against the guards (bullying) at roost time.

Other tips to prevent this bullying / expelling for a 4th time are welcome.
 
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I do recognise this problem all too well. Hope it solves Shad.
I wonder(ed) what to do about it or how to prevent it from happening a 4th time when the bantam Amrocks are ready to roost.

Two (of the 3) Amrock chicks on the ramp.
View attachment 3877183

History:
First time I had problems with hens not allowing a chick (pullet) to roost was with Janice after her two brothers were gone. She preferred to sleep in the nestbox again. Interfering didn’t help, I believe it made things only worse.

Last year all the chicks were expelled from the whole coop area as soon as they wanted to roost. A few hens stood guard at the pop door entrance to be sure no chicks got in at roost time. They slept in the main run on a branche. Later I removed the branche and I put the tiny coop in the main run for the two pullets I kept. This way they had at least good shelter against the rain.
View attachment 3877192
This year about the same happened with Tintin. He sleeps in the second run in a berry bush uncovered.

If I had only one bully who expelled the chicks from the coop area I would take her out. But they seem to work as a team to keep the chicks out.

Because the extension is slowly falling apart and to avoid the same thing happening again, I bought a new shelter. A childrens playhouse I want to convert into a coop for the new youngsters or others to sleep in. I hope a second housing to sleep in turns out to be a good solution against the guards (bullying) at roost time.

Other tips to prevent this bullying / expelling for a 4th time are welcome.
The roosting problems with juveniles is normal for the chicken but inconvenient for the keeper. The idea for the chicken is at a certain age the juveniles should leave home and start their own tribe, humans, who are also tribal do much the same as do many other creatures.
As far as the tribe is concerned the juveniles are lowest in ranking and are last in the line for just about everything.

In the past with almost all the juveniles, no matter how much space, or how many coops, the juveniles are made to wait until the adults are settled before they venture into the coop. Some juveniles cope with this better than others.

What has happend in the past is the juveniles wait and slip into the coop and roost where they can. I expect this lot will learn to do the same. It does mean for me that with the long days and transport issues I would rather not wait until it's almost dark which is when the juveniles tend to go to roost. Normal sight is adults in coop and juveniles hanging around close to the coop waiting to go in. Sometimes the juveniles will go up a tree, or find alternative roosting spots.
Having roosting bars just outside the coop has worked well for me. The juveniles wait on the roost bars rather than look for altenative roosting spots.
I'm not expecting this to be a long term problem.
 

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